Because so many different backgrounds are represented in this class and the assignments are likely to require a mix of expertise, we think everyone taking the class will benefit from having the opportunity to work with others from different backgrounds.
The three main areas of expertise we considered when forming the groups are biological, statistical, and computing. We have attempted to form groups that contain at least one person who might serve as the "local expert" in each field. (Computing was the field we had the hardest time filling; we tried to use statistics students who we know have computing experience.)
Work should be handed in with your group. Several people have expressed reasonable reservations about this due to the fact that it is difficult for one individual to control the quality of a group creation. We hope to mitigate this concern by emphasizing that grading in this course will be very lenient. We feel that in a graduate-level topics course like this one, the grade is not the primary reason for a student to take the course, so our stance is that grades are not an important issue.
Please let us know if you have any problems with any of the following groups or if you would like to be moved onto or off of this list.