School URL:  soic.iupui.edu

School E-mail:  soicindy [at] iupui [dot] edu

Curriculum

(When conferring University Graduate School degrees, minors, certificates, and sub-plans, The University Graduate School’s staff only use those requirements contained in  the University Graduate School Bulletin.)

Curriculum
Courses
Faculty

Ph.D. in Informatics

The Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, the first of its kind in the country, was created as a place where innovative multi­disciplinary programs could thrive, a program where students can apply the skills of information technology to a range of other fields.  For current information and specific requirements, refer to  soic.iupui.edu.

All Ph.D. candidates must meet with their academic or research advisor for course selection and plan of study. 

Program of Study

Students in the doctoral program will explore the connections among information technology, theory, social analysis, and application domains in a diverse and multidisciplinary curriculum.  This curriculum will include core courses and seminars in Informat­ics, and its specialization in, Bioinformatics, Health and Biomedical Informatics, or Human-Computer Inter­action; courses in methodology and theory; and electives in related disciplines inside and outside of the School leading to a Ph.D. minor; and a dissertation.  In addition, students will be encour­aged to pursue internships as part of the elective courses or independent studies of their program.

Bioinformatics Specialization

The Bioinformatics specialization is a 90 credit hour program that includes:

• 15 credit hours of Qualifying courses (B519, B529, I590 Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics, B556, I590 Computational Methods for Analyzing High-Throughput Data)
• 15 credit hours of Core courses (I600, B627, B637, I790, CSCI59000)
• 15 credit hours of Elective core courses
• 3 credit hours (minimum) electives
• 12 credit hours (minimum) of a minor is required from a sub-discipline
• 30 credit hours of dissertation (I890)

Areas of Specialization

Faculty research projects often involve representatives from several different research areas working together to develop in­novative and even revolutionary new solutions.  While students can expect to concentrate in particular areas, they will also be expected to explore the broader significance of their work as well as ways that their expertise can be leveraged to solve problems outside of their own domains.

Areas of Research

Protein structure and function prediction, comparative genomics, struc­tural genomics, fragment assembly in DNA sequencing, systems biology, models of evolution, molecular modeling, drug design, machine learning algorithms, biological database integration, data mining, and biomedical text mining.

Health and Biomedical Informatics Program Specialization

The Health and Biomedical Informatics specialization is a 90 credit hour program that includes:

• 21 credits Foundations courses (I501, I530, I535, I575, I581, I642, PBHL B651)
• 6 credit hours of seminar courses
• 15 credit hours of electives
• 9 credit hours of Ph.D. specific courses (I600, PBHL B652, GRAD G660)
• 6 credit hours of research rotation (I790)
• 12 credits of a minor is required from a sub-discipline
• 21-30 credit hours of dissertation

Areas of Specialization

Faculty research projects often involve representatives from several different research areas working together to develop in­novative and even revolutionary new solutions.  While students can expect to concentrate in particular areas, they will also be expected to explore the broader significance of their work as well as ways that their expertise can be leveraged to solve problems outside of their own domains.

Areas of Research

Electronic medical records, health data exchange, standards and terminology for health data, clinical decision support, consumer health informatics, technology to enhance patient safety, health application development and implementa­tion, cost reimbursement and integrated health information systems.  The Health and Biomedical Informatics program has close ties and joint projects with the Veteran Administration Medical Cen­ter, Regenstrief Institute, Clarian Health, Methodist Hospital, St. Vincent Hospital, Community Health Network, St. Francis Hospitals, IU School of Medicine, and other local health care systems.

Human Computer Interaction Specialization

The Human Computer Interaction specialization is a 90 credit hour program that includes*:

• 24 credit hours of Core courses (H501, I600, H541, H624, H634, H564, two HCI research area selectives, e.g., H563, H565, H566)
• 18 credit hours of Methods courses (I575, two methods electives, three research rotations I790)
• 18 credit hours of Specialization (0-6 credits colloquia series and/or electives and 12-18 of minor credits required from a subdiscipline within or outside the School)
• 30 credit hours of dissertation (I890)

Areas of Specialization

Faculty research projects often involve representatives from several different research areas working together to develop in­novative and even revolutionary new solutions. While students can expect to concentrate in particular areas, they will also be expected to explore the broader significance of their work as well as ways that their expertise can be leveraged to solve problems outside of their own domains.

Areas of Research

Because HCI is a multidisciplinary discipline, students are encourage to expand the scope of their research to cross-tradi­tional disciplinary boundaries into such areas as: user-centered design, cross-cultural theory and application, related areas within new media such as gaming and virtual reality, comput­er-mediated communication, usability engineering, health informatics, information visualization, biomedical informatics, android science, social robotics, sensorimotor representation, symbol grounding and symbol emergence, computational neuroscience, and so on.

Additional Requirements for all Ph.D. Programs

Minor

All students will be required to have an appropriate minor from inside or outside the school. Minors will be selected with the advisor’s recommendation. The selected minor should be appropriate to the student’s choice of sub discipline within Informatics. Some appropriate minors would include: biology or bioinformatics, chemistry or chemistry informatics, health and biomedical informatics, media arts/studies, cognitive psychology, computer science, information science, or sociology. In all cases the number of hours to be included in the minor will be consistent with the requirements of the unit granting the mi­nors. Some of the courses included in the minor may also count toward the student’s methodology or other requirements. Students need a minimum of 12 credits for a minor.

Qualifying Examination, Written (Required)

All students will take a written qualifying examination that covers the core courses (CORE A and B or Foundations courses for Health and Biomedical Informatics. Consult with the respective Program Directors to see what specific courses are included in the qualifying examination for the three different specializations). The examination will be set by a group of faculty who are familiar with the content of the core courses. Examinations must be completed prior to  the stu­dent’s fifth semester in the program. 

Qualifying Examination, Oral (Required)

1. The oral examination will take place after the student suc­cessfully passes the written exam. Students must pass both the written and the oral exam before passing on to candidacy.
2. The oral exam will be based on the student’s response to the written exam and any material from the core courses. Students may retake either the written or oral examination, but not both, if they do not complete that part successfully on the first attempt.

Dissertation Proposal (Required)

This is an oral review that covers in-depth knowledge of the student’s primary research area and dissertation proposal. The research proposal for the dissertation must be approved by the stu­dent’s research committee. That committee may have the same membership as the advisory committee or the students may choose different members. The advisor for the dissertation will be a faculty member in the School of Informatics and Computing and a mem­ber of the Graduate Faculty. At least one of the three or more members of the committee will be based outside of the school. The student will defend the thesis proposal at a public colloquium in the school. The review should be completed within one-year after passing the Qualifying Examinations.

Dissertation (Required)

A written elaboration of significant original research must be successfully presented to the research committee in a public defense as described in the Graduate School Bulletin.

Ph.D. Minor in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics gathers knowledge and information from vari­ous fields such as informatics, chemistry, computer science, medicine, and biology. Students in relevant Ph.D. programs such as biochemistry and molecular biology, medical and mo­lecular genetics, medicine, chemistry, or biology are the target audience for the Ph.D. minor in bioinformatics.

The Ph.D. minor in Bioinformatics is a 12-credit hour program comprised of four (4) courses each of which is 3 credit hours. 

Required course: B519, Specialization courses (choose three): B529, B556, B573, I590, B619, B646, B656

Admission Requirements

The graduate bioinformatics courses in the School of Informat­ics and Computing assume a minimal knowledge of cell and molecular biology. That level of understanding could be gained with at least 6 undergraduate credit hours in molecular biology, genetics, or evolution. They also assume a minimal knowledge of programming, databases, and statistics. That level of understanding could be gained with 3 to 9 credit hours of undergraduate or graduate courses in these respective areas.

Grading Policy

A minimum of B (3.0) is required in each course that is to count toward the minor. If a minimum of B (3.0) is not earned in a course, that course must be retaken. A course may only be retaken once. Students who fail to achieve the minimum grade of B (3.0) the second time they take a course will not be able to earn the Ph.D. minor.

Ph.D. Minor in Health and Biomedical Informatics

The purpose of the minor is to provide opportunities for current Indiana University or Purdue University doctoral students in other disciplines at IUPUI to learn and use Health and Biomedical Informatics approaches to solve problems that arise in their academic fields. This problem serves the needs of the Schools of Public Health, Allied Health, Dentistry, Nursing, Medicine and Sciences, by providing data and information science knowledge in support of problem-solving across multiple health-related domains. 

The Ph.D. minor in Health and Biomedical Informatics requires coursework totaling 12 graduate credit hours.  These must include the following core courses:  B530 Foundation of Health Informatics (web based); B535 Clinical Information Systems (web based); B581 Health Informatics Standards and Terminologies (in-class); and B642 Clinical Decision Support Systems (web based). 

Admission Requirements

Students must submit an internal application to Health and Biomedical Informatics Program Director for review. Admissions are done on a rolling basis. Applicants are required to have background in Information Technology and Healthcare (or equivalent).

Grading Policy

A minimum of B (3.0) is required in each course that is to count toward the minor. If a minimum of B (3.0) is not earned in a course, that course must be retaken. A course may only be retaken once. Students who fail to achieve the minimum grade of B (3.0) the second time they take a course will not be able to earn the Ph.D. minor.

Ph.D. Minor in Human-Computer Interaction

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) can be broadly defined as "the discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and the study of major phenomena surrounding them" (ACM).  The purpose of the Ph.D. minor in the HCI Program is to enable current Indiana University and Purdue University doctoral students in other disciplines at IUPUI to learn, apply, and use human-computer interaction (HCI) theories, principles, and tools to address and study problems in their respective academic fields.

The Ph.D. minor in HCI is a 12-credit hour program comprised of four (4) courses, each of which is 3 credit hours:

Required courses:  H541, H543, and H563.  One additional course, selected from the following list, is required:  H561, H564, H565, H566, H624, or H634.

Grading Policy

A minimum of B (3.0) is required in each course that is to count toward the minor.  If a minimum of B (3.0) is not earned in a course, that course must be retaken.  A course may only be retaken once.  Students who fail to achieve the minimum grade of B (3.0) the second time they take a course will not be able to earn the Ph.D. minor.