September 03 - 05, 2018
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Instructors: Muhdin Ali, Mesfin Diro
Helpers: TBA
Data 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: Wollo University. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.
When: September 03 - 05, 2018. Add to your Google Calendar.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop 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). They are also required to abide by Data Carpentry's Code of Conduct.
Contact: Please email mesfin.diro@aau.edu.et for more information.
Surveys
Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.
09:00 | Data Organization in Spreadsheets |
10:30 | Coffee |
11:00 | Spreadsheets(Continued) |
12:00 | Lunch break |
13:00 | Data Cleaning in OpenRefine |
14:30 | Coffee |
15:00 | OpenRefine(Continued) |
16:00 | Wrap-up |
09:00 | Introduction to R |
10:30 | Coffee |
11:00 | R(continued): Starting with data |
12:00 | Lunch break |
13:00 | R(continued):Aggregating and analyzing data |
14:30 | Coffee |
15:00 | R(continued): Aggregating and analyzing data |
16:00 | Wrap-up |
09:00 | R(continued): Data Visualization |
10:30 | Coffee |
11:00 | R(continued): Data Visualization |
12:00 | Wrap-up |
We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
Requirements: Data Carpentry's teaching is hands-on, so participants are encouraged to bring in and use their own laptops to insure the proper setup of tools for an efficient workflow once you leave the workshop. (We will provide instructions on setting up the required software several days in advance) There are no pre-requisites, and we will assume no prior knowledge about the tools.
To participate in a Data Carpentry workshop, you will need working copies of the software described below. Please make sure to install everything and try opening it to make sure it works before the start of your workshop. If you run into any problems, please feel free to email the instructor or arrive early to your workshop on the first day. Participants should bring and use their own laptops to insure the proper setup of tools for an efficient workflow once you leave the workshop.
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.
For this workshop you will need a spreadsheet program. Many people already have Microsoft Excel installed, and if you do, you're set! If you need a spreadsheet program, there are a few other options, like OpenOffice and LibreOffice. Install instructions for LibreOffice, which is free and open source, are here.
OpenRefine (previously Google Refine) is a tool for data cleaning that runs through a web browser, and any browser - Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Explorer - should work fine. You will need to download OpenRefine and install it, and when you open it, it will run through the browser, but you don't need an internet connection, and the data will all be stored on your computer.
R is a programming language that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and statistical analysis. To interact with R, we use RStudio.
Install R by downloading and running this .exe file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE. Note that if you have separate user and admin accounts, you should run the installers as administrator (right-click on .exe file and select "Run as administrator" instead of double-clicking). Otherwise problems may occur later, for example when installing R packages.
Install R by downloading and running this .pkg file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.
You can download the binary files for your distribution
from CRAN. Or
you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu
run sudo apt-get install r-base
and for Fedora run
sudo yum install R
). Also, please install the
RStudio IDE.