[Biodevelopers] Course: Introduction to Bioinformatics Programming: Perl & R for Biologists I

[J.W. Bizzaro]

(We apologize for multiple copies of this announcement.  If you know some biologists who would like to learn the basics of bioinformatics programming, please give them this announcement.  Bioinformatics.Org is non-profit, and the revenue from our courses helps to keep our free services on-line.)

Bioinformatics.Org will be running an on-line version of the well-received, "Introduction to Bioinformatics Programming: Perl & R for Biologists I" (Open Source Bioinformatics for Researchers), which was originally held on-site. Note that this is not a static tutorial but live instruction using interactive "Webinar" software and voice conferencing that will closely replicate the on-site version of the course.

LOCALE: On-line (instructions will be given)
DATES: January 8-12, 2007

OVERVIEW:
This is an on-line course on the fundamentals of open-source programming. It will help biologists understand how and when to use standard programming methods to solve computational biology problems, whether sequence analysis, gene expression, mass spectrometry, or systems biology.

This course is modularized so that researchers can understand two distinct tools: a scripting language such as Perl, and a data analysis/visualization language such as R. Armed with some knowledge and hands-on experience with these tools, scientists will be able to perform basic software development tasks and be able to phrase research questions in the context of these tools. As a result, they will be able to appreciate and use computers better in their organization, and communicate better with their IT group.

TOPICS:
The first part of the course will cover the basics of Perl, including installing and running simple Perl scripts; variables (scalars, arrays); variable interpolation; printing; string operations; mathematical, conditional and logical operators; file input/output; loops (if-then-else, for, while); list operations; regular expressions; and functions. BioPerl will also be introduced. Afterward, students will be assigned a Perl project.

The second part of the course will cover the basics of R, including installing and running R; understanding the R interactive environment; creating, storing and manipulating R data objects; reading data from files; applying built-in functions on data; for-loops; if-then-else statements; scripts; functions; and packages. Bioconductor will also be introduced. Afterward, students will be assigned an R project.

SCHEDULE:
The course will run during the week of January 8 with about 3 hours of instruction starting at 16:30 UTC each day.

To find out more information on the course, including the registration process, please see the course schedule page:
http://edu.bioinformatics.org/06b

Also of note, this course introduces the "full-time student" tuition rate, which is just one-third of the commercial rate.

Cheers,
Jeff
-- 
J.W. Bizzaro
Bioinformatics Organization, Inc. (Bioinformatics.Org)
E-mail: jeff at bioinformatics.org
Phone:  +1 508 890 8600
--