2025 Winter Python Bootcamp

The Center for Computational Biology is offering a 5-day “Introduction to Programming for Bioinformatics” Bootcamp from January 13-17, 2025.  The course will cover essential Python programming with particular focus on bioinformatics problems and applications.  Each 8-hour day includes approximately four hours of lectures and four hours of programming, as well as a one hour lunch break.  The course assumes no programming experience, and there are no prerequisites for the course. Participants are required to furnish their own laptops running a recent version of Mac OSX, Windows, or Linux.

The bootcamp will be offered both online and in-person and the registration fees for the full 5-day bootcamp is as follows:

  • $300 (online)/ $350 (in-person) for UC Berkeley students and postdocs
  • $350 (online)/$400 (in-person) for non-UC Berkeley students & postdocs
  • $450 (online)/$500 (in-person) for faculty, visiting scholars, staff at UC Berkeley, other UC and non-UC campuses
  • $600 (online)/$650 (in-person) for industry participants

Registration fees for the in-person bootcamp will include light breakfast refreshments.

For students at UC Berkeley, your registration fees may be reimbursed by your lab so please check with your PI or Research Administrator.  Those affiliated with UC Berkeley will have the option to have your lab/department pay for your bootcamp registration directly to CCB.

Please use one of the links below to register:

  • If you are paying with credit card, please click this link to proceed with your registration.
  • If you are paying with a UCB chartstring, please click this link to proceed with your registration.

Please see the schedule below for an approximation of what will be covered in the course. Space in the class is limited and registration is on a first come, first serve basis. 

Day 1 Morning: Intro to Google Colab; Python basics – data types, built-in functions
Afternoon: Simple data structures, built-in functions & methods, basic logic & control flow
Day 2 Morning: Review control flow & data structures; intro to NumPy arrays
Afternoon: Continuation of NumPy methods & functions: shapeshifting, masking, filtering, etc.
Day 3 Morning: Review NumPy; intro to data exploration: importing, cleaning
Afternoon: Continuation of data exploration: summarizing, visualizing; mini-project
Day 4 Morning: Intro to Pandas: compare/contrast with NumPy, parsing data frames
Afternoon: Continuation of Pandas: parsing, basic data science, intro to wrap-up project
Day 5 Morning: Review Pandas; continue work on wrap-up project
Afternoon: Closing: more ways to interact with Python; research application office hours

If you have any questions, please view the FAQ page on our website.

If you have any further questions, please contact us at ccbadmin@berkeley.edu.