Learning objectives

The course aims at providing the fundamental methodological tools for the design and analysis of al-gorithms with emphasis on their employment in the solution of simple bioinformatics problems. The students will learn to implement basic algorithmic solution and fundamental data structures for solving problems in bioinformatics by employing object oriented programming. The course is structured on two modules: Algoritmi per Bioinformatica and Laboratorio di Programmazione II, which are detaled below. Module 1: The students will learn foundations of algorithm design and analysis. They will be able to model simple (real world) problems in terms of computational problems; to quantify the computational resources necessary to execute an algorithm, hence to compare different algorithmic solutions in terms of their computational cost. In particular, a student who has profitably attended the course, will be able to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of basic algorithmic design techniques to simple computational problems. Module 2: The aim of this module is to provide the basic knowledge to implement fundamental algorithms using object oriented programming. The reference programming language is Java. The teaching methodology includes assisted software development and the implementation of specific projects focussed on applications that are relevant to bioinformatics. At the end of the course the student will be able to use the main data structures available in Java and develop new data structures for the implementation of specific software modules.