[Wism-l] B-semester registration: Bioinformatics

[csdept]

Dear potential CMPU-353 (Bioinformatics) students,

That would be you, if you've taken, are taking, or plan to take 203 
this spring...

I would like to draw your attention to a new interdisciplinary course 
in Bioinformatics that is being taught by Jodi Schwarz (Bio) and Marc 
Smith (Computer Science). There has been confusion regarding the 
prerequisites due to errors in the catalog listing. If you register 
under the CMPU prefix, you do NOT need to have taken any biology 
courses to enroll in this class.

This course offers a unique opportunity to receive training in both 
the Biology and Computer Science aspects of Bioinformatics, which is 
typically only offered at the graduate school level, so we are very 
excited to be able to develop this course here at Vassar.  Here is a 
more detailed course description than the one in the catalog:

>Bioinformatics, or computational biology, is an interdisciplinary 
>field of study that applies computational techniques to problems in 
>biology. Due to the complexity of the biological questions asked, 
>and the prevalence of very large datasets, bioinformatics relies on 
>algorithmic solutions when feasible, and heuristics and experimental 
>computer science when not. One of the goals of this course will be 
>for Biology and Computer Science majors to formulate novel questions 
>in genomics, and conduct computational experiments of their own 
>design in support of the scientific method. In the first half of the 
>course, biology students will study data structures and algorithm 
>design in the context of scientific modeling, while computer science 
>students will be introduced to cell biology, molecular genetics, and 
>molecular evolution. Both sets of students will be introduced to the 
>practice of experimental computer science. In the second half of the 
>course, students will team up to address genomics questions.  Topics 
>may include gene prediction and genome annotation, sequence 
>alignment and phylogeny, and evolutionary and comparative genomics.

Please feel free to contact me or stop by with any questions you may have.

I hope you will consider enrolling in this class!

Sincerely,
Marc L. Smith, OLB 122, mlsmith at cs.vassar.edu

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