PULSe Academics
Interdisciplinary Life Science
The PULSe curriculum is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary graduate program designed to equip doctoral students with the essential knowledge and research skills needed to excel in their Ph.D. program. This flexible curriculum allows students to explore multiple training groups and research areas before selecting a specialization for their thesis work.
As part of this top-tier Ph.D. curriculum, students complete a combination of core graduate courses, training group–specific survey courses, and hands-on laboratory rotations. The unique structure ensures exposure to a broad range of disciplines while offering flexibility within the academic plan that meets individual career and research goals.
The PULSe curriculum has been designed to provide students with the basic information they will need to succeed in the PULSe Training Groups during their Ph.D. work. In addition, the curriculum provides a broad and interdisciplinary program of study with the maximum possible flexibility so that students may tailor their programs to their individual needs and explore several training areas before deciding on one for their thesis program. The core requirements are a combination of general courses, Training Group specific survey courses, and laboratory rotations.
Credit Hours: The core requirements comprise 16-19 credits;
- 7 credits of general coursework, divided into four focus areas (see below)
- 4-7 credits of Training Group Introductory courses (2 courses of 2 – 4 credits each); Training Groups may require additional, specialty coursework, beyond the core requirements
- 1 credit of a participatory seminar course
- 4 rotation credits of GRAD 60100, performing lab rotations in the first year, not to be listed on the Plan of Study
69900 research credits (number of 69900 hours taken are determined on an individual basis by the PULSe Office each semester; note that a total of 90 credit hours are required for the Ph.D.)
The student’s research progress will be monitored for its ability to meet demands for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This is one component of the Advisory Committee evaluation performed each year.
*The Biotechnology and Computational and Systems Biology Training Groups have additional core and credit hour requirements.
Focus Area Courses
One of the following courses must be taken at any time during PULSe graduate training.
- HORT 60100 – Plan & Research Plant Science Research (1 credit) Lecture once per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Typically Offered Fall. The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the culture of scientific research and the processes of scientific discovery and review. The course will: 1) acquaint students with techniques used in presenting short scientific talks, as e.g., at national meetings, 2) expose students to procedures used in preparing scientific papers, proposals, etc., 3) introduce students to the outcomes expected to be achieved by graduate education and the processes by which students are mentored and evaluated, 4) help students begin formulating their research project proposal, 5) acquaint students with guidelines for biosafety and responsible conduct of research and provide a forum for discussion of ethical issues confronting researchers.
- GRAD 61200 – Responsible Conduct in Research (1 credit) Lecture once per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 8 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring. Overview of values, professional standards, and regulations that define responsible conduct in research. Students learn the values and standards of responsible research through readings and lecture/discussion and practice application of these values and standards to research situations through class discussion of case studies from life sciences research.
- GRAD 60100 – PULSe Scientific Communications (1 credit/taken twice). Designed to develop the skills needed for effective scientific presentations. Students register for this course in the Fall and Spring semesters of Year 1 of study.
One of the following courses must be completed before the end of Year 2 of PULSe graduate training; however, the proposal writing class should not be taken during the first year.
- MCMP 62500 – Grant Writing (1 credit). Offered Fall. Instructions for the preparation and submission of an NIH-style RO1 grant proposal will be covered. Each student will write and submit a complete proposal. The proposals will be student reviewed in a mock study section at the end of the course.
- HORT 60300 – Grants and Grantsmanship (1 credit). Lecture once per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered Spring. Focuses on funding opportunities in agricultural research and techniques of writing successful scientific grant proposals. Students will write a proposal on a research topic of their choice during the course, and they will gain experience in the peer review process by preparing written reviews of proposals and participating in a panel meeting in which proposals are discussed and ranked.
This requirement is designed to train students from a variety of backgrounds in methods of acquiring and/or analyzing data in any of the various disciplines within PULSe. As such, there is a menu of courses from which students (and TGs) can choose depending on the individual student or TG needs. These courses and their descriptions are listed below. Students must satisfy this requirement by the end of Year 2. Students in the Biotechnology TG take an additional 9-12 Math/Statistics credit hour requirements.
- CS 53000 -Introduction to Scientific Visualization (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Spring. Teaches the fundamentals of scientific visualization and prepares students to apply these techniques in fields such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics. Emphasis is on the presentation of scalar, vector, and tensor fields; data sampling and resampling; and reconstruction using multivariate finite elements (surfaces, volumes, and surfaces on surfaces). Prerequisite: CS 25100 or authorized equivalent courses or consent of instructor.
- BIOL 59500 – Methods and Measurements in Physical Biochemistry (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall. Introduction to physical methods in biochemistry and physical measurements of biological systems, such as UV/Visspectroscopy, circular dichroism, IR and Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence, neutron diffraction, light scattering, scattering from ordered materials, x-ray crystallography, NMR and ESR spectroscopy, electron microscopy, mass spectroscopy. Application of these techniques to studies of structure and dynamic behavior of biological macromolecules, composition, and orientation of structural elements and cofactors, ligand binding and conformational change in biological interactions and detailed probes of local changes in structure, solvent accessibility and specific bonds formed in biological reactions. Interpretation of the resulting data and analysis of strengths and limitations of each technique. Examples from research articles are discussed that illustrate how these methods are used in modern biochemistry. Prerequisite: Introductory Calculus and Physics or permission of the instructor.
- STAT 50300 – Statistical Methods for Biology (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring. Introductory statistical methods, with emphasis on applications in biology. Topics include descriptive statistics, binomial and normal distributions, confidence interval estimation, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, introduction to nonparametric testing, linear regression and correlation, goodness-of-fit tests, and contingency tables. Credit allowed in either 50300 or 51100 but not both. Prerequisite: Calculus.
- STAT 51100 – Statistical Methods (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring. Descriptive statistics; elementary probability; sampling distributions; inference, testing hypotheses, and estimation; normal, binomial, Poisson, hypergeometric distributions; one-way analysis of variance; contingency tables; regression. Credit allowed in either 503 or 511 but not both. Prerequisite: MA 16200 or authorized equivalent courses or consent of instructor.
- STAT 51200 – Applied Regression Analysis (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring. Inference in simple and multiple linear regression, residual analysis, transformations, polynomial regression, model building with real data, nonlinear regression. One-way and two-way analysis of variance, multiple comparisons, fixed and random factors, analysis of covariance. Use of existing statistical computer programs. Prerequisite: STAT 50300, STAT 51100, or STAT 51700, or consent of instructor.
- CS 59000 – Computing for Life Sciences (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall. Basic bioinformatics algorithms and Python programming. Course topics include biological databases, algorithms for biological sequence (DNA, protein), sequence alignment and database search, sequence motif search, protein tertiary (3D) structure comparison, protein-protein interaction and comparative genomics. This course is targeted at non-CS majors who are working or interested in the bioinformatics field. No programming experience is required.
- CS 66200 – Pattern Recognition and Decision-Making Processes (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Spring. Introduction to the basic concepts and various approaches of pattern recognition and decision-making processes. Topics include various classifier designs, evaluation of classifiability, learning machines, feature extraction, and modeling. Prerequisite: ECE 30200 or authorized equivalent courses or consent of instructor.
Advisory Committee Meetings
With the specific purpose of helping students upgrade the quality of research by critical discussion, an Advisory Committee meeting is scheduled by the student at least once a year commencing at the start of the second calendar year of residence.
Students will be responsible for arranging their meetings and may schedule the meeting anytime during the month prior to the deadline. Upon scheduling, meeting information must be submitted online.
A typed Student Advisory Committee Report is to be prepared and distributed to the advisory committee at least two weeks prior to each meeting. Please follow the detailed instructions for the Student Advisory Committee Report.
The Student Advisory Committee Report must be uploaded online and will not be accepted via email. Failure to do so will result in a hold being placed on your account and you will be unable to register for the following semester. In order for this hold to be removed, students will need to submit the Committee Meeting Form and upload the Committee Meeting Report.
The electronic Advisory Committee Evaluation Form will be completed by each committee member. Each committee member is responsible for sharing the evaluations with the student. Evaluations must be submitted prior to the semester deadline.
Following your committee meeting, each member of your Advisory Committee will need to submit a meeting evaluation online. Upon completion of the evaluation, each member will have to ability to print/save the evaluation. The members are responsible for sharing the evaluations.
- Registration for subsequent semesters will be contingent upon following the below deadlines for Advisory Committee meetings.
- Fall – Meetings must be schedule by September 15th and must be held by November 30th.
- Spring – Meetings must be schedule by February 15th and must be held by April 30th.
- Summer – Meetings must be schedule by June 15th and must be held by July 30th.
- Be sure that you share the above information with your committee at the time of scheduling and again when you provide them with your Committee Meeting Report. Please contact pulse@purdue.edu with any questions.
Graduation and Thesis Information
Graduation deadlines can be found on the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars Calendar.
All candidates must meet certain requirements in thesis preparation. Thesis format requirements have been separated into two categories:
- Departmental format requirements that will be reviewed by the student’s home department, covering such matters as how figures are prepared and numbered; style of references; placement of notes; headings; chapter headings; etc.,
- University format requirements that will be reviewed by the Thesis/Dissertation Office covering paper requirements; typeface and quality; spacing; margins, page numbering; title page; and abstract.
General guidelines for completing the final examination and thesis are:
- Inform the PULSe office that you wish to be registered as a candidate for the session the degree is expected.
- Submit a first draft of the thesis to the major professor and obtain the departmental guidelines regarding departmental format requirements.
- Visit the Thesis and Dissertation Office website for University format requirements. Contact: 765-494-3231 or thesishelp@purdue.edu..
- At least three weeks before the final examination date, submit an approval request for the Final Examination G.S. Form 8. Final examinations must be held before the last week of classes. When the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars approves the G.S. From 8, an approved copy of the form will be sent to the departmental graduate office. Doctoral candidates will receive the required on line exit questionnaires information.
- Prepare a final copy of the thesis. This Deposit Copy will incorporate all editorial changes and modifications requested by the members of the Examining Committee and will comply with both University and Department format requirements. The abstract in the dissertation can be no longer than 350 words. Once a committee member has signed the Thesis Acceptance, the document is approved by that individual.
- Submit the Deposit Copy of the thesis electronically to the Thesis/Dissertation Office before the last day of classes of the semester the degree is expected. The Deposit Copy will be reviewed by the Thesis/Dissertation Office to see that University format requirements have been met. No changes may be made to the thesis after it has been deposited.
- Submit a Thesis Receipt to the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars, Young Grad House, before the last day of classes of the semester the degree is expected. The exit questionnaire and National Research Council questionnaire also need to be completed online. Instructions will be provided by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars.
- Complete the PULSe Exit Survey.
