INTD 238 - The Mathematics of Life

A survey of significant connections between mathematics and biology. In recent decades biology has become increasingly dependent on data, computer algorithms, and mathematical models; this in turn has stimulated growth in several branches of mathematics and computer science. Students in this course will work on cross-disciplinary projects to explore topics at the intersection of mathematics, biology and computer science such as: combinatorics and probability in Mendelian genetics; Fibonacci numbers and continued fractions in botany; computational algorithms for DNA sequence alignment; genome databases and phylogenetic tree construction; symmetry and pattern formation; graph theory and neural networks; the three-dimensional geometry of viruses and proteins; population dynamics and chaos theory; and self-replicating automata and Conway’s Game of Life.

Pre-req: Any COM1 course
4 credits