Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Students must take courses to satisfy each of the following requirements.  Only courses in which the student has obtained an A or a B grade can be used to satisfy this requirement. If a course is listed below as satisfying more than one requirement, a student can only count such course towards one of their coursework requirements. 

Upon acceptance to the doctoral program, students will be assigned a temporary Academic Advisor. In consultation with the Academic Advisor, the student must prepare a Plan of Study outlining the course selections and rotations that the student will pursue for the first semester.  This Plan of Study must then be approved by the BCB program's Graduate Committee.  

Students must complete rotations with at least two program faculty members in the first year of the program (at least 1 credit each; BCB 597). A rotation is typically a term- or semester-long research or laboratory experience conducted under the guidance of a faculty member affiliated with the BCB program. After completing their rotations, the student will ask one of the rotation faculty members to be their Advisor, replacing the temporary Academic Advisor.  Students are encouraged to ask faculty from two different participating departments to co-advise their research.  In consultation with the Advisor(s), the student will select an Advisory Committee.  

The Advisory Committee must be constituted as follows: 

• The Advisory Committee must consist of at least three members (four members if there are two co-Advisors), 

• At least two Advisory Committee members must be BCB affiliated faculty members from two different participating WPI departments.  

• At least one Advisory Committee member must be a full-time, WPI tenured / tenure-track faculty member. 

• At least one Advisory Committee member must be from outside the BCB program, or from outside of WPI. The Advisory Committee will meet with the student at least once per year to monitor research and coursework progress. 

PhD students are required to register each semester for the BCB seminar series (BCB 510 Graduate Seminar; 0 credits).  This series includes research seminars from invited external speakers as well as student presentations of their research.  PhD candidates must present a seminar on their work once each year.  In addition, all doctoral students are encouraged to present their research at appropriate professional conferences. 

Recent studies show that teaching experience enhances graduate students’ research skills.  In addition, particularly for students preparing for academic careers, teaching and mentoring experience is an invaluable asset.  Thus, all BCB doctoral students must acquire teaching and mentoring experience.  Students may fulfill this requirement in one of several ways, detailed below.  While at least one such experience is required, students are encouraged to pursue more than one teaching and mentoring opportunity during their graduate work. 

Students may choose one of the following options for the Teaching and mentoring experience: 

• Work with a faculty member to design lectures, classroom activities, or problem sets, and to lead problem sessions or discussion sections for the students.  This experience may not be fulfilled as part of a Teaching Assistantship, Credit is obtained by registering for BB 596 Independent Study (1 credit). 

• Work with a faculty member to mentor undergraduate students in a research project.   The undergraduate research project will typically be related to the graduate student’s research, resulting in a vertical integration of the research experience for all students. Credit is obtained by registering for BCB 596 Independent Study (1 credit). 

• Take a course or workshops related to teaching with prior advisor approval.  

Students will have the opportunity to undertake a Graduate Internship to fulfill credit toward their degree (BCB 589 Graduate Internship).  A graduate internship is carried out in cooperation with a sponsor or industrial partner. It must be overseen by a faculty member affiliated with the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program.  The internship will involve development and practice of technical and professional skills and knowledge relevant to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.  At the internship's completion, the student will produce a written report and present their work to BCB faculty and internship sponsors. Students may use up to 3 coursework credits of BCB 589 Graduate Internship towards their Ph.D. degrees.  

The Qualifying Examination will be comprised of researching, writing, and defending a research proposal.  The student is required to successfully complete the Qualifying Examination no later than the first semester of their third year in the program. If the Qualifying Examination is successfully completed, the proposed work may constitute the basis of the student’s dissertation research.  The student will present their research proposal publicly.  The student will then be examined privately by the Advisory Committee, who will assign the student one of four outcomes: 

• Fail, which results in dismissal from the BCB Ph.D. program. 

• Repeat, which requires the student to retake the examination within six months of the date of the initial Qualifying Examination.  Students may only Repeat once. 

• Pass with Conditions, which requires the student to complete additional work, such as rewriting parts of the proposal, or taking additional coursework or independent study. 

• Pass. 

All Ph.D. students must produce and orally defend a dissertation.  The research must contribute to knowledge in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and be of publication quality.  Students must defend the dissertation orally in a public presentation, followed by a private defense to the Advisory Committee.   The Advisory Committee will assign the student one of three outcomes: 

• Fail, which results in dismissal from the BCB Ph.D. program. 

• Repeat, which requires the student to complete additional work, and repeat the defense.  

• Pass, with or without additional work and revisions to the document.