Our next Badge in Applied Politics event will feature Lauren Gilmore, Master of Public Administration candidate and Community Cultivator at On Point. In this session, Ms. Gilmore will introduce students to R and RStudio, both of which are free, open-source data analysis and visualization applications that have become some of the most used tools by researchers and data scientists in recent years.
The event will take place on Friday, March 31, from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, and breakfast will be provided. Only a limited number of spaces will be available, so please register at the following link by Wednesday, March 29: https://forms.gle/Eh9RcrXQLpjo4Dvh8. The Badge in Applied Politics series is made possible thanks to a generous donation from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local #175.
About This Event
Title: Introduction to R and RStudio – Statistical Programming and Data Visualization
Speaker: Lauren Gilmore (MPA candidate | Community Cultivator at On Point: Direction for Life)
Details: Friday, March 31 — 9:00-12:00, 540 McCallie Building (Room 462D)
R/RStudio is an open-source statistical computing and graphics program and can be an alternative to programs like SPSS, SAS, and Python. R’s large user base and large number of statistical packages to choose from make it a competitive choice for data manipulation, evaluation, and visualization.
This workshop is a beginner-level introduction to R and RStudio. We will discuss what R is, its capabilities and limitations, its interface and how to use it, and some basic functions. If you’ve never opened R before, or you have a basic understanding, this workshop can help you understand some of R’s uses and some best practices.
Participant takeaways will include:
- A basic understanding of R and RStudio;
- Capabilities, limitations, and uses of R;
- Ability to navigate the RStudio interface;
- How to create R Projects using RMarkdown or Quatro;
- How to load data into RStudio;
- How to wrangle/clean data in RStudio;
- How to create basic plots/visualizations in RStudio
Instructor Bio: During Lauren’s undergraduate degree in English at UTC, she took a few classes on writing for nonprofits, and worked alongside a couple nonprofits on innovative projects with the UTC Honors College. She found her love for the heart behind nonprofit organizations and decided to pursue an MPA degree at UTC immediately following her bachelor’s degree. Lauren enjoyed her program planning and program evaluation classes in the first year of her MPA degree and decided to pursue electives in other data evaluation. She is currently in her final semester and is set to graduate May 2023. She plans to go full-time with an education nonprofit organization in Chattanooga called On Point in a development and program evaluation role after graduation.
About the Badge in Applied Politics
This series of short courses (taught by local practitioners and alumni) on specific skills and experiences that will both aid students in the workplace and enable them to explore potential career paths. Over time we will offer short workshops on such topics as: data management; voter targeting; policy advocacy/lobbying; SPSS advanced training; using the R statistical program; campaign management; organizing communities; utilizing geographic information systems (GIS); and grant writing. Students who complete seven of these workshops or approved university opportunities will receive a badge in Applied Politics from the Department of Political Science and Public Policy that can be noted on their resume. This program is funded by the generosity of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local #175.
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Christopher Acuff, PhD | Assistant Professor of Public Administration