Achievement

The third outcome was hands-on training in computational analysis of the RADseq data sets and Illumina environmental shotgun sequence data on Brown’s OSCAR Linux cluster. This outcome was shared between the first and second year students. The second year students had collected Illumina HiSeq data from microbial sequences, and spent the fall and spring analyzing these data in preparation for a manuscript. They have been exploring analyses using microbial genome tools such as MG-RAST for read count annotation and tabulation. The first year students have yet to acquire their primary data so have been working with reference data sets. Lectures on genome assembly, the Unix operating system, and basic file management facilitated these exercises. The students gained familiarity with these new techniques, but tangible results will come by the end of the summer as the students complete (2nd year) or initiate (1st year) the computational analyses of their own data.