E pluribus, plurima: the synergy of interdisciplinary class groups

Computer science is increasingly becoming interdisciplinary, with applications not only in scientific disciplines, but also in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Training computer scientists to work in diverse application disciplines is imperative for modern departments. We have had success using interdisciplinary groups for this purpose in a computational biology class, Algorithms for Molecular Biology. In this class, carefully-balanced interdisciplinary groups learn to take advantage of each other's abilities, and to communicate effectively with students with a much different background. From this diversity, we get much more (e pluribus, plurima) than would be possible if we tried to train all students to have a more homogeneous blend of multiple disciplinary knowledge. Within a single semester, students go from virtually no understanding of one discipline to completing research projects on a relevant problem that they have defined themselves.