A BUGS History |
| Genesis The original structure of BUGS began as a Student Leadership Council of a NSF-funded Engineering Research Center. The ERC under which we began is Georgia Tech and Emory Center for Living Tissues (GTEC) which is focused on tissue engineering research. In the last 8 years since GTEC was founded, biotechnology research has expanded exponentally on both campuses with five new buildings, three new degree programs, and a multitude of new researchers. Through the SLC leaders, the GTEC committees and their yearly events were founded. We had a strong start and quickly became one of the biggest and most active ERC SLCs. |
| The Transition As most funding eventually does, GTEC's NSF-funding will soon taper to an end. As a part of the transition of GTEC into a self-funded research center, the SLC was challenged with what we wanted to make our future. Since a multitude of focused student organizations already existed, we decided we wanted to be more encompassing. Although never exclusionary, some students who were outside the feild of tissue engineering felt that GTEC events were either not inviting or not relevent. Therefore, we chose to keep some of the structure of the GTEC SLC but expand the scope to all biosciences and bioengineering feilds. We joined forces with the IBB student advisors and the Public Policy Forum, and have established collaborations with Emory itm, Emory ASP, BME Student Advisory Board, and Emerging Leaders Network. Our vision was not to swallow other student organizations, but to befriend them and work together to bring all the graduate students together in a bigger network than currently existed. |
| Why BUGS? Not only did the acronym work, but because we are so diverse. We work in labs and buildings with people who came from different academic backgrounds and who are in a wide variety of degree programs. Computer scientists, pure biologists, and mechanical engineers work together toward a common goal but often use different tools and approaches. By ourselves we are akin to beetles, fireflies, and dragonflies, but collectively we are all bugs who want to survive and someday fly away. OK... we admit it's a little cheesy, but no matter what we're called, if we ban together we're less likely to get squashed. |
Our Future |