2026 RFA Summer Bootcamps in Biomedical Data Science & Health AI

The Rutgers Health (RH) Center for Biomedical Informatics & Health Artificial Intelligence (BMIHAI) is established to serve as the catalyst for a transformative effort that establishes Rutgers as a national and international leader in computational medicine and health AI. The overarching goal of this initiative is to bring together substantial existing, but currently siloed, strengths in the broad area of biomedical informatics, including bioinformatics, clinical informatics, clinical research informatics, public health informatics, translational bioinformatics, etc., and substantially expand them, especially in the area of health AI, making them collectively much more than the sum of their parts.

The Summer Bootcamp program in Data Science and Health AI is one of the many Rutgers Health Roadmap Initiatives and is designed to augment Biomedical Data Science and Health AI training for Rutgers Health Postdoctoral trainees, Medical Students and Graduate Students and introduce them to the value of using AI in Healthcare and Biomedical applications.  We are offering two Bootcamps summer 2026: (1) Bootcamp I “Hands-on AI-assisted Scoping Review” June 1-5 (virtual); and .(2) Bootcamp II “Machine Learning for RNA-seq” June 15-19 (in person)  Bootcamp I is a one-week virtual program that will cover the full workflow of conducting a quick but comprehensive scoping review, from refining a research question to drafting a manuscript. Bootcamp II is a one-week in-person program that will cover machine learning for RNA-seq: from bioinformatics to predictive models. Up to 15 participants will be selected from the pool of applicants to participate in Bootcamp I, and up to 35 participants will be selected to participate in Bootcamp II.

An information webinar will be hosted to explain program requirements and topics covered.

The information webinar will be held on April 10th from 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Register here: https://rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/register/bEBaD04BQaC1y7ccZxZmsQ (hosted by Antonina Mitrofanova, Evan Johnson, Dmitry Scherbakov)

Week 1

• Rutgers Health Postdoctoral trainees and Graduate (e.g., PhD, Medical, Dental etc.) students are eligible.
• Students must indicate their current academic status and affiliation on their application.
• Participants must be familiar with basic R/Python commands
• Participants will be trained remotly and will use their own laptop

Week 2

• Rutgers Health Postdoctoral trainees and Graduate (e.g., PhD, Medical, Dental etc.) students are eligible.
• Students must indicate their current academic status and affiliation on their application.
• Participants must be familiar with R and have completed freshman-level statistics
• Participants must bring their own laptop (and charger)
• Rutgers Amarel account will be established for selected participants

By April 17, 2026, interested students must apply here: https://shprutgers.jotform.com/252814084132855 for Bootcamp I and here: https://shprutgers.jotform.com/260714172540147 for Bootcamp II.

There is a small fee ($25/week) to secure a spot for each Bootcamp.

To be considered complete, a Bootcamp application must include the following:

• Applicants will be screened for eligibility and selected for participation by the Review Committee. Participants for Bootcamp I will be accepted on first-come basis, additional participants will be placed on the waiting list.
• Bootcamp participation will be confirmed by May 1, 2026. Acceptance of participation by students and final registration/payment is due May 15, 2026.
• If selected as a Bootcamp participant (by May 1), the participation fee is $25 each Bootcamp ($50 for both Bootcamps). The registration fee must be paid during final registration (by May 15).

“Hands-on AI-assisted Scoping Review Practicum”

June 1-5 (virtual)

Instructor: Dmitry Shcherbakov

Short description from the instructor: “This Bootcamp uses several technological components to create a review, including Amazon AWS and Python/R scripts created with generative AI help. The program will go through how to set up these components for each use case. It is desirable that students have installed R or Python on their laptops and know how to run basic commands in these languages. However, since it will be teamwork, they can learn how to run commands from others during group activities. Students are encouraged, but not required, to think about which topic they would like to create a review about. If a topic idea comes up, we encourage students to check online if a similar review was published, and what keywords were used or could be used to look for matching manuscripts.”

Review RFA for schedule details.

“Machine Learning for RNA-seq: From Bioinformatics to Predictive Models”

 June 15-19 (in person)

Instructor: Evan Johnson

• Morning lectures will focus on the theoretical foundations of state-of-the-art Health-related Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI techniques
• AM lectures will be open to in-person Bootcamp participants and to the entire community via zoom for virtual auditing. For virtual attendance, register here:

https://rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/register/SCKbEGu4TA6ptBtBkgteaA

• PM sessions will focus on hands-on project-oriented training in Health-related Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI (open to registered in-person Bootcamp participants only)

Review RFA for schedule details.