Achievement

We encourage IGERT trainees to obtain teaching experience and provide support for students to serve as teaching assistants (2 per semester) for our core Bioinformatics courses. Because students have eagerly taken advantage of these opportunities and faculty are strongly supportive, we are working with our participating departments to expand the number of TAs designated for IGERT students. In addition, senior IGERT students in our student-run BCBLab are now offering an optional "fourth rotation" experience for new IGERT trainees. Senior students serve as mentors and team-leaders for BCBLab projects, in which BCBLab students assist biological research groups in establishing databases, performing bioinformatics analyses, etc. Our students have greatly benefited from these experiences in collaborative research, leadership, team-building and project management, in addition to hands-on training in solving problems in areas outside their primary research focus.