Open AccessBridging cross‐cultural gaps in scientific exchange through innovative team challenge workshops
Author(s) -
Lee Connie M.,
Gong Siyuan,
Tang Chao,
Lim Wendell A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
quantitative biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.707
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 2095-4697
pISSN - 2095-4689
DOI - 10.1007/s40484-013-0004-4
Subject(s) - bridging (networking) , medical education , beijing , psychology , medicine , china , computer science , political science , computer network , law
Recently 46 undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and staff from Peking University (PKU) and University of California San Francisco (UCSF) gathered in Beijing for the inaugural PKU-UCSF Team Challenge Workshop in Quantitative Biology. The event was fast paced and highly intense, as teams worked on pre-selected scientific challenges in a four-day time frame, with daily presentations and critique. The workshop was intended to stimulate innovative thinking and Attendees not only interacted with each other intellectually, but also had many opportunities to socialize, and the UCSF participants were treated to a good taste of Chinese culture. For the Chinese students, it was the first time that most of them ever participated in this type of workshop, which aimed to help them discover their creative potential. Here, we describe how the workshop was organized, and highlight lessons we learned in the process so that hopefully more scientists can benefit from this type of dynamic team challenge and effective educational tool. Opening night of PKU-UCSF Team Challenge Workshop