Graduate Courses

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.
I503 Social Impact of Information Technologies (3 cr.)
P:Graduate standing. An overview of important social, legal, and ethical issues raised by information technology.
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 I 519 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 Seminar in Health Informatics Applications (3 cr.)
P: Graduate Standing. This course examines the basic concepts of the design, evaluation, and use of interactive applications in health informatics.
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.)
P: Knowledge of undergraduate level probability, linear algebra or calculus. 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.
I537 Legal and Social Informatics of Security (3 cr.)
This is a case-based course on privacy and security in social contexts. Privacy and security technologies can diverge from their designers’ intent. Privacy-enhancing technologies have been used to defeat data protection legislation, and cryptographic technologies of freedom can be used by corrupt regimes to protect their records from external view.
I538 Introduction to Cryptography (3 cr.)
Introduction to the foundational primitives of cryptography and implementations. A primary goal of this course will be to understand the security definitions for each primitive, and how they are used in cryptographic protocols. The ethics of insecure or on-the-fly protocol design will be discussed.
I539 Cryptographic Protocols (3 cr.)
Provides a basic understanding of computer security by looking at how things go wrong and how people abuse the system. Once it is understood how computer systems are attacked, it is possible to propose ways to make the system secure.
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.)
P: Major, minor, or outside area standing in music informatics or music information technology. 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.
I551 Independent Study in Health Informatics (1-3 cr.)
P: Consent of instructor and completion of at least one 500-level informatics course. Independent readings and research related to a topic in health informatics of special interest to the student. Faculty supervision and written report required. May be repeated for credit.
I552 Independent Study in Bioinformatics (1-3 cr.)
P: Consent of instructor and completion of at least one 500-level informatics course. Independent readings and research under the direction of a faculty member. Culminating in a written report. May be repeated for credit.
I553 Independent Study in Chemical Informatics (1-3 cr.)
P: Consent of instructor and completion of at least one 500-level informatics course. Independent readings and research under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in a written report. May be repeated for credit.
I554 Independent Study in Human-Computer Interaction (1-3 cr.)
P: Consent of instructor and completion of at least one 500-level informatics course. Independent readings and research under the direction of a faculty member, culminating in a written report. May be repeated for credit.
I561 Human-Computer Interaction Design II (3 cr.)
P: I541. This course is a continuation of Human-Computer Interaction Design I, emphasizing the justification of design effectiveness.
I571 Chemical Information Technology (3 cr.)
P: 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.)
P: I571. Computer models of molecules and their behavior in gas and condensed phases; implicit and explicit salvation models; quantum and molecular mechanics; search strategies for conformational analysis, geometry optimization methods; information content from Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations; QSAR; COMFA; Docking.
I573 Programming for Chemical and Life 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 (1-3 cr.)
Variable topic. Emphasis is on new developments and research in informatics. Can be repeated with different topics, subject to approval of the Dean.
I600 Professionalism and Pedagogy in Informatics (3 cr.)
Introduces students to topics and skills necessary for entering careers in industry or the academy. Topics covered will include career planning, curriculum development, effective teaching, research ethics, scholarly and trade publishing, grantsmanship, and intellectual property consideration.
I601 Introduction to Complex Systems (3 cr.)
P: MATH-M 118, I201, or equivalent course. 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. Click Here for more information.
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.
I611 Mathematical and Logical Foundations of Informatics (3 cr.)
P: Basic discrete mathematics equivalent to MATH-M 118, 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.)
Informatics approaches addressing the sequence and 3D structure of biological macromolecules (DNA, RNA, Protein), with the objective of improving our understanding of the function of these molecules. Topics will include molecular visualization; structure determination, alignment, and databases; and prediction of protein structure, interactions, and function.
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.
I624 Advanced Seminar I in Human-Computer Interaction (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical, contemporary and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies and applications in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. Students will explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests.
I625 Advanced Seminar I in Social Informatics (3 cr.)
Introduces students to major historical contemporary and emerging theories, methods and techniques in the field of social informatics. Students will examine and explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on social and cultural aspects of informatics, and qualitative methods of research.
I627 Advanced Seminar I in Bioinformatics (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduce students to major historical, contemporary, and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies and applications in the field of Bioinformatics. Students will explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on research approaches in bioinformatics, emerging technologies in biology and chemistry, and basic computational techniques.
I628 Advanced Seminar I in Complex Systems (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical contemporary and emerging theories, methods, and techniques in the filed of complex systems. Students will examine and explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on the theory of complex systems, systems science and artificial life.
I634 Advanced Seminar II in Human-Computer Interaction (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical, contemporary and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies and applications in the field of Human Computer Interaction. Students will explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests.
I635 Advanced Seminar II in Social Informatics (3 cr.)
Introduces students to major historical contemporary and emerging theories, methods, and techniques in the field of social informatics. Students will examine and explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on political and economic aspects of informatics, including qualitative and quantitative methods for social informatics research.
I637 Advanced Seminar II in Bioinformatics (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduce students to major historical, contemporary, and emerging theories, methods, techniques, technologies and applications in the field of Bioinformatics. Students will explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will focus on research approaches in bioinformatics, emerging technologies in biology and chemistry, and basic computational techniques.
I638 Advanced Seminar II in Complex Systems (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduces students to major historical contemporary and emerging theories, methods, and techniques in the filed of complex systems. Students will examine and explore relevant and influential research, results and applications. Students will develop an understanding of leading research approaches and paradigms, and will design an independent research program in relation to their individual research fields and personal interests. The course will be an exposition of “the science at the edge” and the forefront of research in complex systems.
I647 Advanced Seminar I in Chemical Informatics (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Topics vary yearly and include: representation of chemical compounds; representation of chemical reactions; chemical data, databases and data sources; searching chemical structures; calculation of physical and chemical data (molecular mechanics and quantum mechanics); calculation of structure descriptors; methods for chemical data analysis; integration of cheminformatics and bioinformatics.
I651 The 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 relation to other research methodologies relevant to the production of 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.
I657 Advanced Seminar II in Chemical Informatics (3 cr.)
P: Advanced graduate standing or consent of instructor. Topics vary yearly and include: Representation of chemical compounds: representation of chemical reactions; chemical data, databases and data sources; searching chemical structures; calculation of physical and chemical data (molecular mechanics and quantum mechanics); calculations of structure descriptors; methods for chemical data analysis; integration of chemoinformatics and bioinformatics.
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.
I691 Thesis/Project in Health Informatics (1-6 cr.)
P: Graduate standing and approval of the dean. The student prepares and presents a thesis or project in an area of health informatics. The product is substantial, typically multi-chapter paper or carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research of scholarly project. Details are worked out between the student and the sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.
I692 Thesis/Project in Bioinformatics (1-6 cr.)
P: Graduate standing and approval of the dean. The student prepares and presents thesis or project in an area of bioinformatics. The product is substantial, typically a multi-chapter paper or carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research or scholarly project. Details are worked out between student and sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.
I693 Thesis/Project in Chemical Informatics (1-6 cr.)
P: Graduate standing and approval of the dean. The student prepares and presents a thesis or project in an area of chemical informatics. The product is substantial, typically multi-chapter paper, or a carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research or scholarly project. Details are worked out between the student and sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.
I694 Thesis/Project in Human-Computer Interaction (1-6 cr.)
P: Graduate standing and approval of the dean. The student prepares and presents a thesis or project in an area of Human-computer interaction. The product is substantial, typically multi-chapter paper, or a carefully designed and evaluated application, based on well-planned research or scholarly project. Details are worked out between the student and sponsoring faculty member. May be repeated for credit.
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.
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.