The curriculum of all students in this program will have the following general structure:

Foundations (10 required credits)

BIOINF 2070 Foundations of Biomedical Informatics 1 (3 credits)

BIOINF 2071 Foundations of Biomedical Informatics 2 (3 credits)

CS 1501 Algorithm Implementation (3 credits)

BIOINF 2032 Biomedical Informatics Journal Club (1 credit)

Research (3 credits)

BIOINF 2480 Research Project (3 credits) 

Elective Courses (2 or more credits)

Electives are chosen by the trainee — which must be approved by the trainee’s advisor — and consist of 2xxx or higher level courses that address trainee’s educational and career goals. 

Additional Requirements

• Biomedical Informatics Colloquium (0 credit): The colloquium will showcase presentations from DBMI researchers and invited speakers from across campus and beyond. It will meet weekly for one hour during the Fall and Spring terms. Minim 75% attendance is required of all trainees.
• Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research: This Web-based set of instructions and evaluation modules may be accessed at https://www.citi.pitt.edu/.
• Attendance at and participation in the Department Biomedical Informatics’ invited lectures, symposia, conferences, etc., e.g., and the Annual Training Program Retreat.

Projects/Thesis

Research Project

There are several ongoing projects in Bioinformatics in which trainees can become involved upon entering the program. There is ample opportunity for trainees to interact with Biomedical Informatics Training Program Core Faculty. We have organized university-wide groups of to come together for research discussions aimed toward initiating new collaborative projects. Such educational experiences will enable trainees to formulate research questions and also understand how to develop the right kind of collaborations necessary to develop approaches to answer these questions.

A key element of the program is a research project with two key deliverables: (1) the writing and submission of a paper of publishable quality based upon the research and (2) the completion of an oral examination on its contents.  Your research mentor will oversee the student’s research progress, including the oral comprehensive examination.

Comprehensive Examination

Successful completion of the oral examination on the research project (see previous paragraph) satisfies the comprehensive examination requirement of the University’s Committee on Graduate Studies and will include the student’s research mentor and the Training Program Director.