Integrated Masters Degree Program
Take your unique undergraduate experience to the next level!
The Integrated Master of Science in Computational Biology is designed to provide advanced training for students who have completed one of CMU’s undergraduate degrees in addition to significant foundational coursework to prepare for accelerated study (see FAQ below). Students will get more refined training from experts in the field who are doing work on the cutting edge of not only computational biology research but also with experts in biology, machine learning, etc. Being housed within the top-ranked School of Computer Science, the program itself focuses on a high level of proficiency on the development and refinement of computational methods for solving biological problems; both at the fundamental model level as well as directly applicable biological results. Our students are all highly vested in continuing the advances being made on all types of problems in computational biology.
Hear from our Students
“ The program provides a lot of flexibility in courses which allowed me to specialize in classes that align with my career goals. I am eager to deepen my knowledge beyond the foundational concepts by taking more specialized courses and working on practical projects that will equip me with the experience and skills necessary to face the challenges in industry.”
-- Raehash Shah, Class of 2025
“I'm getting experience from leading professors in niches that I didn't know existed within Computational Biology and feel much more prepared to enter exciting industry roles. This expedited program shows future employers that we … have deep academic knowledge and the credentials to show it.”
-- Max Shushkovsky, Class of 2025
What makes this program different?
The audience of this program is distinct from the other masters programs offered within the Ray and Stephanie Lane Computational Biology Department (M.S. in Automated Science and M.S. in Computational Biology [joint with the Department of Biological Sciences]). The other programs aim to educate students who may have limited exposure to computer science or computational biology and are seeking re-education to become computational biologists or automation engineers. As such, the first year of the degree is devoted to foundational coursework in programming, algorithms, mathematics, statistics, and computational biology.
Our undergraduate students are highly prepared in these areas and thus this foundation has already been established and does not need to be built (thus our students do not regularly enter these programs). To cater to our own highly prepared students this program builds on this foundation to provide the graduate level training as well as research or industry experience (through a thesis and/or capstone project).
You get to choose your culminating experience:
Sample Course Schedules
FAQs
What foundational coursework is required before I start the program?
Prerequisite Coursework
Mathematics
| 21-127 or 15-151 | Concepts of Mathematics |
| 21-241 (or equivalent) | Matrix Algebra |
| 36-218 or 15-259 or 36-225/36-226 | An introductory probability/statistics course |
Computer science
| 15-112 | Fundamentals of Programming |
| 15-122 | Principles of Imperative Computation |
| 15-351 or 15-451 | Algorithms and Data Structures |
Computational biology
| 02-251 or 02-250 | An introduction to computational biology course |
| xx-300 | A 300+ level course in the computational biology department of at least 9 units |
Biology
| 03-121 or 03-151 | Modern Biology |
| 03-221 or 03-220 (03-221 preferred) | Genetics |
All students completing a B.S. in Computational Biology (or the additional major in Computational Biology) meet these requirements as part of their major requirements. Students completing a minor or a concentration in computational biology will likely have completed a significant subset of these courses, depending on their primary major.