The ACM Special Interest Group on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Biomedical Informatics (SIGBioinformatics; www.sigbioinformatics.org/) has been instituted in 2010 with the aim of focusing on theory and practice of processing, storing, analyzing, mining and knowledge management of biological and biomedical data. The mission of ACM SIGBioinformatics is to support advanced research, training, and outreach in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Biomedical Informatics by stimulating interactions among researchers, educators and practitioners from related multi-disciplinary fields. The third ACM Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology will be held in Orlando, Florida in October 2012. As a flagship conference of ACM SIG Bioinformatics, it provides a premier forum for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research encompassing disciplines of computer science, mathematics, statistics, biology, bioinformatics, and biomedicine. This award provides travel support for 20 graduate students to attend the conference. This will allow the students to participate in the conference, workshop and tutorials. Additionally special activities such as a doctoral consortium and student poster session will be specifically targeted for them. Participation in premier research conferences in bioinformatics and computational biology is an integral component of doctoral research-based training. It will allow them to interact and network with and potentially collaborate with leading researchers in the discipline. In addition, it will provide them access to potential career opportunities for full time employment after graduation in industry, academia and government.
The third ACM Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology was held in Orlando, Florida in October 2012. As a flagship conference of ACM SIG Bioinformatics, it served as a premier forum for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research encompassing disciplines of computer science, mathematics, statistics, biology, bioinformatics, and biomedicine. The grant supported the travel for 20 graduate students to attend the conference. Participation in premier research conferences is an integral component of doctoral research-based training. In particular, it had the following important benefits: 1. It allowed them to attend invited lectures and talks based on peer reviewed articles. This provides them firsthand knowledge on leading edge research that can have a significant impact on their own research outcomes. 2. It allowed them to interact and network with and potentially collaborate with leading researchers in the discipline. 3. It provided them access to potential career opportunities for full time employment after graduation in industry, academia and government. Additionally, participation in the doctoral forum provided an opportunity for doctoral candidates to present their work and receive constructive feedback and mentoring from established researchers. Such feedback and mentoring is expected to improve the quality of their thesis research. All of the above should have a significant impact on the overall research and training of the future workforce.
