Admission requirements
This course is open to all students that have been admitted to the minor ‘Quantitative Biology’.
Description
Under supervision the students work in the (small) teams as in the course ‘Innovative Research Ideas’ to transform the various ideas that were proposed there into one project proposal for experimental research that takes a Quantitative Biology approach, and which could be executed in principle. This requires further literature search and study, formulation and preliminary examination of (an) appropriate mathematical model(s) and analysis techniques as well as an assessment of feasibility of the proposed experimental design. Students bring in their specific skills and knowledge to the team in accordance with their background. Each student writes an individual essay on his or her personal experience and evaluation of the interdisciplinary process and on the particular mathematical, computational or biological input and arguments that they provided during the set-up of the team proposal. For example, particular reasoning based on experimental research papers that were found by the team that lead to particular modeling decisions, or detailed computations that led to a choice for a specific functional form in a model, etc. The team formulates finally a single project proposal, which is presented in a joint presentation to the other teams, and discussed.
Course objectives
The student will reflect on pitfalls, challenges and advantages of interdisciplinary collaboration, from his or her personal perspective. He or she will learn to build on personal skills and expertise in such collaborative effort and appreciate those of others. By doing – under supervision – the students discover what is involved in setting-up a detailed experimental design that takes a Quantitative Biology approach to specific biological research question(s) and formulate this as an interdisciplinary research proposal. They will learn to assess the experimental, mathematical and computational feasibility of such an approach.
Final qualifications:
Awareness of challenges, pitfalls and advantages of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Ability to assess feasibility of experimental design and mathematical and computational approaches in a specific Quantitative Biology setting.
Experience in setting-up an interdisciplinary research proposal
Each participant gained insight into his or her personal appreciation of interdisciplinary research
Insight into the appropriateness of a Quantitative Biology approach for his or her (future) research agenda.
Timetable
The time table is provisional and provided times are indicative. A detailed final schedule will become available before the start of the minor. It is foreseen that the course activities and meetings run from week 11 until week 15 of the semester. In the first week of January meetings are foreseen, after which the students can prepare for the final presentations in the third week of January, which finalize the course.
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
Plenary instructions and meetings for team feedback. Project team meetings. Team meetings with supervisor.
Assessment method
The final grade is determined as weighted average of the result of the plenar presentation of the final proposal (40%) and the written research proposal (60%). The latter is assessed on scientific depth, feasibility, level of innovation, clarity of exposition, persuasiveness.
A retake consists of redoing both presentation (40%) and revising the written proposal (60%).
Reading list
Will be announced.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Exchange and Study Abroad students: please see the Prospective students website for information on the application procedure.
Contact
Course coordinator: Dr. S.C. Hille
Email: shille@math.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
Brightspace will be used for communication and provision of course material.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.