Third BioPACIFIC MIP Summer School
In-person training sessions for the third annual BioPACIFIC MIP Summer School were successfully held from July 10th to 14th.
Institutions
UC Santa Barbara and UC Los Angeles
Achievement
The in-person training sessions for the third annual BioPACIFIC MIP Summer School were successfully held from July 10th to 14th. A total of 27 graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members from various locations across the country participated in the training, led by the BioPACIFIC MIP project scientists at UCLA and UCSB. The sessions covered a range of topics, including MicroED, Additive Manufacturing, X-ray Diffraction, as well as Automated Synthetic Biology and Chemistry. In addition to the training, attendees also took part in professional development activities, including workshops scientific writing and figure preparation for presentations and publications. Furthermore, a proposal writing workshop provided an opportunity for participants to draft a BioPACIFIC MIP proposal.
Importance of the Achievement
The third annual Summer School advances BioPACIFIC MIP’s efforts in knowledge sharing, workforce development, and increasing diversity. This event brought together a diverse group of participants, with 10 out of 27 attendees identifying as underrepresented minorities. In terms of gender diversity, the Summer School achieved a balanced representation, with half of the attendees being women. The regional distribution showcased the wide-reaching impact of the event, with 12% from the Northeast, 31% from the Southeast, 15% from the Southwest, 15% from the Midwest, and 27% from the West. This diverse representation served as a platform for fostering cross-cultural and multidisciplinary collaboration, enabling a vibrant exchange of ideas that hold the potential to translate into future user engagement.
Unique Features of BioPACIFIC MIP that Enabled this Achievement
The interdisciplinary character of BioPACIFIC MIP fostered active participation from diverse institutions nationwide. Travel grants were awarded to facilitate attendance, ensuring inclusive representation. During the training, participants engaged in hands-on activities, such as programming robots on the Living Biofoundry and automated chemistry platform, printing on the Carbon M2 printer, and performing sample scans using both the MicroED tool and the new BioPACIFIC MIP SAXS/WAXS system.
