BINF3111 Bioinformatics Engineering Design Workshop

Session 2 2017

Staff details and contact hours:

Lecturer in charge: Bruno Gaeta – bgaeta@unsw.edu.au

Tutorials and presentations will take place on Thursdays 1-3pm. The class will not meet every week.

 

Aims of the course:

This capstone course aims to consolidate the students' practical engineering skills in designing and implementing a complex bioinformatics software system. This is a practical course that requires students to learn by doing. Students undertake a group project for a 'customer'(typically an academic from BABS or Medicine) with set milestones throughout the session, including presentations, software demonstrations, and submission of reports and documentation

 

Learning outcomes:

On successfully completing this course, students should be able to:

1.     Demonstrate practical design skills, particularly in software component integration

           

2.     Elicit requirements for a bioinformatics software system from domain experts

 

3.     Identify suitable technologies and components for implementing a system meeting the specifications

 

4.     Demonstrate teamwork and communication skills necessary for working as part of a team under strict time constraints

 

5.     Scope a project and track its progress

 

6.     Prepare and deliver oral presentations for a range of stakeholders

 

7.     Communicate with stakeholders from a different background, especially domain experts in biology, through reports and documentation

 

8.     Discuss the need for a suitable user interface for users of a different background

 

 

Course website

All the course administration, assignment submissions, announcements and online discussions will take place through moodle:

https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=30282

Assessment details:

Week 3: Requirement document: 10%

This document summarises the requirements obtained from discussion with the 'customer'. It should include both the requirements as originally proposed by the customer as well as these requirements formulated as 'user stories' and classified into 'epics'.

 

Week 5: Initial design schema document and project plan: 10%

This document provides a technical description of how the project is going to be implemented, outlining chosen technologies, major design decisions, test cases etc. It should also include a project plan outlining:

• Proposed sprints, with planned deliverables at the end of each sprint
• User stories, prioritised in terms of importance and size (story points)
• Team roles and responsibilities
• Meeting schedule for the team
• Project management and version control software to be used

 

Week 5: Initial project demonstration: 5%

In this 20 minutes peer-reviewed presentation, your team will present the project goals and summarise the technical details and project plan. The mark includes an individual presentation mark

 

Weeks 8 and 11: Prototype demonstrations: 5%

These short presentations allow the groups to showcase their work so far, receive feedback, and reflect on their progress relative to their initial plans.

 

Week 13: Final product: 50%

A mark decided in consultation with the customer, reflecting the quality and usefulness of the final product. Although this is group work, individual contributions will be peer-evaluated using the moodle 'team evaluation' module in order to allocate individual marks.

 

Week 13: Product documentation: 10%

Documentation supplied with the final product, including both technical documentation and user manual. Assessed based on completeness and clarity of the document.

 

Ongoing project management: 10%

How well the project was managed, including correct use of project management software. Evaluated by discussion with the team and browsing of team logs, meeting minutes etc.

 

Course schedule (subject to adjustment)

Week	Class – Thursday 1-3pm	Assignment due
1	No class – but read the project descriptions and contact the customers if you have any questions
2	Group formation and project selection
3	No class	Requirements document
4	No class
5	Initial project presentations	Design and project plan
6	No class
7	No class
8	Sprint review 1 – demo your prototype
9	No class
10	No class
11	Sprint review 2 – demo your prototype
12	No class
13	Final demo and debrief	Product documentation

 

Assumed knowledge:

As a capstone course, this course assumes that most of the core courses for the bioinformatics engineering program have been completed. Students should have strong foundations in programming, scripting and database design as well as a good understanding of the biology domain of the project.

Course evaluation:

This course is evaluated using the myExperience system. This is the first time this course is run as a team project and no previous evaluation is available