B.Sc.  Programs Committee Meeting

Thursday, June 11^th, 2009

9:30 am – 11:30 am

DCR

 

Present

Dr. N. Ovsenek (Chair), Dr. Paul Lee, Dr. Pat Krone, Dr. Peter Howard, Dr. Mary Pato, Dr. Brij Verma and M. Webster

Regrets

Dr. W. Albritton, Dr. Kash Desai, Dr. Keven Schneider, Dr. Calliopi Havele 

Special Guest – Dr. Tony Kusalik, Department of Computer Science 

Dr. Tony Kusalak from the Department of Computer Science was invited to the B.Sc. Programs Committee meeting to present the benefits for biomedical science students in taking the BINF 200.3 Introduction to Bioinformatics course. 

It was explained that the content in the BINF 200 course builds on introductory biology material (as presented in courses such as BIOC 200) and genetic material, and combines this with computer science skills to output students skilled at using basic biomedical science tools. The committee members agreed that BINF 200.3 as presented would be an excellent course for the majority of biomedical science students to take.

CMPT 111.3 is a necessary prerequisite for the BINF 200.3 course. This makes it difficult for biomedical science students as they would have to include an additional 6 credit units within programs which are already heavily subscribed in the first few years. The Committee suggested other options such as offering a crash course in computer science, or finding a way to combine the two courses. The Department of Computer Science have already considered other options, and experimented with waiving the CMPT 111 prerequisite in certain circumstances, but found that all students needed the background from this course to be successful in BINF 200. After more discussion it was agreed that how to include CMPT 111 and BINF 200 into the basic science programs is a decision that rests with the individual departments. 

The Committee discussed the Experience US event that takes place annually in October. It was agreed that this event should be continued to be held in a classroom like last year, rather than in the hallway as in previous years. The power point presentation that was used last year will be updated. A general introduction will be given about the BMSC common core platform. Faculty representatives from each department will be introduced and asked to present respective program information. Mary Pato would like the power point presentation circulated to Faculty members as early as possible to allow time for input and editing.

Paul Lee gave an update about the PHSI/PCOL program development. Draft course outlines have been completed and it is expected that a package will be available to distribute to stakeholders in early September.

Dr. Howard inquired about including additional course information on the PAWS registration system. For example, when students log in to look at the courses offered in MCIM, they see the third and fourth year course offerings. He suggested including information about the second year courses at the top of the course offerings page. An inquiry had been made to ITS, and apparently this is not possible to do constraints within the registration system.   

Meeting Adjourned.