Teaching Computational Methods To Predict Disease

Teaching Computational Methods To Predict Disease

BIO5 Team of Scientist Dr. Lyons and Dr. Merchant

A class called Applied Concepts in Cyberinfrastructure, or ACic, is taught every fall semester at the UA by CyVerse co-principal investigators and BIO5 members Dr. Eric Lyons, Assistant Professor of Plant Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Dr. Nirav Merchant, Director of Biocomputing at Arizona Research Laboratories. The class, which utilizes technology from CyVerse, a National Science Foundation funded, UA-led computational resource, allows students to tackle real-world data challenges.  In the past, students have had the chance to create an interactive map that allows researchers to make predictions about areas that will see an abundance of mosquitoes, thus informing mosquito-borne disease risk. The map is one of multiple complete software systems created by the class that can now be utilized by scientists anywhere in the world.

Project Investigators: