IMPRS course 'Data visualisation with R'

Transferable skill course

  • Start: Feb 22, 2023
  • End: Feb 23, 2023
  • Speaker: Milan Flach and Guido Schulz
  • Location: Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
  • Room: TBA

1.  General information

Date: February 22-23, 2023
Time: 9.00 AM - 4 PM
Place: MPI for Biogeochemistry
Lecturer: Guido Schulz
Category: Transferable skills
Credit points: 0.4

2.  Course description

In this two day course, participants will learn how tocreate their own data visualizations using the statistical software R whilefollowing common best practices of data visualization. The course starts offwith some theory on what makes a good data visualization and what pitfallsshould be avoided. Then, we will dive into the grammar of graphics and itscorresponding R package “ggplot2”. We’ll spend quite some time working onexercises using “ggplot2” and extend our plots with new features step by step -slowly approaching real life applications. We’ll also cover approaches forinteractive visualizations and learn how to make basic static as well asinteractive maps in R.

3.  LearningGoals

At the end of thecourse participants will be able to

  • takewell informed decisions on how to visualize their data,
  • createbasic, reproducible, insightful visualizations using R and
  • efficientlysearch online for solutions to their specific visualization problems.

4. Syllabus

  • Visualization theory - the what and the why
  • Common pitfalls and best practices in datavisualization
  • Visual vocabulary - how to pick the right viz
  • The grammar of graphics in R: ggplot2 (theory,practice, exercise)
  • Extending ggplot2 (theming, labeling, highlighting,exercise)
  • InteractiveVisualizations (plotly, exercise)
  • Maps in R (Short Intro to sf, static maps, interactivemaps, exercise)

Depending on howmuch time there is left, additional topics could potentially be introduced:

  • Specificsof visualizing time series, uncertainty or significance
  • Interactivevisualizations with shiny
  • Visualizations in dynamic reports
  • Animations with gganimate

5. Prerequisites

  • Basicknowledge of R and RStudio IDE
  • Participantsbring their own laptop with a working, recent installation of R and RStudioIDE. Exercises will be
  • Installationof various visualization related R packages (about a week before the course anR script that installs the necessary R packages will be sent to participants)

If you have anyquestions in advance, don’t hesitate to contact the tutor of the course GuidoSchulz (guido.schulz@inwt-statistics.de).

6.  Registration

The registration will start on February 8. IMPRS members will be notified via email.

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