Informatics and Computing - Ecological and Environmental Informatics Northern Arizona University

Overview

A streamlined five-year plan of study provides learning opportunities in the foundations of informatics, programming and computer science, structuring large-scale data sets, machine learning, and statistical data analysis. 

Elective coursework allows students to customize their program of study in one of the following emphasis areas:

• health and bioinformatics, focusing on genetic and genomic analysis, population health, and disease transmission;

• ecological and environmental informatics, addressing ecological and environmental analyses and remote sensing

• cyber and software systems,  engaging in the design and implementation of cyber-physical and large-scale software systems

• bioengineering informatics to enhance data analysis and control in bioengineering applications.

Students will engage in significant research and development work under the mentorship of a faculty member in computer science, electrical engineering, or informatics to develop and assess original and creative solutions to open informatics and computing research questions, work which culminates in the preparation and defense of a dissertation.

The Informatics and Computing - Ecological and Environmental Informatics program at Northern Arizona University is designed for students with strong preparation in an area of science, including biology, computer science, ecology, and electrical engineering, and experience in computer programming and data analysis gained through successful completion of a relevant undergraduate or graduate program.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Identify, explain, and assess the major theories, research methods, and technical approaches driving informatics- driven science and engineering and the impact of these elements on society.
• Identify, explain, synthesize, and apply the fundamental concepts of informatics, including large-scale data representation and organization, various types of programming languages, software development methods, data processing, information extraction and machine learning, and statistical analysis.

• Identify, survey, analyze, organize, and critically distill information from the scientific literature within an informatics emphasis area and creatively identify open research questions.

• Independently apply appropriate expertise, methods, and tools to the creative design, execution, and assessment of an investigation that addresses original informatics research questions.

• Compose and engage in highly effective written and oral communication in informatics areas; demonstrate clear argumentation and logical cohesion in a variety of written and oral communications, including scholarly dissemination, funding requests, industry, and lay-communication.

Identify, explain, synthesize, and apply the interdisciplinary combination of core informatics and in-depth disciplinary expertise defining one of the following emphasis areas:

Ecological and Environmental Informatics

• Integrate mathematical abstractions and modeling with data from the field to determine and analyze ecological relationships

• Construct and execute multi-step remote sensing workflows using geospatial software to solve problems in a variety of application areas and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of remote sensing instruments and platforms for a variety of application scenarios.

• Elucidate the breadth of statistical methods available in environmental analysis and select the appropriate method for the issue or problem under analysis.