Huddled in classrooms at MIT, about 200 students and professionals from across the nation engaged this weekend in a giant role playing simulation to debate the pressing issues of human genetics.

The Human Genome Project conference, which was organized by Harvard students, convened Friday and Saturday to educate students about the social implications of the Human Genome Project, a 15-year nationwide effort to map the entire sequence of human genes.

"The implications for the impacts of this kind of information's on people's lives in enormous," said MIT sophomore Anthony Y. Ku, who helped organize the conference. "There are going to be many social and ethical issues raised by the Human Genome Project, and the earlier we start addressing them, the better."

The two-day $10,000 conference was unique in that it was completely student run, said conference director Benjamin Sun '95. Although advisors helped plan the conference during its initial stages, 24 students from three colleges organized the rest.

About 40 percent of the organizers came from Harvard, 40 percent from MIT and about 20 percent from Boston University, Sun said.

Both Harvard and MIT students volunteered to house the participants said Corinna Cosmas, housing director for the conference.

Sun and the other conference organizers received primary funding for the conference from Student Pugwash USA, a national nonprofit organization aimed at training students to solve global problems with science and technology.

The Pugwash grant came from a portion of the Human Genome Project's budget designated specifically for education. Sun and the other organizers received the grant after submitting a proposal outlining the conference's main objectives.

"One of the main goals of this conference is to focus public attention on the ethical uses of science," said Daihung V. Do '95, research director for the conference. "Scientific discoveries must be understood in their social, ethical and legal contexts."

"Another main goal of this conference is to try to encourage greater social responsibility, not just for scientists but for non-scientists as well," Do said.

Conference participants ranged from high school students to adult professionals. Participants were required to pay a $12 fee and write an essay on policy ideas before attending.

A New Approach: Workgroups

According to conference organizers, a series of workgroup sessions formed the core of the conference experience. The sessions allowed groups of 10 participants each to express and develop their ideas on bio-ethics through role-playing games.

Rather than simply lecture students, organizers said they wanted to motivate participants to "hammer out ideas" by having them act out the roles of policymakers, insurance companies and other interest groups affected by the project.

"In 20 to 30 years, it will be the students who are in charge," said Sun. "We must prepare students to think how to problem solve."