Last updated 05.08.09

BINFA13756 - Bioinformatics Engineering/Bachelor of Arts (BE / BA)

Program Overview

This 5-year plan enables an Arts degree to be combined with the standard Bioinformatics Engineering degree, with a wide range of Arts majors being available.

Anyone who meets the entry requirements for both Bioinformatics Engineering and Arts is eligible to enter the combined program directly in first year, or Credit-average students may apply to transfer from the standard Bioinformatics Engineering plan later, although with late transfer it might not be possible to complete the program in minimum time.

Bioinformatics is an emerging discipline at the convergence of computing and the life sciences aimed at development of technologies for storing, extracting, organising, analysing, interpreting and utilising the 'tsunami' of information being generated. It is truly an interdisciplinary field. Not only have advances in computing helped accelerate the process of data generation, but the need to process and analyse this vast amount of information has led to advances in both software technologies (databases, algorithm design, machine learning and visualisation) and hardware architectures. Additionally, there is considerable interest in Bioinformatics from researchers in medicine and mathematics.

The program is multi-disciplinary and students will achieve a high level of expertise across computing, maths and biology. The Bachelor of Engineering degree is awarded after completion of all Bioinformatics Engineering courses. Honours are awarded to those who obtain a weighted average mark of at least 65%. The Bachelor of Arts degree is awarded after completion of the whole program. All students complete a major project in their fourth and/or fifth year, usually supervised by a researcher in the School of Computer Science and Engineering or Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences.

program objectives: Graduates will be able to:

• carry out sophisticated data analysis particularly in the area of biology, which will be to the benefit of society;
• undertake the development of high quality software particularly in the area of data analysis.
• make significant contributions to the development of computing technology, particularly for use in biological data analysis.

assumed knowledge: Assumed knowledge for Mathematics (MATH1131): students will be expected to have achieved the equivalent of a combined mark of at least 100 in HSC Mathematics and HSC Mathematics Extension 1. Failure to meet this required knowledge means that General Mathematics (MATH1011) will have to be taken first. Assumed knowledge for English: at least band 3 in 2 Unit Standard English.

major studies: Computing, maths, biology, bioinformatics (the integration of computing maths and biology).

minor studies: Specialist areas in computing, maths and biology such as: biochemistry, molecular biology, statistics, machine learning, algorithms, visualisation, computer interfacing, networks, databases.

Industrial Experience: At least 60 days of approved industrial training must be completed before completion of the final semester. Industrial Training should be concurrent with enrolment and is best accumulated in the summer recesses at the end of years 2 and 3, but must be completed by the end of year 4.

professional recognition: Accreditation will be sought from the Institution of Engineers (Australia) and the Australian Computer Society

career opportunities: Data analysis and software development in drug companies, biotechnology companies and medical and biological research institutes. Graduates from this course will be also well trained to take up careers in other area of computational data analysis, such as in banks and insurance companies. They could also pursue careers in other more general areas of computing.

Program Structure

Students qualify for the award of the two degrees of Bachelor of Engineering (Bioinformatics) and Bachelor of Arts. Students interested in the cross-disciplinary BE (Bioinformatics) can add their choice of Arts major to the standard Bioinformatics program and obtain the broader education offered by Arts and Social Sciences.

Students must meet the entry requirements for the BE (Bioinformatics) program and the Bachelor of Arts program, and must complete the courses and electives required by the Bioinformatics program (3647) as well as 60 additional units of credit in arts courses, including an approved major sequence of 42uoc at stages 2 and 3. Approved majors are given in List A of the Bachelor of Arts (3400) program. Combined programs with Arts are exempt from all of the General Education requirement.

The stages of a generic combined program are shown below. It should be noted that it is possible to adapt the program by moving courses, subject to prerequisite requirements and overall program requirements. The School of Computer Science and Engineering Student Office can supply examples of specific programs.

Overall electives in stages 3 and 4 must include at least one computer science elective and one life science elective.

Electives

Any BIOC/BIOT/MICR/BABS3xxx course for which prerequisites have been completed can be selected as a 3rd year life science elective. Recommended electives include:

Any COMP2xxx or COMP3xxx course for which prerequisites have been completed can be selected as a 3rd year Computing elective. Recommended electives include: 

Alternatively one of the following MATH courses can be chosen instead of a Computing Elective: 

Any Level 3/4/9 COMP course for which prerequistes have been completed can be selected as computing elective. The computing elective can also be replaced by one of the following Mathematics and Statistics course:

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