ACES: Introduction to Data Science in R

Overview

Instructor: Wesley Brashear

Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2025 — 10:00AM-4:00PM CT (with a one hour lunch break)

Location: Online using Zoom

Prerequisites: Current ACCESS ID, basic Linux/Unix skills

This course is an introduction to the R programming language and covers the fundamental concepts needed to operate in the R environment. Students are not required to have any prior experience with R.

Tutorial material may be followed independently by following instructions in the course materials linked below.

Course Materials

  • Introduction to Data Science in R (Fall 2024): PDF

  • Introduction to Data Science in R (Spring 2024): PDF
  • Fundamentals of R Programming (Fall 2023): PDF

Learning Objectives and Agenda

In this course, participants will:

  • Learn about R data structures frequently used in the data sciences
  • Learn how to manipulate data frames and tibbles using the R tidy package
  • Learn how import data from Excel and csv style spreadsheets
  • Learn how to conduct Principal Component Analysis in R
  • Learn how to conduct regression analyses in R
  • Learn how to plot data using the ggplot2 package

This course focuses, among others, on the following topics:

  • Data types
  • Built-in functions
  • Data structures
  • Plotting

Note: During the class sessions many aspects of the material will be illustrated live via a login to ACES. You will need an ACCESS ID and be able to login to ACES in order to participate in the exercises in R.