A multidisciplinary bioinformatics minor

Abstract

Our multidisciplinary approach to a Bioinformatics Minor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) allows students from Information Science, Computer Science, and Biology programs to participate in the growing field of bioinformatics. Two separate tracks allow students to complent the skills that they learn in their majors with skills in either information science or the life sciences. This eighteen credit hour minor begins with all students enrolling in an Introduction to Bioinformatics course that is followed by eleven credit hours of complentary courses. Then, in a final, senior level, survey format Bioinformatics Theory and Applications course, they once again converge to apply their training to a sester-long, multidisciplinary team project. This minor allows students to choose a wide array of careers in the medical and health sciences fields and in the analysis of biological data. It is also an ideal program to prepare the students for graduate programs in bioinformatics.