Register

Middle and high school students interested in Computational Biology are invited to join us
November 19, 2022 at 12pm EDT for this live symposium. 

Enjoy our keynote, two informational workshops, and participate in the Student Challenge!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

- top -

Coming soon.

Committees

Organizing Committee

• Darsh Mandera, Jesuit High School
• Olutoba Ojo, Newark Charter School
• Bel Hanson, International Society for Computational Biology

- top -

Coming soon.

Student Challenge

The purpose of the Student Challenge is to allow middle and high school students to think creatively, conduct background research, and develop a proposal for a unique solution that can help address important problems that face the medical field. Through this process, students will be able to think like scientists and learn how to make existing technologies even better.

Access Student Challenge Submissions

Theme:

The theme for the Student Challenge is Computer Science in Biological Advances. We want students to have room to explore their own interests and see how computational and engineering methods can be applied to the topic.

Examples of Biological Advances due to Computer Science include:

• Genome sequencing and annotation
• Personalized medicine
• Machine learning models for population ecology

Students should think about how computer science and engineering solutions can help improve healthcare. The competition is not limited to areas mentioned above.

We have several mentors available to assist you. If you want someone to review your project, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and provide your need and your topic specifics and we will match you up with a mentor.

Before the Symposium:

Students should brainstorm and think of ideas within the scope of the topic Computer Science in Biological Advances. All attendees interested in participating in the Student Challenge will add the title and abstract for their project during the registration process.  Attendees will have the opportunity to edit their registration to add their project information if they decide to participate after they have registered to attend.  All projects need to be in the registration system by November 10th.  All participants in the Student Challenge will receive an additional email with information on where and how to submit their project.  All projects must be uploaded by November 16th.

During the Symposium:

At the symposium, there will be scheduled time within the program when each participant in the Student Challenge will answer questions about their work with the various attendees at the symposium (family and friends) and will also present their work to the judges. The judges will score and determine the top projects, who will receive an award during the closing ceremonies.

Project Details:

Before the symposium all participants in the Student Challenge MUST upload their project.  Your submission should be between 3-5 minutes and consist of voice over slides or a video. All Student Challenge submissions will be available for on-demand viewing 48 hours before the symposium.

• Save your presentation as an MP4 file with the first name, last name, and project title.
• Slides should be widescreen16x9 ratio which export best to 1080p videos.

Some helpful tips on planning your recorded talk are available at these links:

• Recorded Presentation Guidelines for Virtual Events
• How to record a PowerPoint Presentation

Presenting your poster in a lighting style format using the PechaKucha or Ignite talks presentation style or a single slide or PDF is an option for presenters.

Here is a example of a presentation: https://youtu.be/rbLbb7eOao8

All projects must be uploaded by Wednesday, November 16, 2022.

At the Student Challenge, individuals will be assigned a virtual table and be available to answer questions about their project. 

Judging Criteria:

- top -

Workshops

How to Ask Scientific Questions

Bioinformatics lies at the intersection of computer science and biology, but research in any field is about a lot more than just technical knowledge. Scientific research is about asking scientific questions, and investigating them through hypotheses, experiments, and/or engineering. In this workshop, we’ll get the opportunity to learn the scientific process and learn how to come up with scientific questions that are meaningful, measurable, and practical.

Organizer: Olutoba Ojo

- top -

Coding Problems and How to Solve Them

Research in bioinformatics is based on critical knowledge of biology as well as an understanding of the scientific process. However, programming is a major component that students with a burgeoning interest in bioinformatics should dive into right away. In this workshop, we’ll tackle several logical coding problems as a group. While the workshop will be based in Python, no prior coding experience is required – all you need is to be excited to learn!

Organizer: Darsh Mandera

- top -

Sohini Ramachandran
Brown University
USA

Sohini Ramachandran joined the faculty of Brown University in July 2010, and was promoted to Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in July 2021; she also holds a courtesy faculty appointment in Computer Science. She is also the Director of Brown University's Data Science Initiative, since July 2021, and served as Interim Director beginning August 2020. From July 2017-July 2022, Sohini served as Director of Brown University's Center for Computational Molecular Biology.
Prior to beginning her faculty appointment at Brown University, Sohini spent 3 years as a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and postdoctoral fellow in Professor John Wakeley’s group at the Harvard University Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. She completed her PhD in 2007 with Professor Marcus Feldman at Stanford University’s Department of Biological Sciences.

Sohini's research program has been recognized with multiple national awards, including a 2012 Sloan Research Fellowship, funding as a Pew Biomedical Scholar (2012-2016), and a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE, nominated by the NIH, awarded 2019). She is also the Contact PI and Program Director of Brown University's NIH T32 Predoctoral Training Program in Biological Data Science, and a standing member of the NIH Genetic Variation and Evolution study section (7/2018-6/2024). In Spring 2019, Sohini was a Natural Sciences Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden. In recognition of her teaching at Brown University, she has received a Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship (2016) and the Philip J. Bray Award for Excellent in Teaching in the Physical Sciences (2021).
Sohini goes through phases of long-distance running to fit in with colleagues, but her favorite hobby is knitting. She seeks out infinite games, and her self-competitive spirit is fueled by having misspelled 'succedaneum' at the 1995 National Spelling Bee.

Conference Program

Program is in EST. Program subject to change.

- top -