BCB410

BCB410H1F - 2017

Objectives and Participants

The "Applied Bioinformatics" course is offered as a part of the BCB Program curriculum to ensure that our students know enough about application issues in the field to be able to put their knowledge into practice in a research lab setting. This is to support the Specialist Program goal: to prepare students for graduate studies in the discipline.

As a required course in the BCB curriculum, BCB410 assumes the prerequisites and goals of fourth-year students in the BCB Specialist Program. Other students may be permitted to enrol on a case by case basis, but they may need to catch up on prerequisites in computer science or life-science courses that BCB students have taken at this point. Generally speaking, this is an advanced course that presupposes familiarity with programming principles, algorithm analysis, and methods of modern systems biology, as well as introductory knowledge of linear algebra, graph theory, information theory, statistics, as well as molecular–, structural– and cellular biology. The varying topics will be discussed at a highly technical level that is likely only useful for students who plan to integrate much of this material into their actual practice.

 

Organization

Details for the 2017 course will be discussed in our first class session, Wednesday, September 13, at 10:00 in Bahen BA025.

It is imperative that you attend the first class session in person. Do not enrol in this course if you can't attend the first class session.

 

Dates and Location

Classes meet Wednesdays between 10:00 and 12:00 in BA025 (Bahen Centre) throughout the Fall Term. Classes start at 10 minutes past the hour.

 

Coordinator

Boris Steipe

 

Office hours

(Virtual) face to face meetings are by appointment, if required. However, we will be able to resolve almost all issues by e-mail. You will find that discussions by e-mail are both more efficient and effective than meetings. Moreover e-mail discussions leave you with a document trail of what was discussed, can contain links to information sources, and we can share points of general interest more easily with the class.

 

Contact

Contact within the class is easiest via the Google Group that you will subscribe to at the beginning of class.

 

Phases

We will work in four phases:

• You will design a learning unit and draft its contents;
• The class will work through the unit;
• We will go through "Code reviews" of the material;
• You will respond to the review and improve the material.

 

Marking

 

Activity	Weight
Initial design of your unit	20 marks
Participation in Review panels	4 x 10 marks
Final version of unit	20 marks
Journals	15 marks
Insights!	5 marks
Total	100 marks

 

What makes an excellent grade? See here.

 

Notes