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Research Projects in the Department of Biomedical Informatics
All students in Biomedical Informatics require experience in conducting research. Doctoral and Post-doctoral degree-earning students need experience in posing scientific hypotheses, conducting experiments, building information systems, and measuring impact. MA students require experience in using Biomedical Informatics techniques to solve practical problems. Time Commitment Doctoral and Post-doctoral degree-earning tudents are required to devote a significant amount of time to research: a minimum of 25 hours per week in the first year, increasing to 60 hours in the third year. The time commitment for MA students should be clearly established by the research advisor before the project begins.Registering Doctoral and Post-doctoral degree-earning students must register for G6001 every semester during the first three years. After completion of the Masters of Philosophy, doctoral students enroll in dissertation research (G9001). Because research is central to the degree program, the project course carries more points than lecture-style courses. In the first year, students should register for 6 points per semester. In the second year, this increases to 9 points per semester, and reaches 12 points in the third year. As the student progresses through the program, the course load from lecture-style courses should decrease accordingly. MA students register for G6001 only once, usually in the final semester of the degree. Typically, students will commence work on the project in earlier semesters. Students in this program should register for 3-6 points of research, depending on the level of committment.Advising Students may only register for G6001 with the approval of a faculty advisor, who is responsible for assigning a grade. If the research advisor is not a member of the core faculty in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, the student's academic advisor must approve the choice of research advisor and will make a special effort to monitor the student's research progress. Each student must meet with the adviser at least once per week. Students may choose to work with multiple faculty advisors to obtain exposure to a broad spectrum of knowledge.By the second year, doctoral students require an advisory committee, which consists of the primary faculty advisor, and two additional faculty members, at least one of whom must be a member of the core faculty of the department. The committee must meet with the student at least once each semester to review the student's progress and assign a grade for research. Deliverables For each project course, the student must submit a brief written plan for the semester, clearly defining the scope, goals, timeline and deliverables. Students cannot register for research without approval of the plan by the advisor. The minimum deliverable is a brief written project report that summarizes goals, methods, results, and conclusions.Doctoral and Post-doctoral degree-earning students should strive to publish one paper each year. By the end of the degree program, Post-doctoral fellows complete at least one paper that the research advisor believes is suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Biomedical informatics papers must be more than system descriptions; students are encouraged to extract general lessons and principles and to communicate what they have learned in a form so that others in the field may draw on their results. MA students should prepare a research plan in the semester prior to the final semester. A detailed project report is expected at completion of the project, generally in the final semester. Grading Research advisors must assign a letter grade for each research project course, based on the goals described in the following section. If there are multiple advisors, the primary advisor is responsible for assigning the grade. The grading scale is: A (excellent), B (adequate), C (poor), and F (failed). Plus (+) and minus (-) may be used to modify grades. A grade of INC (incomplete) may be assigned only in cases of medical or family emergency. If work is incomplete for other reasons, the advisor should assign a grade of C or F, which can be changed at a later time, provided that the student addresses the deficiencies.Adequate achievement in research is essential to the program. A single grade of F, or grade of C in two consecutive semesters indicates that a student has significant problems in conducting research, and may result in expulsion from the program. Research Goals Students should pursue five goals when conducting research. Advisors will assign grades based on how well the student has achieved these goals. These guidelines are not intended to be used as a strict checklist of all the behaviors that a student must exhibit in order to earn a particular grade. Rather, they should provide the advisor with a picture of the general level of accomplishments that might warrant a grade of A, B, C or F for each of these goals. The aggregate grade for the course need not be a strict average of the grades for the goals. For example, failure in one of the goals could result in failure for the project.Goal 1: Understand the nature of informatics research A: Student is intellectually involved in the design of the project; makes creative contributions to the research design; understands the limitations of the data; is aware of problems with the methodology; has ideas for subsequent experiments that might be performed.B: Student understands the reasons for the current project design, but does not contribute to its planning; carries out expected technical tasks and collects the expected data, but needs assistance to interpret them. Needs to be directed toward next steps. C: Student has minimal understanding of the design of the project, seems to simply follow instructions by rote. Goal 2: Master technical skills A: Student has excellent technical skills, and acquires new techniques independently. Project work is conducted in a well-organized manner, and steps are well documented.B: Student learns the necessary technical skills, but requires direction. Project work is performed competently, but sometimes lacks organization and is not always documented well. C: Student demonstrates minimum technical skills and requires extensive help with the work. Project activities are often disorganized and poorly documented. Goal 3: Read and apply the scientific literature A: Student obtains relevant scientific literature independently; reads and understands scientific articles; understands some of the problems with the published papers; is able to synthesize ideas from multiple sources; demonstrates ability to apply methods and theories from the literature to the current project.B: Student reads articles suggested by the mentor, but does not find articles independently; completes reading, but does not synthesize ideas or take a critical approach towards the literature; requires assistance to apply reading to current project. C: Student does not appear to read suggested articles, or demonstrates only a very superficial understanding; does not make a great effort to find more basic readings, or to ask for help with understanding the articles; does not understand the relevance of the literature to the current project. Goal 4: Develop skills in scientific writing A: Student writes well-organized research plans and progress reports; writes papers in style appropriate for journal publication; conveys a logical progression of ideas; makes original contributions; carefully proofreads papers, making only minor errors; cites sources where appropriate, and lists references in appropriate format.B: Student writes research plans and progress reports that are sometimes incomplete or lacking organization; writes papers with competent statement of the research problem and results, but needs help from the mentor; occasionally shows original input; reports results, but does not analyze too deeply; proofreads some, but includes some errors in spelling and grammar. C: Student writes research plans and progress reports that lack significant parts and are poorly organized; writing frequently lacks an adequate description of the research problem and requires major revision by the mentor; does not make original contributions; proofreads carelessly, with many typographical errors. Goal 5: Demonstrate a responsible working attitude A: Student demonstrates enthusiasm for the project and commitment to doing the best possible job; shows concern for other team members as well as his/her own project; participates actively in project meetings; always on time and well prepared for meetings; proactive in addressing project goals.B: Student shows adequate commitment to the project; works well independently, but doesn't go out of his/her way to help team members; not always on time or prepared for meetings; needs to be reminded to address project goals. C: Student shows no enthusiasm or committment to the project; fails to assist other team members when asked; frequently late or unprepared for meetings; fails to return email or phone messages; often fails to complete assigned tasks. |