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 Postgraduate Course: Bioinformatics Algorithms (PGBI11057)
Course Outline
| School | School of Biological Sciences | College | College of Science and Engineering |  
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) | Availability | Available to all students |  
| SCQF Credits | 10 | ECTS Credits | 5 |  
 
| Summary | Algorithms are a set of rules that allow a problem to be solved, often encoded in a computer programme. Algorithms are ubiquitous in bioinformatics and are often at the interface of computer science and biology. All bioinformatics students need a good understanding of algorithms, in order to select appropriate methods to solve a given task, to understand the outputs of bioinformatics software and to write software that solves particular bioinformatics problems.
 The course has a strong practical component that concentrates on the implementation of algorithms using the Java programming language (by default).  We use the implementation of algorithms to explore the properties of algorithms in a bioinformatics setting.
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| Course description | In this course we will cover: - 	The theory of algorithms - e.g. how to formally describe an algorithm, what makes a good algorithm, classes of algorithm.
 - 	The implementation of algorithms in software applications
 - 	Searching algorithms - both exhaustive and heuristic
 - 	Dynamic programming algorithms ¿ eg Smith-Waterman local sequence alignment
 - 	Graph-based algorithms
 - 	Clustering and Tree-based algorithms
 -   Finding sequence patterns with algorithms
 - 	Hidden Markov Models
 - 	Genetic Algorithms
 -   Running algorithms on compute clusters concentrating on MapReduce and Apache Hadoop.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |  | Co-requisites |  |  
| Prohibited Combinations |  | Other requirements | None |  
Information for Visiting Students 
| Pre-requisites | None |  
		| High Demand Course? | Yes |  
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1) | Quota:  35 |  | Course Start | Semester 2 |  Timetable | Timetable | 
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) | Total Hours:
100
(
 Lecture Hours 10,
 Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 10,
 Summative Assessment Hours 2,
 Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
76 ) |  
| Assessment (Further Info) | Written Exam
80 %,
Coursework
20 %,
Practical Exam
0 % |  
 
| Additional Information (Assessment) | 1. Examination (80%) 2. Written Assessment (20%)
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| Feedback | Not entered |  
| Exam Information |  
    | Exam Diet | Paper Name | Hours & Minutes |  |  
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Bioinformatics Algorithms | 2:00 |  |  
 
Learning Outcomes 
| On completion of this course, the student will be able to: 
        Students will be able to characterise a given algorithm class and describe the basic properties of this algorithm.Students will be able to write a computer programme encoding a given algorithm using a programming language of their choice.Students will be able to select an appropriate algorithm to solve a given task. |  
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills | Not entered |  
| Keywords | BioinfAlgor |  
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Dr Simon Tomlinson Tel: (0131 6)51 7252
 Email:
 | Course secretary | Miss Emma Currie Tel: (0131 6)50 5988
 Email:
 |   |  © Copyright 2017 The University of Edinburgh -  6 February 2017 8:53 pm |