Rising Researchers – Winter Research Intensive Course

During Rising Researchers, a Winter Research Intensive Course, students will explorethe use of computing and statistical tools for health equity research under the guidance of a scientist from UMass. This is a 8-week online winter research class with four learning units organized by themes.

The course is designed to provide you with an introduction to statistical and machine learning techniques for understanding, finding, and explaining health equity gaps in electronic health records data. Through lectures, hands-on experiments, public electronic health records databases, basic machine learning algorithms, basic statistical skills and tools, class and small group discussions, and oral presentations, we will delve into the computational world with emphasis on human diseases like cardiovascular disease and health equity issues. The hands-on patient cohort selection and machine learning modeling will emphasize the proper use of the scientific method to answer a research question, develop a hypothesis, carry out computational tasks, make observations, analyze, interpret and communicate results.

Course syllabus and learning objectives can be found here

Learning Units

• The scientific method and introduction to microbiology and bioinformatics to analyze molecular biology information. 

• Host-microbe interactions including the human microbiome and bacteria-plant interactions. 

• Microbial genetics and isolation of bacteria from host tissue. 

• Bioinformatics tools to address a microbiology or molecular biology question by searching and analyzing DNA and protein sequences from online databases and computer software, and interpreting search results. 

Apply here.

Program Details

Dates: January 9 – March 23, 2023

Schedule: Mon/Wed 7pm – 8:30pm ET/4pm – 5:30pm PT (live lessons), office hours + Q&A on Friday 6:30pm – 7:30pm ET/3:30pm – 4:30pm PT

Academic Credit: 2 College Credits + Certification of Completion issued by University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass)

Student Profile: Rising 9th – 12th grade. International students are welcome to apply.

Course Prerequisites: This course has no course prerequisites, but requires students to be committed to attend classes, learn, fully participate in the class experiments and discussions, and be respectful to each other.

Format: Online with live (synchronous) sessions + offline (asynchronous) assignments.

Cost: $4,900. Apply by Nov 1 to get $200 off. 

Payment Details: A 50% deposit is required to secure a student’s spot, with the remaining balance due 60 days prior to the program start date. Non-refundable.

Application Deadline: January 2, 2023 or when all spots have been filled (rolling admissions). Space is limited.

Apply here. Students get a $200 discount if they apply by Nov 1.

Find more information on RisingResearchers.com