BIOL 302 - Modern Computational Biostatistics

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: BIOL 201 or CBSC 250 or permission of instructor. Traditional approaches for statistical inference are based on methods developed in the pre-computer era. In most scientific fields, these methods are being replaced by more flexible and powerful methods based on computation. In this class, we will use regression-based methods to build statistical models, compare multiple models, and test models with data. We will start with linear regression, then move to mixed (random effects) models, then to hierarchical Bayesian models. The last section of the course will be an independent project; this can be based on data that a student has already collected or developed as a new project using publicly available data in a field of interest.