Title: Finding The Signal in the NoiseCourse: UNIV150-010
Semester:
Spring 2014
Location & Time:
Hornbake 1112 - Tuesday & Thursday, 8:00 - 9:15am
Credit Offered: Scholarship in Practice (3 credits, outside major)
Instructed By:
Dr. Patrick J Killion
Course Information
What are the challenges of information-based prediction in the age of big data?
The course will utilize Nate Silver’s book The Signal and the Noise in a multidisciplinary
exploration of information-centric forecasting in modern economic markets, infectious disease
networks and climatic modeling. Students will learn to use primary literature to understand the
unity and diversity of data inference challenges across each of these disciplines and will build
skills in proposal research, authorship and scholarly communication.
This course is designed to serve first and second year students who have an interest in STEM,
social, animal and health science disciplines and would benefit from a multidisciplinary course
that will prepare them for innovation and research activities.
The course is divided into three thematic units:
1. The irrationality of economic market patterns.
2. Epidemiology and predicting the spread of infectious diseases.
3. Atmospheric and natural phenomena prediction.
Across each of the three thematic units, students will engage:
• The fundamentals of locating, reading, and analyzing primary literature.
• The fundamentals of experimental and innovation design.
• The fundamentals of collegial and communal group work.
• The fundamentals of written and oral scholarly communication.
Students will earn Scholarship in Practice (outside major) credit.
About The Instructor
Dr. Patrick Killion is UMD's Director of First-Year Research Programs and the Founding
Director of FIRE (The First-Year Innovation & Research Experience). He is passionate about
providing first-year students transformational opportunities and has dedicated his academic
career to serving first-year students. Dr. Killion has a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science
from Texas A&M University. He earned a PhD in Cell & Molecular Biology from the University
of Texas. Dr. Killion served as the leader of the Functional Genomics Research Stream of the
UT Freshman Research Initiative for three years. He recently joined the University of Maryland
after serving as Biology faculty member at Delaware Valley College in Pennsylvania. Dr. Killion
brings multidisciplinary perspectives and research expertise in genomic informatics to this
course and looks forward to working with a broad spectrum of UMD students.
