Course Descriptions

Fully Online Courses

“Fully Online” courses are designed for asynchronous learning; that is, students will be able to access the course lecture video at any time during the week of instruction.  There are 10 weeks in a term.  The instructor will offer at least one hour of live (synchronous) “office hours” per week, and TAs will lead a live (synchronous) weekly discussion section.  A recording of the discussion section will be made available to students.

Foundations of Data Science (H. Pimentel) | DSB 200

4 units. Letter grading.

This course provides a background in the mathematical and engineering foundations that are the building blocks of data science.  Topics covered include linear algebra, probability, and statistics.  The course also provides an overview of science software engineering and reproducibility fundamentals including working on a compute cluster, pipeline development, virtual notebooks, version control.

 

Machine Learning Applications in Biomedicine (E. Halperin) | DSB 205

4 units. Letter grading.

Requisites: Foundations of Data Science or equivalent background. 

Introduction to machine learning analysis of biomedical data, with a focus on formulating interdisciplinary problems as computational problems and then solving those problems using machine learning techniques. and computational interdisciplinary research in genetics.  Fundamentals of machine learning and applications to genetics and health records.

 

Advanced Machine Learning Applications in Biomedicine (S. Sankararaman) | DSB 206

4 units. Letter grading.

Requisites: DSB 205, Machine learning applications in Biomedicine.

Statistical models for analysis of Biomedical data that captures the structure of the data and accounts for the constraints. Topics include Bayesian models, Probabilistic Graphical models, Deep Learning, Time series, Dynamical systems, Stochastic processes, Scalable inference (gradient descent, SGD, EM, MCMC, Variational inference), Privacy-preserving inference (differential privacy, inference over encrypted data), Interpretable ML, and Fairness and Bias.

 

Data Science for Medical Imaging (D. Tward) | DSB 207

4 units. Letter grading.

Requisites: Foundations of Data Science or equivalent background.

Overview of medical image modalities and 3D visualization, classical image processing (histogram analysis and filtering), modern deep learning techniques (convolutional networks), image alignment and statistical analysis of populations. 

 

Applied Data Science in Genomics and Biomedicine (J. Ernst and B. Pasaniuc) | DSB 218

4 units. Letter grading.

Requisites: Foundations of Data Science or equivalent background.

Introduction to computational approaches in bioinformatics, genomics, computational genetics, electronic health records, medical images and other analysis of biomedical data. Topics include emerging methods and their applications to genomics, epigenomics, population genetics, analysis of health records within medical systems, medical imaging, and genomic technologies. Computational techniques include those from statistics and computer science. This course satisfies the capstone requirement. Students will present their results.

 

Data Science Algorithms in Biomedicine (E. Eskin) | DSB 219

4 units. Letter grading.

Requisites: Foundations of Data Science or equivalent background. 

Development and application of algorithmic approaches to problems in biomedicine, with focus on formulating interdisciplinary problems as computational problems and then solving these problems using algorithmic techniques.   Design, analysis, optimization, and implementation of algorithms.  Topics include string algorithms in genomics and scalable machine learning algorithms applied to medical data.  This course satisfies the capstone requirement. Students will present their results.

 

Hybrid Courses

“Hybrid” courses are designed for students who are interested in coming to campus for one or two quarters to attend a course and work on their capstone project in person.  Hybrid courses include the “recent research” courses, DSB 408 and 409, and the DSB 420 supervised capstone project course. Some students will take the course in person and some students will take it remotely.  For each course, a portion of the instruction (less than half) will be didactic training which will be pre-recorded and delivered asynchronously, and the remainder (more than half) of the instruction involves student and instructor interaction and will be delivered synchronously. 

Recent Research in Machine Learning in Medicine (J. Chiang) | DSB 208

4 units. Letter grading.

Requisites: Foundations of Data Science of equivalent background.

Overview of recent research in machine learning applied to medicine.  The course will cover recent papers utilizing data science approaches to analyze large amounts of medical data.  Topics include analysis of medical imaging data, electronic health records and waveforms.  Students will receive instruction on how to read recent research papers and present these papers in the course. 

Recent Research in Data Science in Genomic Medicine (V. Arboleda) | DSB 209

4 units.  Letter grading.

Requisites: Foundations of Data Science or equivalent background.

Overview of recent research in data science applied to genomic medicine.  The course will cover recent papers that use data science approaches to analyze large amounts of genomic data along with medical data with the goal of improving patient care.  Topics include analysis of genomic data to diagnose rare diseases, estimation and utilization of polygenic risk scores in electronic medical records and integrating novel types of genomic data into clinical care.  Students will receive instruction on how to read recent research papers and present these papers in the course. 

 

Data Science in Biomedicine Supervised Project (E. Eskin and V. Arboleda) | DSB 220

4 - 8 units.  Letter grading.

Limited to Master of Science in Data Science in Biomedicine students. Hands-on applied analytics project that helps prepare students for a career in data science in biomedicine by testing their ability to solve complex data science problems in real-world settings. Students hone their communication skills and delve deeply into areas of interest beyond the classroom.  This course satisfies the capstone requirement. 

 

Additional Electives through UCLA Samueli's Master of Science in Engineering Online Program (MSOL)

With prior approval, students may take data science elective courses via UCLA Samueli's MSOL Program. These courses are taught by UCLA Samueli faculty. A tentative list of approved electives in the MS Online program includes: 

COM SCI 245 Big Data Analytics

COM SCI 249 Current Topics in Data Structures

EC ENGR 219 Large-Scale Data Mining: Models and Algorithms

COM SCI 260 Machine Learning Algorithms

EC ENGR 232E: Large-Scale Social and Complex Networks: Design and Algorithms

COM SCI 262A: Learning and Reasoning with Bayesian Networks

EC ENGR M214A Digital Speech Processing

COM SCI 264A Automated Reasoning: Theory and Applications