Our department has a number of summer scholarships available to Kiwi and Aussie students, including those returning to NZ or AUS to study in 2021. Come work with us — it’s fun!

Here is an idea for the project that you can do at the bioDS lab:

Quantitative methods for comparing viral transmission histories

In a recent study we designed an effective method to compare timed evolutionary histories known in epidemiology as transmission trees. Our method can, for example, distinguish an influenza outbreak from an HIV outbreak by only looking at the histories of transmission events. This summer project will contribute to developing powerful and scalable algorithms for computational genomics. Specifically, the student will work with other members of the bioDS lab to design and implement efficient algorithms for comparing timed evolutionary histories. No biological background will be necessary and the project can suit someone interested in at least one of the following areas: algorithms (ideally online algorithms), computational complexity, phylogenetics, statistical modelling, discrete mathematics

And here are all projects offered by the Department of Computer Science with further details about the scholarship and how to apply.

Drop Alex a line if you’re interested and/ or what to learn more about the projects.