Department of Computer Science, IBIVU Centre for Integrative Bioinformatics Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, HV Amsterdam, Netherlands.
AIMMS Amsterdam Institute for Molecules, Medicines and Systems, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, MC Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Bioinformatics. 2018 Jul 1;34(13):i4-i12. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bty233.
Our society has become data-rich to the extent that research in many areas has become impossible without computational approaches. Educational programmes seem to be lagging behind this development. At the same time, there is a growing need not only for strong data science skills, but foremost for the ability to both translate between tools and methods on the one hand, and application and problems on the other.
Here we present our experiences with shaping and running a masters' programme in bioinformatics and systems biology in Amsterdam. From this, we have developed a comprehensive philosophy on how translation in training may be achieved in a dynamic and multidisciplinary research area, which is described here. We furthermore describe two requirements that enable translation, which we have found to be crucial: sufficient depth and focus on multidisciplinary topic areas, coupled with a balanced breadth from adjacent disciplines. Finally, we present concrete suggestions on how this may be implemented in practice, which may be relevant for the effectiveness of life science and data science curricula in general, and of particular interest to those who are in the process of setting up such curricula.
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
我们的社会已经变得数据丰富，以至于如果没有计算方法，许多领域的研究都无法进行。教育项目似乎落后于这一发展。与此同时，不仅对强大的数据科学技能的需求不断增长，而且对在工具和方法之间进行转换的能力以及对应用和问题的需求也在不断增长。
在这里，我们介绍了我们在阿姆斯特丹塑造和运行生物信息学和系统生物学硕士课程的经验。由此，我们针对如何在动态和多学科的研究领域中实现培训中的翻译，形成了全面的理念，在这里进行了描述。我们还描述了实现翻译的两个要求，我们发现这两个要求至关重要：对多学科主题领域有足够的深度和重点，同时与相邻学科保持平衡的广度。最后，我们提出了如何在实践中实现这一目标的具体建议，这可能对生命科学和数据科学课程的有效性具有普遍意义，并且对那些正在设置此类课程的人特别感兴趣。
补充数据可在“生物信息学在线”上获得。
