Biomathematical Sciences Program

Evolutionary computation techniques harness the mechanisms of biological evolution, including mutation, recombination, and selection, to build software systems that solve difficult problems or shed light on the nature of evolutionary processes. In this course students will explore several evolutionary computation techniques and apply them to problems of their choosing. The technique of genetic programming, in which populations of executable programs evolve through natural selection, will be emphasized.

Requisite: COSC 112. Limited to 20 students. Preference given to Computer Science majors. Spring semester: Professor Spector.

Mathematical modeling is the process of translating a real world problem into a mathematical expression, analyzing it using mathematical tools and numerical simulations, and then interpreting the results in the context of the original problem. Discussion of basic modeling principles and case studies will be followed by several projects from areas including biology and the social sciences (e.g., flocking and schooling behavior, disease spread in populations, generation of artificial societies). This course has no requisites; projects will be tailored to each student’s level of mathematical preparation. Four class hours per week, with occasional in-class computer labs.

Limited to 24 students. Spring semester. Professor Leise.

This course is an introduction to nonparametric and distribution-free statistical procedures and techniques. These methods rely heavily on counting and ranking techniques and will be explored through both theoretical and applied perspectives. One- and two-sample procedures will provide students with alternatives to traditional parametric procedures, such as the t-test. We will also investigate correlation and regression in a nonparametric setting. A variety of other topics may be explored in the nonparametric setting including resampling techniques (for example, bootstrapping), categorical data and contingency tables, density estimation, and the one-way and two-way layouts for analysis of variance. The course will emphasize data analysis (with appropriate use of statistical software) and the intuitive nature of nonparametric statistics.

Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135. Limited to 24 students.  Professor McShane. 

This course is an intermediate applied statistics course that builds on the statistical data analysis methods introduced in STAT 111 or STAT 135. Students will learn how to pose a statistical question, perform appropriate statistical analysis of the data, and properly interpret and communicate their results. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistical software, data wrangling, model fitting, and assessment. Topics covered will include ethics, experimental design, resampling approaches, analysis of variance models, multiple regression, model selection, and logistic regression. No prior experience with statistical software is expected

Requisite: STAT 111 or 135. Limited to 24 students. Four spots reserved for incoming first-year students in each Fall section. Fall and Spring semester. Fall Professor Liao, Spring Professor Liao, Professor Matheson

Computational data analysis is an essential part of modern statistics and data science. This course provides a practical foundation for students to think with data by participating in the entire data analysis cycle. Students will generate statistical questions and then address them through data acquisition, cleaning, transforming, modeling, and interpretation. This course will introduce students to tools for data management, wrangling, and databases that are common in data science and will apply those tools to real-world applications. Students will undertake practical analyses of large, complex, and messy data sets leveraging modern computing tools

Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135 and COSC 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 24 students. Fall and Spring semesters. The Department. 

Computational data analysis is an essential part of modern statistics and data science. This course provides a practical foundation for students to think with data by participating in the entire data analysis cycle. Students will generate statistical questions and then address them through data acquisition, cleaning, transforming, modeling, and interpretation. This course will introduce students to tools for data management, wrangling, and databases that are common in data science and will apply those tools to real-world applications. Students will undertake practical analyses of large, complex, and messy data sets leveraging modern computing tools

Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135 and COSC 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 24 students. Fall and Spring semesters. The Department. 

(Offered as BIOL 351 and NEUR 351) This laboratory course will provide a deeper understanding of the physiological properties of the nervous system. We will address the mechanisms underlying electrical activity in neurons, as well as examine the physiology of synapses; the transduction and integration of sensory information; the function of nerve circuits; the trophic and plastic properties of neurons; and the relationship between neuronal activity and behavior. Laboratories will apply electrophysiological methods to examine neuronal activity and will include experimental design as well as analysis and presentation of collected data. Throughout the course, we will focus on past and current neurophysiology research and how it contributes to the field of neuroscience. Three hours of laboratory work per week.

Requisites: BIOL 191 and CHEM 151; PHYS 117 or 124 is recommended. Limited to one lab section with 18 students. Open to juniors and seniors. Fall semester. Professor Trapani.

Machine Learning algorithms allow computers to be taught to perform tasks without being explicitly programmed. This course is an introduction to machine learning and data mining. The course will explore supervised, unsupervised, ensemble and reinforcement learning. Topics may include: decision tree learning, rule learning, neural networks, support vector machines, Bayesian learning, clustering, hidden Markov model learning, and/or deep learning. The material of this course has some overlap with that of Computer Science 241, but it is permissible to take both.

Requisite: COSC-211. Fall Semester: Professor Spector. 

The study of vector spaces over the real and complex numbers, introducing the concepts of subspace, linear independence, basis, and dimension; systems of linear equations and their solution by Gaussian elimination; matrix operations; linear transformations and their representations by matrices; eigenvalues and eigenvectors; and inner product spaces. This course will feature both proofs and applications, with special attention paid to applied topics such as least squares and singular value decomposition. Four class hours per week, with occasional in-class computer labs.

Requisite: MATH 121 or consent of the instructor. This course and MATH 271 may not both be taken for credit. Limited to 25 students. Fall and Spring semester: The Department. 

This course is an intermediate applied statistics course that builds on the statistical data analysis methods introduced in STAT 111 or STAT 135. Students will learn how to pose a statistical question, perform appropriate statistical analysis of the data, and properly interpret and communicate their results. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistical software, data wrangling, model fitting, and assessment. Topics covered will include ethics, experimental design, resampling approaches, analysis of variance models, multiple regression, model selection, and logistic regression. No prior experience with statistical software is expected

Requisite: STAT 111 or 135. Limited to 24 students. Four spots reserved for incoming first-year students in each Fall section. Fall and Spring semester. Fall semester: Professors Matheson and Horton. 

This course is an intermediate applied statistics course that builds on the statistical data analysis methods introduced in STAT 111 or STAT 135. Students will learn how to pose a statistical question, perform appropriate statistical analysis of the data, and properly interpret and communicate their results. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistical software, data wrangling, model fitting, and assessment. Topics covered will include ethics, experimental design, resampling approaches, analysis of variance models, multiple regression, model selection, and logistic regression. No prior experience with statistical software is expected

Requisite: STAT 111 or 135. Limited to 24 students. Four spots reserved for incoming first-year students in each Fall section. Fall and Spring semester. Fall semester: Professors Matheson and Horton. 

Computational data analysis is an essential part of modern statistics and data science. This course provides a practical foundation for students to think with data by participating in the entire data analysis cycle. Students will generate statistical questions and then address them through data acquisition, cleaning, transforming, modeling, and interpretation. This course will introduce students to tools for data management, wrangling, and databases that are common in data science and will apply those tools to real-world applications. Students will undertake practical analyses of large, complex, and messy data sets leveraging modern computing tools.

Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135 and COSC 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 24 students. Fall and Spring semesters. The Department. 

Computational data analysis is an essential part of modern statistics and data science. This course provides a practical foundation for students to think with data by participating in the entire data analysis cycle. Students will generate statistical questions and then address them through data acquisition, cleaning, transforming, modeling, and interpretation. This course will introduce students to tools for data management, wrangling, and databases that are common in data science and will apply those tools to real-world applications. Students will undertake practical analyses of large, complex, and messy data sets leveraging modern computing tools.

Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135 and COSC 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 24 students. Fall and Spring semesters. The Department. 

Making sense of a complex, high-dimensional data set is not an easy task. The analysis chosen is ultimately based on the research question(s) being asked. This course will explore how to visualize and extract meaning from large data sets through a variety of analytical methods. Methods covered include principal components analysis and selected statistical and machine learning techniques, both supervised (e.g. classification trees and random forests) and unsupervised (e.g. clustering). Additional methods covered may include factor analysis, dimension reduction methods, or network analysis at instructor discretion. This course will feature hands-on data analysis with statistical software, emphasizing application over theory.

The course is expected to include small group work, interactive labs, peer interactions such as peer review and short presentations, and a personal project, to foster student engagement in the course and with each other.

Requisite: STAT 111 or 135. Limited to 24 students. Fall semester. Omitted 2021-22. Professor Wagaman.