Graduate students in biological sciences attend computation bootcamp
As biology increasingly transforms into a discipline driven by ever-expanding datasets and computational analysis, students need new forms of training to follow best practices and build a successful research career. With a new award from the National Science Foundation, the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division will test an innovative curriculum, which it piloted at the Marine Biological Laboratory, that focuses on hands-on learning in computational methods and how to use these tools in a rigorous and reproducible way.
For a week before their first courses begin, incoming graduate students from every BSD graduate program will travel to Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. for a weeklong "bootcamp" session. This training experience-combined with a responsible research course taught later in the academic year-will prepare students with the programming, statistics and documentation practices needed to produce cutting-edge science.
Rob Mitchum
Rob Mitchum is communications manager at the Computation Institute, a joint initiative between the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory.