MATH6781: Biomathematics

3 class tests worth 10% each, 1 assignment worth 10%, 1 final worth 60%

"12 units of credit in Level 2 Mathematics courses including (MATH2120 or MATH2130 or MATH2121 or MATH2221), or both MATH2019 and MATH2089, or both MATH2069 and MATH2099". Realistically, knowledge of first year mathematics is sufficient.

Essentially, what this course aims to provide an introduction to mathematical modelling and data analysis for biological and biomedical systems, with heavy focus on the spread of diseases and its iteration with the human body amongst other things.

This course is quite a refreshing and enjoyable one, perhaps due to the fact that the mathematics that is being taught builds upon and models real world phenomenon unlike what those nerds do in pure maths/statistics. However, as with all applied mathematics, the bulk of this course is, you guessed it: ODEs, so a rigorous foundation is preferable.

2018 was John Murray's first year teaching the course, so whilst incredibly experienced in the field of biomathematics, he was understandably not the most solid or well prepared lecturer, having to pause for lengthy periods of time during his explanations almost every lesson. Furthermore, I personally found his teaching a bit handwavy, as in not enough focus were put into the important parts of the content and many parts were a bit rushed/unclear.

However, professor Murray is a very caring lecturer, and would not hesitate to explain/revisit any problem that was raised in detail during/after each lecture. He would also provide a lot of support before each class assessment/final and would often check that we were following along during class. Lastly, and perhaps his greatest strength, is that he has an incredibly sublime and manly voice, something that I could listen to forever.

In terms of marks, the class tests and final were all closely based on ALL content in the lecture slides. This proved a little difficult personally as I was negligent in mastering the course content during the semester. The assessment is also based on questions in the lecture slides, where we had to derive the answers ourselves instead, and were completely doable if enough time was spent on it (a bit of matlab was required to simulate the models, but sample code was given during a previous tutorial).
Overall I would say that the course is an "easy" one. It starts off very simply as a revision of ODEs and slowly builds in complexity and challenge. Now whilst some of the later content is a bit of a brain teaser to figure out, especially with how unrigorously it was taught, there is very little surprises within it, especially compared to the cancer that is ACTL3141 and ACTL3151, so if you hit your head against the textbook enough times, enough will leak in to your brain and you will surely do well.

3 hours of Lectures, 1 hour of tutorial

2.5/5

No

John Murray

Skeleton notes available on moodle.

4/5

Lecture material seems to be directly plagiarised from the textbook: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.cttq9530?fbclid=IwAR0bgtLkLtsQnABuQywzWSaagy0P9hiiJRN3cQQEN7fUnFzdKLEk5NMpTrw

2018 S2

86