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
  • Differential equation modeling
  • Model building and analysis
• Statistics
  • Linear models and test theory
  • Classification
  • Bootstrap and model evaluation
  • Markov models (EM, HMM, MCMC)
• Optimization
  • Linear optimization (Simplex, polyhedra)
  • Integer linear optimization (branch-and-bound, branch-and-cut)
  • Local search and metaheuristics

Schedule:

General notes regarding the exercises:

• to pass the course, you need to pass the exam in 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 and the reviews
• to pass "Regelmäßige Teilnahme" (regular participation)  you have to attend most of the  exercises,  i.e. miss at most 3 times 
• 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 review, you need to pass the theoretical assignments again, as well.

Theoretical assignments:

• there will be weekly assignment sheets with 3-4 tasks each.
• two students per exercise group will be determined in advance to prepare each task. Until Tuesday evening the students can volunteer for a task, then the rest will be assigned
• randomly one of the students has to explain the task during the exercise
• every student has to present a task at least once. 
• failure to present a task more than once  means failing the exercises (it's ok if the solution is not perfect, that's why I ask two students, but it should be close)
• assignment sheets are not collected/graded, the presentation is the "test"

Reviews
There are two reviews (smaller exams). They are graded and you need to reach at least 50% of the combined points to pass the exercises. For the reviews, make sure to have an identification document (student ID or passport) with you.