Instructors:
Martin Callaghan, Mario Antonioletti, Alexey Tarutin
Helpers:
Clair Barrass
General Information
Data Carpentry develops and teaches workshops on the fundamental data skills needed to conduct research. Our mission is to provide researchers with high-quality, domain-specific training covering the full lifecycle of data-driven research. Data Carpentry's focus is on the introductory computational skills needed for data management and analysis in all domains of research. This event is an example-driven two-day workshop on basic data science computing skills. Short tutorials alternate with hands-on practical exercises, and participants are encouraged both to help one another, and to try applying what they have learned to their own research problems during and between sessions. Participants should bring their own laptops to work on and have permissions to install programs on them. The initial target audience of this workshop is learners who have little to no prior computational experience. It will be a friendly environment for learning to empower researchers and enable data driven discovery.
The Research Data Service is a suite of tools and support for University staff and students to aid them in data management planning, working with data, sharing and preserving their data, and re-skilling. It is delivered by a virtual team spanning across a number of sections of Information Services including EDINA and Data Library, Library & University Collections, IT Infrastructure, User Services, and the Digital Curation Centre.
Who:
The course is open to all graduate students and other researchers of the University of Edinburgh. Places not filled by Edinburgh's researchers may be offered to researchers from other universities.
You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will
be presented at the workshop.
Where:
Main Library at 30 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LJ.
Get directions with
OpenStreetMap
or
Google Maps.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a
Mac, Linux, or Windows operating sytem (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
Software Carpentry's
Code of Conduct.
Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop
accessible to everybody.
The workshop organisers have checked that:
The room is wheelchair / scooter accessible.
Accessible restrooms are available.
Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and
large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the
organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for
you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please
get in touch and we will
attempt to provide them.
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.
This workshop will be using the software outlined in the install instructions below.
Please see the section for your operating system for those directions.
Please go through all the installation steps below and make sure that
you not only installed them, but start them up to make sure they're working.
If you have any problems, don't hesitate to email the instructors to
ask for help, or arrive early on the first day of the workshop to
get help.
A spreadsheet program 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.
Download the Installer Install LibreOffice by going to the installation page. The version for Windows
should automatically be selected. Click on the button below "Main Installer" Download Version x.y.z. You
will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don't need to make one.
Your download should begin automatically.
Install LibreOffice Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and it should install.
To use LibreOffice, double click on the icon and it will open.
OpenRefine 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.
To use it, unzip, and double-click on openrefine.exe (if you're having issues
with openrefine.exe try refine.bat instead)
OpenRefine will then open in your web browser.
If it doesn't open automatically, open a web broswer after you've started the program and go to the URL http://localhost:3333 and you should see OpenRefine.
R In the workshop, we will use RStudio. RStudio is a nice interface to the
programming language R. To use RStudio, you need to install both R and RStudio.
Click "Install Now" on the dialog that appears after the download completes.
Restart Firefox when prompted.
Select "SQLite Manager" from the "Tools" menu and it will open within Firefox
Mac
Please go through all the installation steps below and make sure that
you not only installed them, but start them up to make sure they're working.
If you have any problems, don't hesitate to email the instructors to
ask for help, or arrive early on the first day of the workshop to
get help.
A spreadsheet program 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.
Download the Installer Install LibreOffice by going to the installation page. The version for Mac
should automatically be selected. Click on the button below "Main Installer" Download Version x.y.z. You
will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don't need to make one.
Your download should begin automatically.
Install LibreOffice Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and it should install.
To use LibreOffice, double click on the icon and it will open.
OpenRefine 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 Google Refine 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.
Double click on the icon and Google Refine will then open in your web browser.
If it doesn't open automatically, open a web broswer after you've started the program and go to the URL http://localhost:3333 and you should see OpenRefine.
R In the workshop, we will use RStudio. RStudio is a nice interface to the
programming language R. To use RStudio, you need to install both R and RStudio.
Click "Install Now" on the dialog that appears after the download completes.
Restart Firefox when prompted.
Select "SQLite Manager" from the "Tools" menu and it will open within Firefox
Linux
Please go through all the installation steps below and make sure that
you not only installed them, but start them up to make sure they're working.
If you have any problems, don't hesitate to email the instructors to
ask for help, or arrive early on the first day of the workshop to
get help.
A spreadsheet program For this workshop you will need a spreadsheet program. LibreOffice comes
preinstalled with several Linux distributions. If you don't already have it, use
your package manager to install it: (e.g., sudo apt-get install
libreoffice for Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions).
OpenRefine 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 Google Refine 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.
Type ./refine in your terminal and Google Refine will then
open in your web browser.
If it doesn't open automatically, open a web broswer after you've started
the program and go to the URL http://localhost:3333 and you should
see OpenRefine.
R In the workshop, we will use RStudio. RStudio is a nice interface to the
programming language R. To use RStudio, you need to install both R and RStudio.
Follow the instructions for your distribution
from CRAN. For most distributions, 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) but make sure that you have at least R 3.2.2 (as pre-packaged
versions might be out of date).