Graduate Course Descriptions

I500 Fundamental Computer Concepts for Informatics (3 cr.)

An Introduction to fundamental principles of computer concepts for Informatics study, including an overview of computer architecture, computer algorithms, fundamentals of operating systems, data structure, file organization and database concepts. INFO I500 is expected to impart the required level of competency in computer science. This course may be waived in lieu of six undergraduate credit hours of computer science or informatics coursework, covering areas of programming, discrete structures, and data structures.

I501 Introduction to Informatics (3 cr.)

Basic information representation and processing; searching and organization, evaluation and analysis of information. Internet-based information access tools; ethics and economics of information sharing.

I502 Informatics Management (3 cr.)

Survey of data management issues in medical, health, chemical, and biology related areas, basic techniques of physical database structures and models, data access strategies, management and indexing of massively large files.

I504 Social Dimensions of Science Informatics (3 cr.)

Examines ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding contemporary research and practice in science informatics. Topics include the nature of science and technology, the ramifications of recent advances in science informatics, and relevant science policy and research ethics. General knowledge of science informatics is assumed.

I506 Globalization and Information (3 cr.)

Explores the processes that promote and impede movement of human action and informational activities to the most general levels, e.g., the level of the world as a whole. Surveys diverse theories of globalization to identify the best approaches for professional informatics career planning and making information globally accessible.

I519 Introduction to Bioinformatics (3 cr.)

P: One semester programming course or equivalent.
Sequence alignment and assembly; RNA structure, protein and molecular modeling; genomics and protenomics; gene prediction; phylogenic analysis; information and machine learning; visual and graphical analysis bioinformatics; worldwide biologic databases; experimental design and data collection techniques; scientific and statistical data analysis; database and data mining methods; and network and Internet methods.

I525 Organizational Informatics and Economics of Security (3 cr.)

Security technologies make explicit organizational choices that allocate power. Security implementations allocate risk, determine authority, reify or alter relationships, and determine trust extended to organizational participants. The course begins with an introduction to relevant definitions (security, privacy, trust) and then moves to a series of timely case studies of security technologies.

I529 Machine Learning in Bioinformatics (3 cr.)

P: INFO I519 or equivalent knowledge.
The course covers advanced topics in Bioinformatics with a focus on machine learning. The course will review existing techniques such as hidden Markov models, artificial neural networks, decision trees, stochastic grammars, and kernel methods. Examine application of these techniques to current bioinformatics problems including: genome annotation and comparison, gene finding, RNA secondary structure prediction, protein structure prediction, gene expression analysis, proteonmics, and integrative functional genomics.

I530 Legal and Social Informatics of Security (3 cr.)

Security technologies make explicit organizational choices that allocate power. Security implementations allocate risk, determine authority, reify or alter relationships, and determine trust extended to organizational participants. The course begins with an introduction to relevant definitions (security, privacy, trust) and then moves to a series of timely case studies of security technologies. This course may be taken as an alternative I525. The course also requires a project, including a work plan, a timeline, peer evaluations, and professional presentations.

I531 Seminar in Health Informatics (1-3 cr.)

Variable topic. Emphasis is on advanced topics and research in health informatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean.

I532 Seminar in Bioinformatics (1-3 cr.)

Variable topic. Emphasis is on advanced topics and research in bioinformatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean.

I533 Seminar in Chemical Informatics (1-3 cr.)

Variable topic. Emphasis on advanced topics and research in chemical informatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean.

I534 Seminar in Human-Computer Interaction (1-3 cr.)

Variable topic. Emphasis is on advanced topics and research in human-computer interaction. Can be repeated once with a different topic, subject to approval of the program director.

I536 Foundational Mathematics of Cyber Security (3 cr.)

Students will learn mathematical tools necessary to understand modern cyber security. The course will cover introductory mathematical material from a number of disparate fields including probability theory, computational theory, complexity theory, group theory, and information theory.

I538 Introduction to Cryptography (3 cr.)

This class considers issues of network security, treating in depth the topics covered in INFO I536. In particular, the class involves adversarial modeling, a detailed treatment of security primitives, and methods for analysis of security. It spans the ethics and technology of security, with examples drawn both from deployed and proposed protocols. Topics to be covered include studies of rational and malicious cheating, symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, security reductions and heuristics.

I539 Cryptographic Protocols (3 cr.)

This class will cover current and timely topics in the field of Security Informatics. Topics will vary from year to year. Examples of topics that could have been covered in recent years include phishing and cyberfraud, trusted computing basis, electronic voting, and digital rights management systems.

I541 Human-Computer Interaction Design I (3 cr.)

Human-Computer Interaction Design (HCID) describes the way a person or group accomplishes tasks with a computer—what the individual or group does and how the computer responds; what the computer does and how the individual or group responds. Sometimes known as “interface design,” HCID becomes increasingly important as computing intelligence and connectivity spread ubiquitously to home, work, and play environments. This course will be organized around a collection of readings and three design projects concerned with applying human-computer interaction principles to the design, selection, and evaluation of interactive systems.

I543 HCI Design and Evaluation Methods (3 cr.)

Students will learn basic concepts and methods for usability studies and evaluation of interactive systems as well as apply those methods to actual system design evaluations. This course is not only for understanding the basics and traditional approaches in this area, but also for exploring new ways of evaluating the usability of state-of-the-art technology-based systems such as systems in ubiquitous computing, CSCW, tangible and social computing areas.

I545 Music Information Representation, Search, and Retrieval (3 cr.)

A comprehensive, comparative study of computer-based representation schemes for music, including those oriented toward music notation, music performance, and music analysis. Overview of musical metadata. Techniques and tools for search and retrieval of music information. Credit not given for both INFO I545 and MUS N564.

I546 Music Information Processing: Symbolic (3 cr.)

This course deals with both methodology and specific applications that attempt to algorithmically annotate, understand, recognize, and categorize music in symbolic (score like) form. Particular applications will include key finding, harmonic analysis, note spelling, rhythm recognition, meter induction, piano fingering, and various classification problems such as genre or composer identification. The methodology we will employ will be probabilistic and will include ideas from Machine Learning such as optimal classifiers, hidden Markov models, and Bayesian networks. Students will have computing assignments, present papers, and be expected to implement solutions to problems using a high-level language such as R or Matlab.

I547 Music Information Processing: Audio (3 cr.)

This course deals with various music analysis and processing problems that use sampled audio as the primary data representation. We discuss digital signal processing, including filtering and its relationship to Fourier techniques. Topics include synthesis, effects processing, score following, and blind music recognition, and accompaniment systems.

I548 Introduction to Music Informatics (3 cr.)

History, issues, and applications in music information technology. Survey of various types of musical information. Introduction to digital musical media, including data standards and processing; database structure and organization standards and processing; database structure and organization of audio-, score-, and text file objects; and discussion of copyright issues.

I571 Chemical Information Technology (3 cr.)

Consent of Instructor. Overview of chemical informatics techniques, including chemical structure coding, chemical data representation, chemical database and search systems, molecular visualization and modeling techniques, and the development of chemical informatics software.

I572 Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling (3 cr.)

This course has two main objectives. 1) To give you a thorough introduction to computational chemisty and modern methods of electronic structure theory that form the basis of molecular modeling today. Mainly, we will concentrate on quantum mechanical methods and pay special attention to Density Functional Theory. Instead of digging deep into the mathematics of quantum chemistry, we will concentrate on practical aspects and examine in detail how computational chemistry can be used to explain chemical reactions and electronic properties. 2) To get your ‘Hands Dirty’ and conduct real and original research designed to allow you to see the knowledge obrained from teh first part of the course in action and apply a wide range of state-of-the-art methods to solve a specific chemcial research problem at a high level of scientific rigor.

I573 Programming for Science Informatics (3 cr.)

Students will receive a thorough understanding of software development for chem- and bioinformatics, and broaden experience of working in a scientific computing group. Topics include programming for the web, depiction of chemical and biological structures in 2D and 3D, science informatics tool kits, software APIS, AI and machine-learning algorithm development, high performance computing, database management, managing a small software development group, and design and usability of science informatics software.

I590 Topics in Informatics (3 cr.)

Variable topic. Emphasis is on new developments and research in informatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean.

I601 Introduction to Complex Systems (3 cr.)

The course will cover fractals, emergent behavior, chaos theory, cooperative phenomena, and complex networks. Students will learn how to think differently about complexitalities, finding ways to understand their complexity and addressing the problems they pose.

I604 Human Computer Interaction Design Theory (3 cr.)

The course will explore, analyze, and criticize underlying assumptions and the rational behind some of the most influential theoretical attempts in HC and related fields. The purpose of the course is to make students aware of how theories can influence practice and to develop critical thinking around the role, purpose, and function for theories.

I605 Social Foundations of Informatics (3 cr.)

Topics include the economics of information businesses and information societies, legal and regulatory factors that shape information and information technology use, the relationship between organization cultures and their use of information and information technology, and ownership of intellectual property.

I609 Advanced Seminar I in Informatics (3 cr.)

Contemporary Informatics approaches and related theories. This Ph.D. seminar will be held as reading and discussion courses, divided into sections. This means that the courses will to a large extent be self- and/or group-study oriented with support from faculty.

I611 Mathematical and Logical Foundations of Informatics (3 cr.)

P: Basic discrete mathematics equivalent to MATH M118, or consent of instructor.
An introduction to mathematical methods for information modeling, analysis, and manipulation. The topics include proof methods in mathematics, models or computation, counting techniques and discrete probability, optimization, statistical inference and ore advanced topics that include but are not limited to Markov chains and random walks, random graphs, and Fourier analysis.

I617 Informatics in Life Sciences and Chemistry (3 cr.)

Introduces the fundamental notions in genome and proteome informatics and chemical informatics focusing on the design and organizing issues in information systems used in those areas. The course is designed for students with no biology or chemistry background, but some knowledge in informatics, who want to learn basic topics in bioinformatics and chemical informatics.

I619 Structural Bioinformatics (3 cr.)

The course will cover informatics approaches, based on the sequence and 3D structure of biological macromolecules, whose objective is to improve our understanding of the function of these molecules.

I621 Computational Techniques in Comparative Genomics (3 cr.)

Summarizes computational techniques for comparing genomes on the DNA and protein sequence levels. Topics include state of the art computational techniques and their applications: understanding of hereditary diseases and cancer, genetic mobile elements, genome rearrangements, genome evolution, and the identification of potential drug targets in microbial genomes.

I651 Ethnography of Information (3 cr.)

Introduces ethnography as a social science methodology and way of knowing with which to study information and its social contexts. Places ethnography in the Informatics knowledge base. Trains students in the use of a broad range of ethnographic techniques relevant to study of automated information technology in use. Designed to be open to students from other programs with sufficient methodological and substantive background.

I667 Seminar in Health Informatics II (3 cr.)

P: I530
Advanced graduate seminar in health informatics, designed to complement INFO I530. This seminar is intended for graduate students enrolled in the Health Informatics track in the Informatics Doctoral Program.

I690 Topics in Informatics (1-3 cr.)

Variable topic. Emphasis on new developments and research in informatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean. Course is intended. Course in intended for Ph.D. students in the school of Informatics.

I698 Research in Informatics (1-12 cr.)

Research not dissertation related under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty. May be repeated for credit for a total of 30 credit hours.

I699 Independent Study in Informatics (1-3 cr.)

Independent readings and research for Ph.D. students under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in a written report. May be repeated for a maximum of 12 credit hours.

I709 Advanced Seminar II in Informatics (3 cr.)

Topic: Contemporary Informatics approaches and related theories.
This Ph.D. seminar will be held as reading and discussion courses, divided into sections. This means that the courses will to a large extent be self- and/or group-study oriented with support from faculty. More advanced readings and discussion than I609.

I790 Informatics Research Rotation (3 cr.)

Working with faculty to investigate research opportunities. May be repeated for a total of 6 credit hours.

I798 Professional Practicum/Internship (non-credit)

P: Current enrollment in the graduate degree program in Informatics.
Participation in graduate level professional training and internship experience.

I890 Thesis Readings and Research (1-12 cr.)

Research under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty leading to a Ph.D. dissertation. May be repeated for credit for a total of 30 credit hours.

G901 Advanced Research (6 cr.)

 

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