New Professors Zia Khan and David Van Horn Announce Spring Courses

Dr. Zia Khan received his B.S. in Computer Science and Biology from Carnegie Mellon and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Zia Khan’s research is in the area of bioinformatics: he uses computation to answer questions in biology. His work focuses on how genetic differences within and between species affect traits and on designing novel ways to measure cell shape change during embryonic and tissue development.

This spring (2014), Zia Khan is teaching CMSC858D: Computational Proteomics. Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. This course covers computational and experimental challenges in the proteomics field and emphasizes protein mass spectrometry as an experimental tool for studying proteins. Mass spectrometry is a fundamental analytical tool in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) and a "big data" technology in biology. This course counts for Ph.D./M.S. quals as well as M.S. comps in BIO and does not require extensive background in biology or mass spectrometry. Doughnuts will be offered the first and second days of lecture.

 

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Dr. David Van Horn received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and received his M.S. and B.S. from the University of Vermont. David Van Horn’s research answers questions about how functional and object-oriented programming languages can best be applied to make software more trustworthy and reliable. He leverages techniques such as program analysis, semantics, and transformation. His ultimate goal is to make the automated construction of reusable, reliable software components possible and effective.

This spring (2014), David Van Horn is teaching CMSC631: Programming Analysis and Understanding. This course will focus on the complementary research areas of programming languages and program analysis. The course covers basic theoretical ideas and practical techniques for modeling and analyzing programming languages. Students will learn how these techniques can be leveraged to mechanically reason about programs. This course will also introduce basic principles of research processes in computer science: how to ask/articulate questions and how to recognize elements of solutions.

 

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