The Program of Study for an INF PhD is flexible enough to accommodate specialization in Ecological and Environmental Informatics (“Ecoinformatics” option), Health and Bioinformatics, or Cyber and Software Systems.
T3 students follow the INF Program of Study with an emphasis in Ecoinformatics. Students with a master’s degree can transfer up to 20 graduate credits with approval of their faculty mentor and the SICCS Associate Director of Graduate Studies and Research.
The following provides information about NAU courses that fulfill each section of the INF Program of Study:
I. Required Coursework (42 Units)
INF 501 Research Methods in Informatics and Computing
INF 502 Software Development and Methodologies
INF 503 Large-scale Data Structures & Organization
INF 504 Data Mining & Machine Learning
INF 601 Professional and Career Development
INF 602 Professional Communication
INF 603 Proposal and Grant Preparation
** The INF program has proposed to combine these courses into a single, 3-credit class. The change is anticipated to take place in the 2021-22 academic year **
INF 511 Modern Regression I
INF 512 Modern Regression II
Students in the INF T3 Option should substitute INF 690 Team-Based Research and Interdisciplinary Informatics for the Research Rotation
INF 799
II. Emphasis Requirements (18 Units minimum)
Graduate students in the T3 option should choose the Ecological and Environmental Informatics emphasis (Option 2 in the SICCS program of study). Elective courses in this emphasis area should be distributed as follows:
All Ecological and Environmental Informatics emphasis area students should take:
INF 623 Ecoinformatics Seminar (1 credit — students should plan to enroll for 6 semesters to take advantage of the changing schedule of research talks and skills workshops included in this class).
At least 3 credits of INF grad class, 9 more credits from INF, CS, EE, BIO, FOR, SES, STA, MAT (grad). Please consult this for an incomplete inventory of appropriate classes in departments across NAU.
Topics course numbers may be repeated if each course covers a different topic.
Additional Requirements
Comprehensive Qualifying Exam (by the end of the 4th term)
Advancement to Candidacy Exam (by the end of the 7th term)
Dissertation Defense
We further expect students in the T3 option to attend our annual retreat (typically in August) and participate in seminars and workshops designed to provide additional training in team science, communication, and other essential skills.
