Goals: The students get a basic understanding of advanced mathematical concepts and methods in numerics, statistics, and optimization in the context of current research in bioinformatics and systems biology. They are able to choose problem-specific methods, to apply them in practice, and to evaluate the quality of the results.

Contents: The course will address topics from the following areas:

  • Numerics
    • Modeling chemical reaction networks
    • Differential equation modeling
    • Parameter identification, sensitivity, identifiability
  • Optimization
    • Linear optimization (Simplex, polyhedra)
    • Integer linear optimization (branch-and-bound, branch-and-cut)
    • Local search and metaheuristics
  • Statistics
    • Linear models and test theory
    • Classification
    • Bootstrap and model evaluation

General notes regarding the exercises:

  • to pass the course, you need to pass the exam at the end, and you need to pass the exercises (formal requirements "Aktive Teilnahme" and "Regelmäßige Teilnahme")
  • to pass "Aktive Teilnahme" (active participation)  you need to pass the theoretical assignments 
  • to pass "Regelmäßige Teilnahme" (regular participation)  you have to attend  75 percent of the  problem sessions, 
  • if you successfully passed the exercises in a previous semester, i.e. all the requirements, you do not need to take the exercises again (although it is highly recommended)
  • however partial results from previous semesters cannot be taken into account, e.g. if you only passed the theoretical assignments but not the regular attendence, you need to pass the theoretical assignments again, as well.

Problem sessions:

There are two weekly problem sessions, both on Thursday and online.

  • Uebung 01 starts at 12:15pm
  • Uebung 02 starts at 14:00pm

Theoretical assignments:

  • there will be weekly assignment sheets with 3-4 tasks each
  • the students should work on the assignments in groups of three. The groups can be joined under "Site info" until November 11th
  • the assignments are available on Thursday under Assignments in the KVV and have to be handed in until Tuesday 11pm
  • to pass, 50 percent of the points  for each of the three parts  of the lecture are required
  • additionally, each student has to  present  one of his solutions to the other students during the semester.