Andrés Aravena

Improving peoples' lives through Teaching, Scientific Research, and Engineering. Applied Math, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics


Teaching

Methodology of Scientific Research

History of Molecular Evolution

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Recent posts

MSR | Mar 12, 2024 (Deadline: Tue Mar 28, 16:00)

Homework 2

Error propagation

Course Homepage | Jan 25, 2024

Methodology of Scientific Research

This course teaches the Scientific Method, its history and its applications. We discuss how to observe, measure and model reality to understand it.

Jan 22, 2024

Our paper in the news around the world

After a long process, the work done with Dr. Emrah Kırdök, Dr. Anders Götherström and many other researchers has been published in a top-notch journal, and it has got a lot of press around the world.

Course Homepage | Sep 26, 2023

Systems Biology

Systems Biology is a systemic approach to understand the biological phenomena that occurs inside a cell at the molecular level. This course is an introduction to the theoretical tools that are used to understand the emerging behavior of complex biological networks.

Bioinfo | Dec 13, 2022

DNA melting temperature

Energy, entropy and thermodynamics

Dec 12, 2021

Handling thesis drafts

If you are doing your thesis under my supervision, then you need to read this article. It describes how we interact using online tools.

Dec 8, 2021

Rules for writing

Scientists are writers. Papers, reports, projects, and so on. It is important to write clearly to be understood. If you write in manuscript, you need to use a good calligraphy. There are also rules for typing a text in the computer. Here are these basic rules.

Math | Mar 14, 2021

Calculating π as Archimedes did

Every 14 of March, mathematical inclined people around the world publishes articles about π, circles and diameters. Here we use the tools developed in previous posts to calculate some digits of π.

Math | Mar 13, 2021

The secret number, the golden number, and the Babylonian method to find them

Now that we know how to calculate numbers with a lot of decimals, let's look for the number that Pythagoras does not want you to know, and for the number made of gold.

Math | Mar 12, 2021

Ten thousand digits of 𝑒

Your computer is better than your dad's computer. It can easily do things that old computers had hard time doing. We just need to think it well and explain the steps one by one.

May 22, 2020

I'm on Chilean TV!

Among the several shows in Chilean TV, there is one about Chilean expats. It is called “Siempre hay un Chileno” (that is “There is always a Chilean”). The name comes from the idea that, wherever in the world you go, there will alway be a Chilean migrant.

Apr 13, 2020

An easy way to transform your R script into a nice report

Let’s say we have written an R script and we want to include some comments about it. For example, we want to discuss the meaning of the results. It is easy to make a report from your R script, with the simple changes we discuss here.

Mar 31, 2020

How to solve hard problems

People are asking “How can I solve the homework? It is too hard”. Here are some steps that may help you.

Mar 20, 2020

Hard problems

Some students argue that the exercise “find the largest value” is too hard. This raises the question “What do we mean by hard problem”? The answer teach us important things about life, the universe, and everything.

Nov 24, 2019

Should I learn Turkish? What is best for the University?

Some people ask me why I do not learn Turkish. It is a good question. For sure, it will be good for me. I would be able to speak about football with the butcher, discuss politics with my father-in-law, and read my collection of Matematik Dünyası magazine. But, what is best for our University?

Nov 3, 2019

My academic ancestors

A database of all mathematicians and their advisors shows my academic ancestors since Persia in 1200. Some famous names among my ancestors.

CMB2 | Apr 4, 2019

The Biologist Toolbox: Simulating Systems on the computer

Once we have a description of a system, and a nice drawing to represent it, we can answer some interesting questions. The first question is usually “what will happen?” In other words, we usually want to know what is the behavior of the system.

CMB2 | Mar 26, 2019

The Biologist Toolbox: Drawing Systems

Can we represent a complex system in a simple and easy-to-understand way that is still realistic enough to be useful? The graphical representation that we discuss here, based on Petri nets, can be used to summarize a dynamical system and can easily be translated into a simulation.

Aug 23, 2018

Keep your mind sharp on August

Why do rich kids learn more than poor kids? According to some research, the “achievement gap” between kids of high-income and low-income families is not that rich kids learn more, but that they forget less in the summer holiday. Following this idea, I propose a couple of challenges to keep your mind active during the holidays, and maybe win a nice book.

Chile | May 5, 2018

My Professor got an International Prize

One of my professors got an international award. He had already won the most prestigious national recognitions in Science. Now he became global. This gives me the opportunity to start a series of posts about my world-class professors and their international achievements.

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Last updated: March 28 at 8:42.