Prompting for biologists: using AI chatbots for effective data analysis (IN-PERSON)

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As the use of AI chatbots continues to rise, it is crucial to understand what they are, how they work, and how to make the most of them. Prompting is the method of interacting with AI, and as AI chatbots become more openly and widely available, a good and effective prompt could make all the difference.

In this course, we will provide background on the history of AI chatbots as well as an understanding of how they work. We will provide hands-on use cases of how to prompt like a bioinformatician/software engineer as well as providing strategies and tactics of prompting to unleash the full potential of AI chatbots in biological data analysis. This course is aimed at researchers with no computational background.

If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

• ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
• Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
• Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
• Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
• Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.

• Everyone is welcome to attend the courses, please review the relevant policies.
• This course is targeted at life scientists who would like to explore how AI chatbots can be used to support their data analysis, programming and bioinformatics tasks.

No programming is used during the course, however some examples may use AI-generated code to discuss in the class. Therefore a basic familiarity with at least one programming language (R, Python, Bash) would be helpful.

Number of sessions: 1

AI Chatbots, prompting, tactics

During this course you will learn about:

• A brief introduction to Large Language Models (LLMs):
  • How do they work?
  • Why do they rely on "language"?
  • What are neural networks and transformers?
  • A comparison of older chatbot applications versus current large language models.
  • Differences between major models available nowadays.
  • Why a prompt matters.
• Prompting methods and tactics: what makes a prompt good or bad?
• Why is biology different? Discuss the limitations and considerations of using language models in biology research.
• Explore how generative AI can unlock new areas of research for biologists without computational background

Presentations and practicals

Participants can make use of the computers in the training room.

• Free for registered University of Cambridge students
• £ 60/day for all University of Cambridge staff, including postdocs, temporary visitors (students and researchers) and participants from Affiliated Institutions. Please note that these charges are recovered by us at the Institutional level
• It remains the participant's responsibility to acquire prior approval from the relevant group leader, line manager or budget holder to attend the course. It is requested that people booking only do so with the agreement of the relevant party as costs will be charged back to your Lab Head or Group Supervisor.
• £ 60/day for all other academic participants from external Institutions and charitable organizations. These charges must be paid at registration
• £ 120/day for all Industry participants. These charges must be paid at registration
• Further details regarding the charging policy are available here

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• Introduction to R (ONLINE LIVE TRAINING)