Masterclass: Effective Data Visualisation with R

Monday 5 - Tuesday 6 August 2024

FAB5.01/02/03, Faculty of Arts Building, University of Warwick

Warwick Statistics is proud to host a two-day CRiSM Masterclass in Effective Data Visualisation with R, lead by Paul Murrell. Paul is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland and core developer of R specializing in graphics.

Registration

Registration covers both days (10am to 4:30pm) and includes free parking, catered refreshment and lunch breaks:

PGR/Academic/Research-adjacent staff, UKRI eligible organization	Free of charge
Participant, other non-profit organization	£100
Participant, business/industry	£200

Accommodation in the campus halls of residence (Arthur Vick, Jack Martin or Bluebell) can be booked during the registration process at £65 pppn, to be pre-paid online.

To register, complete the form on the registration page.

Synopsis

This course will cover the two big data visualisation questions: what should I draw and how should I draw it.

We will look at the process of converting our data into a visual representation and build up a set of guidelines that take advantage of the strengths of our visual system and avoid its weaknesses. We will also learn how to apply those guidelines to create data visualisations using the {ggplot2} package in R.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you should be able to:

Identify the strengths and weaknesses of a data visualisation.
Design your own effective data visualisation.
Create your own effective data visualisation using R.

Schedule

Monday 5 August	10:00-10.30	Registration and coffee
	10.30-12.00	Introduction to Data Visualisation and The Human Visual System
	12.00-13.00	Lunch break
	13.00-14.30	The {ggplot2} Package and Visualising Quantitative Data
	14.30-15.00	Coffee break
	15.00-16.30	Visualising Qualitative Data and Visual Accuracy

Tuesday 6 August	10.00-10.30	Coffee
	10.30-12.00	Combining Visual Dimensions and Multiple Visual Dimensions
	12.00-13.00	Lunch break
	13:00-14:30	Labels and Graphic Design
	14.30-15.00	Coffee break
	15:00-16:30	Customisation and Review

Prerequisites

Participants are expected to be familiar with using R as a data science tool, i.e., writing R scripts to use functions from base R or add-on packages.

Participants are expected to bring their own laptops, with R and the {ggplot2} package installed.

Materials

Presentation slides, which include exercises, and the data files and scripts required for the exercises are linked from the masterclass materials websiteLink opens in a new window.

Tutor

Paul Murrell (University of Auckland)

Paul attended The University of Auckland for his BSc (in Computer Science), BA (in Psychology), MSc (in Psychology), and PhD (in Statistics). He then spent a year at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Community Medicine as a medical statistician and research assistant, before joining the Department of Statistics at The University of Auckland as a Lecturer in 1999.

Paul is still a member of the Department of Statistics at The University of Auckland, but he is now an Associate Professor.

Paul is a member of the R-core development team for the R Project for Statistical Computing and Graphics, with a primary focus on the graphics system in R. He teaches a graduate course on Data Visualisation at The University of Auckland.

Assistant Tutors

Paul will be assisted by Ella Kaye, Research Software Engineer (RSE) and Heather Turner, EPSRC RSE Fellow/Associate Professor from the Statistics Department at Warwick.

Queries

Course-related (eligibility, accessibility, etc): Heather Turner ( ).

Administrative (venue, registration process, etc): Kathrin Schütrumpf ( ).