Computational exercises and biological physics

Integrating computational exercises into a biological physics course and integrating biological physics examples into a computational methods course can each help build students' technical skills as well as their appreciation of contemporary science. In the former context, computation can convey concepts and methods that may not be amenable to closed-form solutions and can enable contact with real-world data. In the latter, biophysical analyses can provide concrete and real-world applications of algorithms. I describe computer programming exercises integrated into homework assignments in a mixed graduate / undergraduate biological physics course, involving such concepts as Brownian motion and population dynamics, and also exercises with biological physics connections in a mixed graduate / undergraduate course on computational image analysis, related to single-molecule imaging and super-resolution microscopy. I discuss skills that these activities help develop, student perceptions, and challenges of implementation.