NENS230

Data analysis and visualization techniques commonly encountered in biosciences research. Fundamentals of the MATLAB computing environment, programming and debugging, data import/export, data structures, plotting, image analysis, introduction to statistical tools. Examples and assignments draw from a range of topics applicable to bioscience research: frequency analysis, genetic data mining, ion channel kinetics, neural spike rasters and spike-triggered averages, cell counting in fluorescence images, regression, PCA, and stochastic simulation. Assignments are practical in nature and demonstrate how to implement specific analyses that a biosciences student is likely to encounter. Assumes no previous programming experience.