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• Summer Course 2010

SystemsX.ch Summer Course in Computational Biology

The 2010 Summer Course in Computational Biology is based on the past FEBS practical courses on computational biology, as well as on the lecture “spatiotemporal modeling and simulation” that Prof. Sbalzarini teaches as a core course of the Master program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at ETH Zurich (www.cbb.ethz.ch). In 2010, this course will be held as a SystemsX.ch summer course with emphasis on practical implementation and training of methods for modeling and simulating biological systems in space and time. The course is targeted at Master students, PhD students, and postdocs with little background in modeling and simulation, and minimal experience in computer use (basic Matlab skills) and basic mathematics.

The course will be held at the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS: www.medils.org) on the coast of the Adriatic sea, located in the UNESCO-protected ancient city of Split, Croatia. MedILS, sometimes dubbed "the Warm Spring Harbor Laboratory", is aiming to follow the paradigm of its famous American role model by combining research with vigorous workshop activities. As such, it provides superb lecture, housing, and lodging facilities at a reasonable cost. Warm, informal atmosphere coupled with the presence of active research labs provides an ideal venue for a workshop of this scope.

Some of the contents of the course are: dimensionality analysis; causality diagrams; conservation volumes; vector analysis; governing equations for reaction-diffusion, and flow; hybrid particle-mesh methods for computer simulations; PDEs; student project. 

To read more about the MedILS, please read Life Article.

Ivo F. Sbalzarini is Assistant Professor for Computational Science at ETH Zurich since April 2006. He is heading a research group in computational biophysics.Ivo Sbalzarini is a Swiss citizen and was born in 1977 in Arbon, Switzerland. During 1997-2002 he studied Mechanical Engineering at ETH Zurich, with majors in computational science and control. In 2002 he received his diploma in Mechanical Engineering, which was awarded the Willi Studer Prize. Between 2002 and 2006, Ivo Sbalzarini was a PhD student with the Institute of Computational Science at ETH Zurich, where he significantly contributed to establishing the close collaboration between Biology and Computational Science at ETH Zurich. In early 2006, he received his PhD in Computer Science under the supervision of Professor Petros Koumoutsakos. His thesis work was awarded the prestigious international Chorafas Prize for 2006. Ivo Sbalzarini intermediately stayed at NASA Ames, USA (2000), at the Center for Turbulence Research at Stanford University, USA (2002), and at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, USA (2005). His research focuses on analysis, modeling, and simulation of complex real-world systems, particularly from cell biology. In close collaboration with groups in biology, he develops methods and software for image processing, machine learning, numerical simulations, and large-scale parallel computing. These methods and tools are then used to forward our understanding of the working mechanisms in live cells. Ivo Sbalzarini is a member of the governing board of the Technical Society of Zurich (TGZ) and a member of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB).