[BioEdu] Re: Bioinformatics Curriculum

[Bruno Gaëta]

In Australia where undergraduate programs are more specialised than  
in the US (Bachelor students usually go straight to PhD without a  
Masters), the majority of bioinformatics programs have been  
undergraduate. I have been coordinating the largest Australian  
undergrad program in bioinformatics for the last 4 years, and for the  
last 2 years have also convened a graduate course which is part of a  
Bioinformatics Masters plan. The upshot from comparing the two is  
that there is a lot more scope at the undergraduate level to cover  
all the necessary foundations (maths, CS, bio) as maths and CS  
require quite a different type of thinking from students than bio,  
and having the opportunity to expose students early on to both types  
of thinking is very useful. The downside of the undergrad approach is  
simply the lack of "maturity" of the students, especially in junior  
years. Until a student has had significant scientific experience,  
they have difficulty grasping the need for and context of  
bioinformatics and will use more of a rote learning approach rather  
than understanding the material in depth because they don't see its  
relevance and context.

As a rule my undergrad students do better than the graduate students  
in my courses, but that may reflect the different intake mechanisms  
for the programs (undergrads go through a more stringent competitive  
selection process whereas the masters students often undergo a  
masters as a "retraining" masters because they were not good enough  
to succeed in their original field of interest). I suspect this would  
be different in places where Masters are a lot more commonplace

Bruno

On 10/08/2006, at 1:33 PM, bioedu-request at bioinformatics.org wrote:

>>
>> Yes, one of the questions about development of a Bioinformatics  
>> program is
>> whether to start with a graduate degree or undergraduate. Most  
>> Universities
>> have started with the graduate program first, but this is not  
>> necessarily
>> the way to go, as Zadeh states. What do you all think is the way  
>> to go?
>>
>> Marty
>>
>>
>> On 8/8/06, David Lapointe <david.lapointe at umassmed.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> The May/June issue of IEEE Potentials has a interesting article on
>>> developing
>>> undergraduate programs in bioinformatics.  A major point that the
>>> author,
>>> Jeff Zadeh, of Virginia State University, makes is that an  
>>> undergraduate
>>>
>>> curricula makes possible the interdisciplinary foundation that
>>> bioinformatics
>>> needs: biology, mathematics, and computer science. Undergraduate  
>>> study
>>> is
>>> inherently interdiscipline, whereas in graduate school there is more
>>> focus on
>>> research  and discipline specific studies.
>>> --
>>> .david
>>> David Lapointe
>>> "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." - T.Paine
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> BioEdu mailing list
>>> BioEdu at bioinformatics.org
>>> https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bioedu
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Martin Gollery
>> Associate Director
>> Center For Bioinformatics
>> University of Nevada at Reno
>> Dept. of Biochemistry / MS330
>> 775-784-7042
>> -----------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> BioEdu mailing list
>> BioEdu at bioinformatics.org
>> https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bioedu
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Bruno Gaeta, PhD, Senior Lecturer and Program Director, BE  
Bioinformatics

School of Computer Science                     School of  
Biotechnology and
and Engineering                                      Biomolecular  
Sciences
Ph:  +61 2 9385 7213                                   Ph: +61 2 9385  
2056
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