Strategic Positioning Workshop

Grand Union have two training courses coming up in February that may be of interest to you.
Both are one-day workshops, in person in Oxford; one to learn intermediate-level R statistical software for reproducibility methods, and the other is an introductory level workshop on agent-based modelling using NetLogo.

Reproducible data analysis pipelines in R

When: Tuesday 17 February, 10:00-17:00

Where: 6 Worcester St, Oxford OX1 2BX

This training session is delivered by Dr Nicolas Payette from the Oxford Research Software Engineering Group.

Years ago, you wrote a data analysis script. Hundreds of lines of R code, all in a single file. It was not beautiful, but it worked, and you got a great paper out of it. But now some new version of one of the datasets you used has come out, and there is also that new statistical technique that you have been meaning to try anyway. Assuming you still have your original code somewhere, can you still run it? Even on your new machine? Maybe. And do you need to re-run the whole thing if you only change parts of it? It did take ages to run...

In this one-day course, you will learn about packages and practices that can help you make your analyses reproducible and portable. The material is centred around the `targets` package for building computational pipelines, but we will also talk about `renv` for package management, `git` and GitHub for version control and remote execution, and Quarto for the production of final research outputs. We will also, of course, use the `tidyverse` throughout.

Some basic proficiency in R is required to make the most of this course.

Spaces are limited so we cannot guarantee a place at the point of registration. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and once places are full, we will maintain a waiting list. Book you place here.

Many scientists do not have formal training in computer science and often learn programming through trial and error, most commonly using R, a language well-suited for statistical analysis. However, data science and data analysis more broadly often require other programming languages, most notably Python. Because Python differs from R in important ways, it can be difficult to learn without a solid grasp of computing basics. This session will introduce Python with a focus on how it differs from R, both in how it works and what it can do. We will cover core topics such as object-oriented programming, data types, control structures, regular expressions, and visualisation. The course will feature live demonstrations, and you will have the opportunity to ask questions in a dedicated Q&A session. By the end of the session, you will have a clear understanding of how Python differs from R, when Python might be the better choice, how to perform some basic tasks, and where to look for further learning resources.

How to Book – please follow these instructions carefully to ensure you reserve your space:

1. Click on the link: Login
2. This will open up a page for you to register with Inkpath.
3. Select the destination as SEDarc DTP and tick the T&C’s box.
4. Enter your university-provided email address, this takes you to a registration page.
5. Please write your full first and last name in the First Name box, and enter your DTP in the Last Name box. We may not approve your Inkpath registration if we cannot identify the DTP you are currently enrolled with.
6. Click register. This will send us a request to approve your Inkpath registration.
7. Once we have approved, you will receive an email informing you that your account is ready and asking you to set your password.
8. Click the link to set your password. You will then be able to login using your account login details and selecting SEDarc DTP as your destination.
9. The first time you login to your account you will be asked to complete an “About You” section. Please select the following options in this page:

Subsidiary = Guest

Programme = Guest

Cohort = Guest

If you select anything outside of these options, your account may be rejected.

1. You will then have five short questions to complete about you before clicking Save.
2. There is a short onboarding section that informs you about Inkpath and how best to use the platform which you can read through or skip.
3. As you enter the Home page, you will see a big green box labelled FIND, if you select this you will be able to see which SEDarc courses are available for you to book.