Introduction to R

University of Florida Carpentries Club

Online

Jan 31–Feb 1, 2022

10:00 - 12:00 & 13:30 - 15:30 ET

Instructors: Audrey Smith, Renata Diaz, Amy Kendig, Caitlin Campbell

Helpers: Amanda Markee, Leandra Merz, Sarah Steele Cabrera, Amobichukwu Amanambu, Narayani Barve, Jason Cory Brunson

General Information

Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing".

Who: The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: This training will take place online. The instructors will provide you with the information you will need to connect to this meeting.

When: Jan 31–Feb 1, 2022. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must have access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Accessibility: We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.

Contact: Please email cornelioid@gmail.com or narayani.ku@gmail.com for more information.

Roles: To learn more about the roles at the workshop (who will be doing what), refer to our Workshop FAQ.

Registration

Space is limited to 45 participants and registration is required. Please plan on attending the entire time both days. This workshop will be free, however registration requires attendance for most of the workshop.

Registration has closed for this workshop.

Original Lesson

This workshop covers the first half of the lesson [R for Reproducible Scientific Analysis](https://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-gapminder/). A follow-up workshop on February 21–22 will complete this lesson. Your fee from this workshop will count toward the follow-up workshop.

Code of Conduct

Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.

Surveys

Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey

Schedule

Day 1

Before starting	Pre-workshop survey
10:00	Introduction to R and RStudio
10:55	Project Management with RStudio
11:25	Seeking Help
11:45	Data Structures
12:00	Lunch
13:30	Data Structures (cont.)
14:10	Exploring Data Frames
14:40	Subsetting Data
15:30	End

Day 2

10:00	Control Flow
11:05	Creating Publication-Quality Graphics with ggplot2
12:00	Lunch
13:30	Creating Publication-Quality Graphics with ggplot2 (cont.)
13:55	Vectorization
14:20	Functions Explaned
15:20	Writing Data
15:30	End
After finishing	Post-workshop survey

Setup

To participate in this Software Carpentry workshop, you will need access to software as described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

Install the videoconferencing client

If you haven't used Zoom before, go to the official website to download and install the Zoom client for your computer.

Set up your workspace

Like other Carpentries workshops, you will be learning by "coding along" with the Instructors. To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc..) and the window for the Zoom video conference client open. In order to see both at once, we recommend using one of the following set up options:

Two monitors: If you have two monitors, plan to have the tool you are learning up on one monitor and the video conferencing software on the other.
Two devices: If you don't have two monitors, do you have another device (tablet, smartphone) with a medium to large sized screen? If so, try using the smaller device as your video conference connection and your larger device (laptop or desktop) to follow along with the tool you will be learning about.
Divide your screen: If you only have one device and one screen, practice having two windows (the video conference program and one of the tools you will be using at the workshop) open together. How can you best fit both on your screen? Will it work better for you to toggle between them using a keyboard shortcut? Try it out in advance to decide what will work best for you.

This blog post includes detailed information on how to set up your screen to follow along during the workshop.

Please check the “Setup” page of the lesson site for instructions to follow to obtain the software you will need to follow the lesson.