During the last decades, both technological and computational advances have led to an explosive growth of data availability in almost all, if not all, scientific fields. Therefore, from an academic research point of view, scientists have found themselves with the need to process and analyse this vast amount of data. The computational and coding skills to effectively do this task, however, are not always part of or required by every scientific discipline.

To this end, we have designed this 1-day training computational workshop with the aim to provide the basic computational skills researchers from different fields need to analyse their data in bash and R. Specifically, this hands-on event workshop will cover the following content:

• Introduction to Bash and the world of the terminal

Instructions prior to the workshop will be given to all participants so they can have a terminal installed on their laptops (this mainly applies to Windows users). A review of the basic UNIX/Linux commands (e.g., using the terminal to go through different directories, handling files, etc.) will be given with a guided practical lecture.

• Introduction to R

Participants will learn how to code in R using the environmentally-friendly graphical interface in RStudio. During this practical session, participants will go through several exercises to get more familiar with the different types of R objects that can be created. They will also learn how to write an R script following good programming practice and will be able to develop their own R package by the end of the session! If time allows, some examples for statistical analyses will be provided.

For the two previous workshops, we were oversubscribed. Please note that we select our participants on a first come first served basis, so stay tuned to the updates we share under the #SciCompSRUK tag in our social networks and enroll as soon registration is open!

AM I SUITABLE FOR THIS WORKSHOP?

You will benefit from this workshop if…

• You want to parse, filter, and/or analyse your data using Bash and/or R.

• You seek some advice on how to better proceed your analyses using Bash and/or R.

• You have never programmed in Bash or R or your experience is very limited and you would like to further expand it at an introductory level.

NOTE: If you have an intermediate/advanced programming level, you might find this course is too basic for you and you will not learn anything new. Attendance to this course is limited, so we would like that people without programming experience can have the chance to get themselves started in coding and make the most out of this workshop.

INSTRUCTORS

Sandra Álvarez and Diego Alonso Álvarez

TEACHING ASSISTANTS

TBC

REQUIREMENTS TO ATTEND THE WORKSHOP

Your own laptop: we will learn how to code in bash and R, thus we will need you to have the required software installed on your laptop before the workshop. After the registration, participants will be invited to join a Google group where we will provide instructions to properly set up their laptops with the tools needed for the workshop. If needed, remote assistance will be provided before the workshop to make sure every participant has properly installed every tool that will be used during the practical sessions.