Remember the anxiety after your Class 10th boards? Estimating or seeking guidance from others about which sub-branch to take in science, is it Biology or Computer Science? While many estimated it quickly and proceeded with it, few remained very much confused and unsure. The confusion isn’t because of the subjects, but it is because they have likings for both which is Biology and Computer Science. I was also one of those confused guys but finally ended up taking Biology as my core subject in my Class 11th.
However, with time, the requirements have changed, and so are the subject definitions. Computer Science and Biology, which are always considered as the two different aspects of science without any common junction, now in recent years with the advancement of technology and more particularly AI, are finally able to integrate themselves into one particular domain. So basically what is this integration all about?
See Biology is an extensively broad domain with extensive on-hand information about various kinds of organisms. And all of this information needs to be curated, analyzed and stored sequentially. For that we use our extensive practical knowledge of computer science to curate, analyze and store it through various algorithms and others. Like for example, there is a DNA stretch of an organism X that needs to be analyzed. The Conventional method of biological sciences will take a huge time for curating and then analyzing the information. But here we use the practical knowledge of file handling, data analytics, and others to do it in the shortest possible time. This whole thing came very handy during this pandemic when researchers around the globe used this practical sense of this domain for understanding the homology of the genetic material of the novel coronavirus.
So how to get into it? For students applying for UG courses, they can either go for B.Tech in Biotechnology or B.Tech in Biomedical Engineering. But since most of you who are reading this right now are in their UG courses themselves, so for them they can do the following;
Irrespective of being a Biology or Computer Science domain student, one can go for M.Tech in Bioinformatics or M.Sc in Bioinformatics. And the best thing is that our own Lovely Professional University is offering this course in Ph.D. Apart from that various IITs, IIITs, NITs, and other universities are offering these courses too. When it comes to job opportunities many multinational IT service-based companies like TCS, Wipro, and software companies like BioBam, CLC Bio, and others are working on this particular domain. Many experts believe that this will be the most preferred course once the pandemic ends.
So if you are into Biology and as well as Computer Science then this is the course that will open the Pandora box of opportunities for you.
