Learn

There are multiple places to learn about coding, bioinformatics and computer sciences at UW-Madison!

Workshops

• The Data Science Hub hosts trainings and workshops for researchers to learn data skills. They offer weekly free, virtual, “coding-meetups” where users can meet with a facilitator one-on-one to get their questions answered or work through debugging a problem. They also hosts occasional low-cost (~15$) developed workshops for UW-Madison students and affiliates on range of topics like R, Python, Git, Markdown and more. Please view their websites for offerings.
• The UW-Madison Libraries offers free  R and Python workshops.

Study Groups

• The ComBEE Learning Community focuses on building R and Python skills, and hosts monthly events on themes of interests to researchers.

Classes

• Two classes are offered by the Department of Bacteriology:

  MICROBIO 357 — GENERAL BIOINFORMATICS FOR MICROBIOLOGISTS 

  3 credits. Undergraduate Level Class.

  Provides foundational introduction to bioinformatics for microbiologists. Emphasis on the basic understanding of bioinformatics tools, analysis, and databases and their applications (e.g. Sequence alignment, Phylogenetic trees, Genome analyses). Topics include: command line manipulation, sequence alignment, file formats, phylogenetic trees, standard genome and protein databases, interpretation of microbial and viral genomes, and basic scientific computer programming.

  MICROBIO 657 — BIOINFORMATICS FOR MICROBIOLOGISTS

  3 credits. Upper Undergrad-level and Graduate Level Class.

  Provides a practical and fundamental introduction to sequence-based analysis focused on microbial systems. Emphasis on gaining a basic understanding of the principles of both classical and newer algorithms useful for bioinformatic analysis. Topics include: BLAST; RNA-seq analysis; transcriptional binding prediction; genome sequence assembly, analysis and annotation; and comparative genomics. Note that this course requires that each student have access to a laptop that runs a linux/unix Operating System such as a Mac or a ChromeBook. PC Laptops running a VM are also acceptable. No prior knowledge of computational biology is required.

Asynchronous Learning Options:

The Carpentries (https://carpentries.org/) is a asynchronous learning option that you can follow on your own. Additionally, UW-Madison has an active Carpentries community with in-person workshops. For these workshops, visit this website: https://datascience.wisc.edu/training-resources/

• Introduction to the Unix Shell: https://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/
• Version Control with Git: https://swcarpentry.github.io/git-novice/
• Programming with R: https://carpentries.org/workshops-curricula/#swc-prog-R 
• Programming with Python: https://carpentries.org/workshops-curricula/#swc-prog-python

Did you know UW-Madison also has a subscription to LinkedIn Learning? The video library has training materials on coding like R, Python, Java, Unix, etc., and also some more conceptual videos about the cloud, computing, and more.

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