Graduate Certificate in Data Science for Biology and Chemistry

Modern biological and chemical sciences increasingly requires strong computational skills to conduct cutting-edge research. The Data Science for Biology and Chemistry Certificate will enable students to learn computational and programming skills that are relevant to their work in biology and chemistry. This certificate program is a 2-year, 12- unit certificate program that students can complete in line with their Master’s degree program requirements. There are 4 core required courses and 1 elective. Of the 4 core courses, one 3+ unit classes is devoted to learning data and computer science, using assignments and examples drawn from biology and chemistry. One one-unit course is a support courses that provide inclusive environments for students to master coding and data science skills. One one-unit course is a professional development course to connect students to opportunities in basic data science with professionals in academics and industry. There is also 3 units required for research, in which students utilize their computational skills in their research projects required for their MS degrees in Biology and Chemistry. Students also select one elective course (3-4 units) that uses computational analysis.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Develop computational skills needed to create, debug, and run a computer program to perform data analyses.

  2. Obtain, store, manage and share data in a distributed environment through practical, hands-on experience with programming languages and big data tools.

  3. Evaluate data, as well as to apply key technologies data science analysis including statistical analysis, machine learning, and data visualizations.

  4. Develop data science as an aspect of their professional identity, effectively communicate their data analyses and results, and will connect with professionals outside of the University to further their data science careers.

  5. Apply their data science skills to discipline-specific data and questions to solve real-world problems of high complexity.

Graduate Certificate in Data Science for Biology and Chemistry – 12-13 units

BIOL/CHEM 806Exploratory Data Science for Scientists4
BIOL/CHEM 807Coding Community for Data Science Components of Independent Research Projects1
BIOL/CHEM 808Professional Prospects for Quantitative Biologists, Data Scientists, and Bioinformaticians1
BIOL 897Research3
or CHEM 897 Research

In addition to the courses listed above, students also select one discipline-specific application of data science (3 or 4 units) from the following list:

BIOL 446Microbial Genomics4
BIOL 458Biometry4
BIOL 490Ecology of Infectious Diseases4
BIOL/CHEM 6773
BIOL 710Advanced Biometry3
BIOL 738Bioinformatics and Sequence Analysis4
BIOL 815Advanced Phylogenetic Analysis4
CHEM 370Computer Applications in Chemistry and Biochemistry3
CHEM 870Computational Methods in Chemistry3
CSC 306An Interdisciplinary Approach to Computer Programming3