Welcome!

I am very happy to have you all enrolled in Genetics 711/811. The class has been designed to feel more like an interactive workshop than a traditional lecture/lab type class. This model comes with a slightly different set of expectations of both you and me (hint: they are higher), but in the end it will make for a more enjoyable experience. To this end, please feel free to make suggestions/comments/criticisms as we move through the material.

We will go through all of this during the 1st lecture and lab, and most important administrative details can be found in the syllabus (this is from 2014 – the new 2015 version will be available soon), but here is the brief synopsis. You can reach my by email, phone (least effective), twitter or office hours. I use my website for scheduling, but have a reasonably open door policy (though sometimes I may be busy doing something else). Google is your friend, though use with caution and be careful of plagiarism. We’ll have weekly lab homework, which will typically involve doing some type of sequence analysis. There will be 2 exams. These are not strictly cumulative, but skills used for the 1st will be needed for the 2nd. There is a final project where you will do some sort of genomics project.

We will use Amazon Web Services cloud computing to do our work. Feel free to use other computers as you see fit, but my ability to help troubleshoot problems may be less developed on other systems (especially Windows).  You’ll each be given $100 to pay for cloud computing. We’ll have to be careful that this money is used carefully.