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Contact:
Bioinformatics Group
School of
Computer Science
University of Waterloo
200 University Ave W
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1
Canada
E-mail:
Dan Brown
Undergraduate Research in Bioinformatics
Introduction
As a result of our growing undergraduate program in bioinformatics, many students are expressing interest in undergraduate research. While this is showing ambition, there are a large number of undergrads for so few faculty members! So here's a basic document telling you what you should know.
Students can perform undergraduate research as URAs, assisting a professor for single term projects. The pay is not substantial, but students do get the advantage of being part of the process of research as it unfolds, and will also have some exposure to the state of the art in bioinformatics (though that will be present in many of their courses, as well).
What kind of student are we looking for?
Undergraduates are notorious for overcommiting themselves. Before soliciting faculty members to be research supervisors, students should confirm for themselves that they actually do have 6 extra hours in each week to spend in serious work, and that they are willing to put in creative effort. Research is, by its very nature, unlike undergraduate courses: it is more creative, the problems are harder, and we don't know what the answers are before we get started. Please don't expect that a research experience will feel like just another course!
We are most interested in solicitations from our own undergraduates in the bioinformatics program. Students should know a fair amount about algorithm design, molecular biology, basic techniques in bioinformatics and be prepared to do serious coding. Courses like CS 341, CS 246, Biol 365 and Biol 330 are important to us, as would (ideally) be some relevant co-op experience. Knowlege of a scripting language like python or Perl is highly recommended, as is a comfortable familiarity with a more standard language like C, C++ or Java. Experience with Unix is also necessary; our computers run Debian Linux.
Finally, we are interested in creative problem solvers. Many, many of the problems we encounter in research are not the ones we expected. While undergrads will be given a constrained project, there's still no guarantee it's the one they'll end up solving. We need to have substantial verification that our undergraduate collaborators will be able to react well when their circumstances change unexpectedly, and find the interesting problems hiding in what they're doing.
What will students be doing?
Students will be performing small research projects, either on teams or individually, that are connected with faculty members' research. Current projects in our group include eukaryote gene finding, phylogenetics, identification of transcription factor binding sites in eukaryote sequences (mostly yeast), a project on evolution of brain anatomy, transmembrane protein structure prediction, sequence analysis, and many others. We are also extremely excited by students who bring their own problems or projects in any area of bioinformatics.
Who do I contact?
Assuming you have seriously considered things and really do have the time to make a commitment, you may contact any of the faculty members on our people page. You may also be interested in contacting either Kirsten Mueller or Brendan McConkey from the Biology Department, who also do research in bioinformatics, or Eric Jervis, from Chemical Engineering, who does research in proteomics.
Please don't be discouraged if we can't use you during a particular term! We really do get tons of solicitations, and just can't bring all of the students in while still giving them the support they need.
