Introduction to R workshop

Note: Some HBC workshops are taught in person and others are online via Zoom. Please take note for scheduling purposes!

ONLINE Workshop dates and times:

Tuesday, July 15, 2025: 10 AM - 12 PM

Friday, July 18, 2025: 10 AM - 12 PM

Tuesday, July 22, 2025: 10 AM - 12 PM

Friday, July 25, 2025: 10 AM - 12 PM

Instruction will be mostly learner-centric, requiring a time commitment between the workshop sessions!

Description:

This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to using R and RStudio. R is a simple programming environment that enables the effective handling of data, while providing excellent graphical support. RStudio is a tool that provides a user-friendly environment for working with R.

This workshop is intended to provide basic R programming knowledge. Participants should be interested in:

learning the basics of R for reproducible data wrangling and visualizations (ggplot2)
performing data analyses requiring a basic knowledge of R
learning R to take an advanced workshop with us on the analysis of sequencing data in the next 6-8 months

Workshop segments will address the following:

R syntax: Understanding the different ‘parts of speech’ in R; introducing variables and functions, demonstrating how functions work, and modifying arguments for specific use cases.
Data structures in R: Getting a handle on the classes of data structures and the types of data used by R.
Data inspection and wrangling: Reading in data from files. Using indices and various functions to subset and create datasets, including the tidyverse suite of packages.
Visualizing data: Visualizing data using plotting functions from the external package ggplot2.
Exporting data and graphics: Generating new data tables and plots for use outside of the R environment.

In addition to the above, we will focus on good data management practices, installing and working with data wrangling and visualization packages, and the different ways to get help when coding in R. After this workshop participants can expect to be comfortable with the basics of data wrangling and plotting using R.

Prerequisites:

This is one of our basic workshops, and has NO prerequisites and no prior programming experience is required.

This workshop (or fluency in R) is a prerequisite for advanced workshops introducing the analysis of bulk RNA-seq and scRNA-seq data.

Who should attend?

Researchers who:

want to learn how to use R and RStudio for data wrangling and visualizations
desire to perform data analysis methods where basic knowledge of R is a requirement
are interested in taking an advanced workshop with us on analysis of sequencing data within the next 6 - 8 months

Cost:

There is a non-refundable and non-transferable registration fee for this online workshop*. After registering below, you will receive an email within 1 week with a link to pay.

Priority is given to Harvard Quad and DF/HCC researchers, who are subsidized for this workshop at a price of $50. Others interested in our workshops can find our prices here and should register below.

NOTE: You will not have a reserved seat for this workshop until you pay the registration fee. Please make sure you pay within the time stated in that email, else you will lose your spot to someone on the waitlist.

*NOTE: HMS Graduate Students may receive waivers on registration fees. Please register and we’ll followup with you.

Course requirements and Registration:

Please make sure you take the following into account when signing up for the workshop:

Mandatory attendance for all four classes.
2-3 hours of reading and exercises from selected lessons before each workshop session.
Active participation during discussion sessions.

(Registration opens 2-3 weeks before the start of the workshop.)

Eligibility:

Preference is given to Harvard researchers who are:

at the Harvard Medical School in a lab on the Quad, with grants administered by HMS Gordon Hall OR
at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, with grants administered by HMS Gordon Hall OR
an HMS graduate student OR
affiliated with Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) OR

If you are unsure of your eligibility, please register anyway and we will get back to you.

NOTE: We do not record our training sessions.

Questions?

Please email us at hbctraining@hsph.harvard.edu with any questions.