Introductory R Workshop - March 30 and 31, 2011

We are pleased to announce the workshop "An Introduction to the Statistical Software Package R" on March 30 and 31, 2011. On both days, the workshop will take place between 8:30am and 4:30pm at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver, B.C. (This workshop is not affiliated with BCIT.)

What is R?

R is a free, powerful, open source software package with extensive statistical computing and graphics capabilities, which can be used to explore and analyze data. R shares many of its strong points with its commercial competitor S-PLUS. In addition to providing a comprehensive suite of conventional statistical tools, R has many freely available add-in packages which can be used to carry out more specialized statistical tasks. More information on R can be found on the website www.r-project.org.

Workshop Description

Day 1 on March 30th will introduce you to the R environment and programming language. You will learn the fundamental R commands necessary for data storage, manipulation and summarization. You will get a jumpstart in R programming and develop a solid foundation for using R to manage your data and produce descriptive statistics.

Day 2 on March 31st will show you how to use R to visualize and analyze data. You will learn appropriate R commands for constructing, customizing and saving simple and complex statistical graphs. You will perform a variety of basic statistical analyses (e.g., t-tests, chi-square tests, simple linear regression analysis, one-way analysis of variance) and become familiar with the interpretation of the corresponding R output. You will build a strong foundation for using R to solve your statistical analyses problems.

You can choose to attend both days or either day.

Benefits to Participants

After Day 1, you will be able to:

• Install and run R in a Windows-based environment;
• Manage and customize the R working environment;
• Access R help and documentation;
• Install new R functionality through add-on packages;
• Communicate with R via the command-line and via scripts;
• Store and manipulate data in R;
• Transfer data from other software applications to R and vice versa;
• Store data in R using a variety of data structures;
• Prepare data stored in R for use in statistical analyses;
• Produce numerical summaries of data using R;
• Write customized R functions to automate repetitive data-processing tasks;
• Use helpful tips for efficient programming in R.

After Day 2, you will be able to:

• Construct basic statistical graphs;
• Create advanced statistical graphs using the lattice package;
• Customize and save graphical output produced by R;
• Perform a variety of basic statistical procedures, including t-tests, chi-square tests, simple linear regression analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and interpret the resulting R output;
• Assess the adequacy of these statistical procedure through appropriate diagnostics and adopt remedial actions where warranted.

Workshop Outline

Day 1

Morning

• Overview of R.
• Data Import/Export.
• Data Types.

Afternoon

• Data Management.
• Data Summarization.
• Programming Essentials.

Day 2

Morning

• Basic Graphs.
• Advanced Graphs.
• Graph Customization and Saving.

Afternoon

• T-Tests.
• Simple Linear Regression.
• One-Way ANOVA

Workshop Format

This workshop is limited to 20 participants and consists of a series of short lectures and demonstrations followed by hands-on, interactive sessions for the participants. Each participant is provided with:

• A bound copy of the Workshop Notes;
• A CD-ROM containing all examples and exercises used during the workshop;
• A variety of workshop-related handouts;
• 30 days of free workshop-related technical support following the workshop.

Workshop Leader

The workshop is led by Dr. Isabella Ghement. Isabella obtained her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2005. Isabella has presented public and private workshops on the statistical software package R to graduate students, researchers and others involved in cancer research, environmental and ecological research, biostatistics and bioinformatics. She also lectures part-time on basic and advanced statistics at the Sauder School of Business, UBC and is actively engaged in statistical consulting. Isabella has co-authored the publications "Seasonal Confounding and Residual Correlation in Analyses of Health Effects of Air Pollution" (Environmetrics, Vol. 18, Issue 4, June 2007, 375-394) and "Robust estimation of error scale in nonparametric regression models" (Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, Vol. 138, Issue 10, October 2008, 3200-3216) and "Incorporating multiple interventions in meta-analysis: an evaluation of the mixed treatment comparison with the adjusted indirect comparison" (Trials, 2009 Sep. 21, 10:86).

Prerequisites

Day 1
Participants should have some basic knowledge of descriptive statistics and familiarity with the Windows operating system.

Day 2
Participants should have some basic knowledge of R, familiarity with the Windows operating system and an understanding of basic statistical procedures (e.g., t-tests, chi-square tests, simple linear regression, one-way ANOVA).

Participants should bring a laptop computer pre-installed with the free R software. Detailed instructions for downloading and installing R are available on our website at www.ghement.ca/Rinstructions.html.

Location

Downtown Vancouver at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) Building, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver, B.C.
(Workshop not affiliated with BCIT)

Dates and Times

Dates: March 30 and 31, 2011.

Registration: On both days, workshop registration begins at 8:30 a.m.

Times: The workshop starts at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. on each day.

Cost

The attendance fee for each day of the workshop is $195.00 plus HST per participant and includes a bound copy of the Workshop Notes, a CD-ROM containing all workshop examples and exercises, a variety of workshop-related handouts, and 30 days of free workshop-related technical support following the workshop. The attendance fee also includes morning and afternoon coffee, tea and snacks.

If you would like us to provide a computer for you to use during the workshop please add $100.00 plus HST per participant per day.

Discounts

• Participants who are not part of a group and attend both days receive a 10% discount.
• Groups of 3, 4 or 5 from the same organization receive a 10% discount.
• Groups of 6 or more from the same organization receive a 15% discount.
• Groups attending both days receive an additional 5% discount.

Cancellation Policy

• 100% refund if written notification of cancellation is received by March 21, 2011. Please note that no refunds will be issued after this date.
• In the event you become unable to attend after the March 21, 2011 refund deadline, you may delegate a substitute attendee. Please notify us of any changes as soon as possible via e-mail at info@ghement.ca or telephone at 604-767-1250 or fax at 604-270-3922.

Registration

• Places are limited to 20 participants per day so we encourage you to register early. The registration deadline is March 21, 2011.
• To reserve your place, please follow the instructions below:
  
  1) Pre-register by e-mailing us at info@ghement.ca, or telephone us at 604-767-1250, or fax us at 604-270-3922.
  
  2) Complete the Registration Form.
  
  3) E-mail or fax the completed Registration Form to us, and mail your cheque payable to Ghement Statistical Consulting Company; or request us to invoice your organization where indicated on the Registration Form.
  
  
• Your reservation will be confirmed via e-mail by March 23, 2011. Please do not make any travel arrangements until your reservation has been confirmed by us in writing.
• A registration receipt will be issued to you after the workshop.

Registration Form

Please click here to download the registration form. For additional attendees, please duplicate the registration form.