Monthly Archives: August 2012

From Microsoft:

There are two parts to Imagine Cup this year.  We will have a U.S. Nationals finals.  The U.S. Nationals are to select one team total from the three major categories (World Citizenship, Games, and Innovation) to be guaranteed to go to Russia and compete in their category.  All teams regardless of desire to compete in the U.S. Nationals or not – must register for the World Wide event.  The dates and deliverables for each category can be found at www.imaginecup.com.  Essentially, if your team elects to compete in the U.S. Nationals – they increase their odds of being one of the teams going to World and they also get a head start on the competition. The dates associated with the U.S. Nationals are:

1.       Students will submit their Imagine Cup applications for World Citizenship, Games, and Innovation between 30 September and 30 November 2012. 

2.       The short list of U.S. Applications that move on will be announced on 7 December.

3.       The short list of U.S. Applications will go through a series of interviews.

4.       There will be a product showcase and awards for the U.S. Nationals on March 14^th.  All teams competing in the U.S. Nationals should also be aware of the upcoming April deadline for all Imagine Cup entries to be completed for consideration of teams being selected to go to World!

The site for Imagine Cup 2013 with the World Wide Finals being held in St. Petersburg, Russia is: www.imaginecup.com.  If you or your students are interested in getting updates as they happen you can subscribe to our Imagine Cup blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/imaginecup/rss.aspx.   I have attached a mentor and a student brochure.  I also have sample checks to use for marketing – these are the first place $50K check formats that you can print out poster size and use to advertise Imagine Cup.  I also have two Posters and some Banners – all of which I will get to you either by emailing or putting on Skydrive for you to download.

If you have any questions please contact me and I will be happy to get you answers to your questions.  I am excited about the changes to Imagine Cup this year and am looking forward to getting incredible teams from your students!

Thanks,

Bradley K. Jensen, Ph.D.

Principal Academic Relationship Manager

Microsoft Corporation

Email: bjensen@microsoft.com    

Friday, August 24, 3-5 pm, NCSA Lobby

Graduate students and faculty invited!  Food!

Of interest to informatics students, particularly those interested in bioinformatics.

BIOE 498 / 598 – Computational Cancer Biology (Fall 2012)
CRN: 56892
Tue and Thu 2PM-3:20PM

Instructor: Jian Ma (jianma@illinois.edu)

Credit: 3 undergraduate hours, 4 graduate hours

Description

We will explore basic biology of cancer. We will discuss mathematical modeling of the process of

carcinogenesis as somatic evolution of cells. We will also focus on current research topics in cancer

biology using data from next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Related tools and resources

will be examined. A selection of the latest research papers in this emerging field will be discussed.

Algorithmic and modeling methods will be stressed, but biological results and their significance will

also be addressed. The class will provide hands-on experience of using computational tools to solve

questions related to cancer genomics.

Topics

A Brief Tour of the Human Genome

Basics of Cancer Genetics

Algorithms for Sequence Alignment

Methods for Transcriptome Analysis based on RNA-seq

Identifying Aberrant Genes in Cancer

Methods for Discovering Driver Mutations in Cancer

Models of Cancer Genome Evolution and Metastasis

Models of Chromosomal Abnormalities in Cancer

Cancer Epigenomes

Models for Cancer Somatic Evolutions

One-hit and Two-hit Stochastic Models of Cancer Initiation

Competition Dynamics and Cancer Evolution

Genome-wide Association Studies of Cancer

Computer Lab Sessions

Discussion Sessions

New course offering this Fall in the Department of African-American Studies for those interested in digital media, communications, technology and information studies!

AFRO 498 • Tuesday • 2:00 PM – 4:50 PM

Instructor: Noble, Safiya U. (snoble@illinois.edu)

Credit: 4 hours

Course: Race, Gender and Information Communication Technology 

Description: The portrayal of African-Americans with respect to technology has typically been predicated on a "deficit model," placing African-Americans on the "wrong side" of technological innovation, despite their engagements in and contributions to the design, manufacture, production, consumption and disposal of information communication technologies. These narratives stem from the a series of intersecting practices that are technological, commercial, ideological, and discursive, including narratives of the "digital divide". In this course, we will go beyond issues of computer and Internet access to look at race and representation in digital technologies, with additional focus on intersections of gender and class. We will use a critical media studies approach to examine how information technologies affect, and are affected by race, class and gender.

CRN: 60705 (Graduate) 

or 

60704 (Undergraduate Juniors and Seniors with permission of instructor – contact Safiya U. Noble atsnoble@illinois.edu)