How do productive scientists do their work? I.e., how they choose a problem to work on, how they come up with a solution, and how they know their solution works. This module has two intertwined parts. The first part provides an intuitive introduction to logical thinking, computational thinking, and statistical thinking, with an emphasis on their role in practical scientific problem solving. We consider how to select a problem that can lead to discovery. The second part are case studies of the different styles adopted by different scientists in their research. This part is expected to be delivered by different guest speakers from bioinformatics, genomics and computational structural biology, each discussing one of his own papers.

They focus on why they choose to work on that problem, how they come up with their solution, etc. The focus is not on the result that is written in the paper, or the procedural details of the method written in the paper; the focus in on explaining the thinking behind the work. The module thus gives students an exposure to different styles of research and help students appreciate how good scientists think.

 

Aims and objectives

This module’s primary aim is to introduce practices and approaches to doing scientific research and problem solving.

The expected learning outcomes are:

• Students learn to make inferences (deductive, abductive, inductive, and statistical, and see how these paradigms can be combined)
• Students learn to see common mistakes in inferences
• Students learn how good scientists select and solve their problems

 

Syllabus

First part:

• Logical inference and useful tactics
• Statistics and common mistakes
• Machine learning and adequacy of validation

Second part:

• In-depth sharing by invited scientists on their approach to scientific problem solving. Researchers who work on different areas will be invited to expose students to a broad spectrum of approaches.

There will be total 13 sessions with the students for this course. 10 sessions will be professor-led events whereas 3 will be dedicated to the initiation, guidance and final group project presentations.

Every professor-led session will be dedicated to a professor-selected topic (including a set of questions from the professor). Specific students are encouraged to dedicate themselves for the preparation of selected topical sessions, to write a summary report about the materials they read in preparation and to think about a list of questions on their own that are put up for discussion during the session (report one). They are expected to issue another summary report with the insights they got thereafter (report two). It is expected that each student will take this active role in at least four of the sessions.

The evaluation goes into 30% for the first reports, 30% for the 2nd reports and 40% for the group project. We will evaluate engagement, creativity, critical judgment, and the field-specific application of scientific knowledge.

 

Assessment

Report One	Individual	30%
Participation (Report Two)	Individual	30%
Project	Group	40%
		100%