Workshop on Computational Plant Biology at PB2020 & Opportunities for Participants

Last year I held a workshop on collaboration in computational plant biology at pb2019. We went through a few examples of how computational biology is used in a variety of situations, discussed challenges in collaboration and communication. Participants were matched with potential collaborators at the end of the workshop.

I received a lot of feedback on the format and content of the workshop, and I’m using that to do something completely different this year! This workshop will be a true workshop, with hands-on problems, introduction to techniques and jargon, as well as the opportunity to discuss your own possible modeling problem with the experts in the room.

Discovering the rules of life through computational plant biology

At this workshop, you will learn:

1. How to translate a biological problem into a conceptual model
2. A selection of mathematical representations of conceptual models
3. A selection of techniques for simulating or solving mathematical models

This workshop was inspired by the new NSF funding category of the Rules of Life (and all the writing I did for the fellowship).

Workshop Description

At the workshop, participants will be put into groups and provided with ‘toy problems’ to solve. They will be tasked with reformulating of these problems to be more appropriate for discussion of mathematical frameworks, including differential equations, Markov Chains, and cellular automata. Participant groups will decide which of the presented methods would be best suited for their toy problems. The ‘solutions’ will be presented by our panel of experts, who will discuss their rationales with the participants. At the end of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to receive real-time consultation on their computational questions. Participants can display an A4-sized poster with a diagram of their system with a brief paragraph giving background information and research questions. The panel of experts will then give comments where appropriate on suggested next steps.

Opportunities for speakers and biologists

Please contact me if you are interested in introducing a computational biology method or concept; or if you have a system you’d like input on! I hope to have some travel funding available, particularly for early-career & under-represented participants – this is still in the works, so let me know if you’d be interested!

Pre-workshop Feedback!

If you would like to see a topic covered, please submit them here:

If you are interested in my collaborative database (soon to be expanded as a forum), please fill out this survey!