The VADA Program

VADA Program Students are required to complete CHSC 7400 – Foundations of Disease Analytics (3 credit hour).

This course is offered in the fall and winter academic terms on a biweekly basis on Friday afternoons. Students attend the class in person at their respective universities and conference call together. University of Victoria students must go through the Western Dean’s Agreement process to register for the course.

Course Description

This course will expose VADA program students to selected methodological and applied topics about visualization and automated analytics for large-scale chronic and infectious disease data. This seminar-style course is participatory in nature.

General Course Information

This course is one of the requirements for participation in the VADA Program. The VADA Program objectives are to:

  • Advance student technical skills in the development and integration of interactive data visualization, visual analytics, and automated approaches for data mining, mathematical and statistical modeling, and predictive analytics;
  • Improve student knowledge about applied problems relevant to the detection, prevention and management of infectious and chronic diseases, from varied large, electronic data sources;
  • Develop student professional skills in communication and relationships, entrepreneurism, responsible conduct of research, and project management.

Components of this course consist of:

  • Seminars led by VADA Program team members and collaborators, 
  • Journal club activities,
  • Skill-building activities involving analyses of real datasets, developing research posters, and presenting research to non-technical audiences.

Course Goals

  1. To advance theoretical and technical skills in automated and visual analytics.
  2. To enhance professional skills, particularly effective communication and research presentation strategies suitable to an interdisciplinary audience.