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BICB Retreat
Friday, October 7, 2011
Last updated September 2nd, 2011
Time | Activity | Location |
|---|---|---|
8:00 – 10:00am | Bus Travel (Twin Cities) | UMTC to ROCH |
10:00 – 11:00 am | The First Three Years of the BICB Graduate Program: Goals and Accomplishments | UMR 417 |
11:00 am – noon | Break-out Groups | |
12:00 – 1:30 pm | Lunch and Poster Session | UMR 417 |
1:30 – 2:30 pm | Reports from Break-out Sessions and Discussion | UMR 417 |
2:30 – 3:30 pm | Programmatic Issues: Graduate School Transition, Accreditation, Next Steps | |
3:45 – 4:00pm | Bus Boarding | DoubleTree Lobby |
4:00 – 6:00pm | Bus Travel (Twin Cities) | ROCH to UMTC |
Break-out Groups
(1) From a Collection of Courses to a Curriculum
The BICB graduate program has a very flexible curriculum. Students gain knowledge in Core Areas by choosing from a set of courses. Courses that are not listed but fit into Core or Elective Areas are added based on recommendations by advisors of our students. The problem of developing a coherent bioinformatics curriculum was highlighted in a 2003 article by Stephen B. Johnson (A Framework for the Biomedical Informatics Curriculum, AMIA 2003 Symposium Proceedings; available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480084/). This break-out group will review our current approach to the BICB curriculum and make recommendations for changes if deemed necessary.
(2) Funding Opportunities
The BICB graduate program is currently funded through tuition revenues and UMR O&M funds. UMR provides three 2-year fellowships for incoming Ph.D. graduate students. The funding is competitively awarded based on student quality and continued funding promise by the Ph.D. advisor of the student. This group will discuss opportunities for NSF and NIH training grants, in addition to exploring other funding opportunities, such as teaching or research assistantships.
(3) Building Relationships with Organizations outside of the University of Minnesota
The BICB graduate program is unique in the U.S. with faculty coming from three different organizations, the University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, and IBM. This has allowed us to leverage unique strengths and attract part-time graduate students who work in all three organizations, in addition to providing unique educational opportunities for full-time graduate students. This group will make recommendations to expand our partnerships and collaborations beyond the already existing ones, considering the strong biotechnology industry sector that Minnesota offers, in addition to exploring global opportunities.
(4) Early Admission: Building a 3+2 Program
Current requirements for admission into the BICB graduate program include a baccalaureate degree, and courses that were taken prior to obtaining the degree cannot be transferred into the graduate program. This year, the Provost of the University of Minnesota approved an early admissions program that allows undergraduate students to fulfill requirements towards Master’s programs in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs prior to graduation. This group will make a recommendation as to whether BICB should pursue a similar early admissions program that would allow undergraduate students to complete some of the BICB requirements prior to completing their baccalaureate degree at the University of Minnesota.
(5) Building Network Opportunities
The BICB graduate program is an all-University program with three different geographic locations in Minnesota, Twin Cities, Rochester, and Austin. Students and faculty are distributed across these locations. The distances between the locations can prove challenging for students and faculty to meet, and may hinder the development of productive collaborations. This group will make recommendations for networking opportunities for students and faculty in the program.
