STEMcast Episode 31 | Meet the Judges! Dr Asia Vighi and Dr Jeff Bouffard share their wisdom and perspective as iGEM judges.

About this episode

Dr Asia Vighi and Dr Jeff Bouffard discuss their experiences and insights as judges in the iGEM competition.

This special episode of STEMcast is cut from a seminar presented to participants of miniGEM, a mini version of the iGEM competition that McGill’s iGEM team runs for high school students across Canada. We learn about the judges’ paths into synthetic biology, and we hear their opinions on various topics, like ‘how important is the visual component of an iGEM project?’, or ‘what features do award-winning projects have that others don’t?’. Tune in to step up your iGEM game!

People in this episode

Guests: Dr Asia Vighi, Dr Jeff Bouffard

Topics covered

• synthetic biology
• iGEM competition
• judging criteria
• high school education
• project evaluation

Keywords

• iGEM
• miniGEM
• synthetic biology
• judges
• project evaluation
• high school
• competition

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: McGill

More episodes of STEMcast

• STEMcast Episode 41 | "From Controller to Contributor": How gaming is contributing to cutting-edge research with Profs. Jerome Waldispuhl and Attila Szantner · June 2, 2026 · 1h 6m
• STEMcast Episode 40 | “We are all made of stardust”: Learning about Early Planetary Formation with Prof. Paola Pinilla · May 13, 2026 · 42 min
• STEMcast Episode 39 | “Curiosity is Edgework”: Channeling our Curiosity in Research with Profs. Dani Basset and Perry Zurn · January 9, 2026 · 47 min
• Episode 38 | Education, Math and Drag! Exploring How Queer Identity and STEM Intersect with Kyne Santos · October 5, 2025 · 26 min
• STEMcast Episode 37 | Empowering Diverse Voices in STEM - a STEMcast Special · October 2, 2025 · 53 min
• STEMcast Episode 36 | “Specialization is for Insects”: Building Neuroscience Foundation Models with Prof. Adrien Peyrache and Prof. Blake Richards · August 11, 2025 · 42 min