General course info
Contact
Course coordinator: Monica Garcia Gomez m.l.garciagomez@uu.nl. In this website you will find all practical information about the course. You can reach the instructors via email at Modeling Life email
We are part of the Theoretical Biology group of Utrecht University).
Course content
This course will consist of lectures (HC) covering various modeling approaches to study life at different levels accompanied by computer practicals (WC) where students will get hands-on experience on running computational models of the development or the evolution of animals, plants, and microbial systems.
General schedule:
Monday – Guest lectures (mandatory)
Tuesdays / Thursdays– Lecture and practicals (mandatory)
Key dates:
- December 18, 2025: Exam
- Jan 6, 2026: Mini projects presentations
- Jan 29, 2026: Mini symposium
Learning Goals
The course aims to provide you with an introductory understanding of computational modeling to study living systems, and their large range of applications.
After this course the student can:
- Explain how biological systems can be studied with computational models,
- Translate a biological system into a working computational model using python,
- Use algorithmic thinking to break down problems into programmable steps,
- Identify the underlying assumptions and limitations of computational models,
- Identify the modeling approach & formalism best suited for a research question.
Communication
Feedback and other matters: modelinglife@uu.nl or m.l.garciagomez@uu.nl
Schedule, slides, practicals: https://modelinglife-uu.github.io/
Code: https://github.com/moneralee/UU_Modeling-Life-course
Brightspace: is the channel for all official communications (e.g. final grades).
Teams is not used to livestream lectures. However, if you have any questions for the instructors, student assistants, or your fellow students, it’s very helpful to share them on Teams (General channel) so everyone can benefit.
Modeling Life 2025 in Microsoft Teams. You can sign up as follows:
Open MS Teams
In the menu on the left, select the “Teams” icon
Click the “Join or create a team” button at the bottom left of the screen (or, depending on the Teams version, at the top right)
Find the tile that says “Join a team with a code”
Enter the following code in this field: 6jhv6z5
Select “Join team”
Grading
To pass this course, a minimum of 5.5 is mandatory. Your grade is calculated by the following components:
Exam: 70%
Mini project: 30%
You will find your Final grade on Brightspace.
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory to all lectures and practicals. Should you be unable to attend, please communicate this by email to: m.l.garciagomez@uu.nl.
Feedback
Please help us improve the course by providing feedback via Caracal and other means. We want to make this new course as good as possible for you and future students.
This website is to help you, but is by no means perfect. Please let us know if you see any mistakes, typo’s or other issues. Any constructive feedback on how to make things better and easier for you is always welcome.