Choose programming with R or Python. These workshops will provide you with the basic computing skills and best practices needed to be productive in a small research team. The format is a mixture of short seminars and hands-on practical exercises, and participants are encouraged to help one another and to try applying what they have learned to their own research problems during and between sessions.

1  Scientific Computing with R

REGISTER NOW 

Thursday & Friday, March 4-5, 2021 | 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Course Hours, Both Days via Zoom

This 2-day intensive workshop is designed to provide foundational concepts that all programming depends on, using the R statistical computing platform as an example. There are no prerequisites and the workshop is designed for computer users from beginners to advanced. Instructors will lead a comprehensive, hands-on overview of what is possible with R, how to use R-studio and the R command line, and the integration of version control into an analytical workflow, all using an example dataset. Go from reading data into R to data types, functions, conditional statements, loops, inline documentation, as well as best practices for writing R code that others can understand and use.

The goal of this workshop is to bring you up to speed with data analysis, and it would be incomplete without command-line computing and version control. Understanding the shell for command-line computing is important in building reproducible data analysis pipelines where your R scripts may be just one component. Git for version control is an incredibly useful tool for collaboration and management of your coding projects.

The syllabus is available now, offering preparation instructions.

Instructors:  Tim Norris, PhD, Data Scientist |   Cameron Riopelle, PhD, Data Services Librarian
Helpers: Thilani Samarakoon, James Sobczak

This event is free and open to UM Faculty, Staff, and Students.

2 Scientific Computing with Python 

REGISTER NOW  (link forthcoming)

Thursday & Friday, March 25-26, 2021  |  9:00 AM-4:30PM via Zoom

This 2-day intensive virtual workshop is designed to provide a foundation of basic concepts that all programming depends on, using the general-purpose programming language, Python, as an example. There are no prerequisites and the workshop is designed for computer users from beginners to advanced; it’s a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to data analysis using Python that will cover topics including data types, functions, conditional statements, loops, errors, and exceptions, and debugging. Basic data management, version control, and command-line computing are also covered as an introduction to remote high-performance computing.

As part of this 2-day workshop, two guest speakers will join us for a Special Program in Ethics for Scientific Writing and Coding:

• Joanna Johnson, PhD, Writing Program, on “Writing and Reproducibility”
• Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD, Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, on “Ethics and Software Standards”

The syllabus is available now, offering preparation instructions.
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Course Hours, Both Days

Instructors:  Tim Norris, PhD, Research Data Scientist |   Cameron Riopelle, PhD, Data Services Librarian
Helpers: Thilani Samarakoon, James Sobczak

This event is free and open to UM Faculty, Staff, and Students.