Intuitive Mathematics for Physicians and Bioscientists II

This course is the second in a two-course sequence exploration of the utility and beauty of mathematics in medicine and the biosciences, intended to be approachable for MD students and bioscience PhD students. The focus will again be on providing intuitive and visual explanations of mathematical concepts through discussions of sampled applications, and no advanced training in quantitative topics is expected. However, because this course will build upon the first course (EMED 330) students who have not taken that course should consult the syllabus for more information. Topics will be discussed both in a way which showcases their wide applicability and also by zooming in to specific problems drawn from across basic bioscience and medicine, both research and clinical. This quarter's examples will be drawn from questions in AI, evolution, ecology's connections with medicine, information and computation within biological processes themselves, the mathematics of strategy (seen in evolution, clinical planning, and policy development) and especially complex systems science. Complex systems science serves to integrate all material across the course sequence, and these lectures are meant to give students a view of the future of mathematical and computational medicine. The 1-unit version functions as a lecture series seminar, while the 3-unit version also includes a term project, for which mentorship will be offered across the quarter.