2022-2023 DASH Workshops
Learn to analyze and visualize all kinds of data with the Data Analysis Support Hub’s 2022-2023 workshops. Register for the entire suite of 2022-2023 DASH Workshops today.
Access recordings of all virtual DASH workshops.
What is Digital Scholarship?
Hybrid Panel | September 20, 2022
Presenters: Maddie Brockbank (PhD Candidate, Social Work), Danica Evering (Research Data Management Specialist), Vivek Jadon (Data Specialist), Shaila Jamal (PhD Candidate, School of Earth, Environment, and Society), and Jess Rauchberg (PhD Candidate, Communication and Media Arts). Moderated by Jay Brodeur and Andrea Zeffiro (Co-Directors of the Sherman Centre).
Have you ever wanted to learn more about Digital Scholarship? This vast and constantly evolving field includes data analysis and visualization, Digital Humanities, and beyond. At this panel, attendees will learn about the many possibilities for those working in Digital Scholarship.
*Presented in collaboration with DMDS and RDM.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Network Visualizations with Gephi
Virtual Workshop | September 28, 2022
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)
Learn to graph data and visualize networks at this workshop on Gephi. Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian) will teach participants how graph data can help express relationships between entities and visualize networks for Humanities scholars. The group will use a visualization tool intended for social network analysis to map and identify relationships within a dataset scraped from Twitter.
*Presented in collaboration with DMDS.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Machine Learning with R: K-means Clustering
Virtual Workshop | October 3
Instructor: Shaila Jamal (DASH Support Assistant)
Clustering is an unsupervised machine learning approach for finding subgroups of observations within a data set. This workshop will introduce participants to the theoretical part of the most common clustering method, K-means clustering. Afterwards, participants will gain hands-on experience in how to conduct K-means clustering in R, as well as how to interpret and visualize their results.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Machine Learning with R: Linear Regression
Virtual Workshop | October 17
Instructor: Shaila Jamal (DASH Support Assistant)
This workshop will cover an introduction to linear regression with single and multiple predictor variables, followed by hands-on training on conducting linear regression in R, model training, testing accuracy, and how to interpret and visualize results.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Intro to Python Programming
Virtual Workshop | October 20, 2022
Instructor: Vivek Jadon (Data Specialist)
This beginner level workshop will introduce you to the basic concepts of the world’s most popular Python programming language. You’ll learn to store data in Python data types and variables, as well as learn how to perform operations on numbers and strings. Python IDE Anaconda will be briefly discussed. No prior knowledge of Python is required.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Intermediate Python Programming
Virtual Workshop | October 28, 2022
Instructor: Isaac Kinley (DASH Support Assistant)
Python is a powerful and easy-to-learn programming language used by many scientists. From web scraping to bioinformatics, Python is bound to have a module that could be useful to you. This workshop will include a brief review of variable types and control flow before moving on to functions, variable scope, object-oriented programming, and several of Python’s important science libraries.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Machine Learning with R: Logistic Regression
Virtual Workshop | October 31
Instructor: Shaila Jamal (DASH Support Assistant)
Logistic regression in R programming is a classification algorithm used to find the probably of event success and event failure. This workshop will cover an introduction to logistic regression, followed by hands-on training in how to conduct a logistic regression in R, model training, testing accuracy, and how to interpret and visualize results
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Making the Move from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro
Virtual Workshop | November 1, 2022
Instructor: Christine Homuth (Spatial Information Specialist)
Are you an ArcGIS Desktop user curious about the differences between ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro? This workshop is geared towards existing ArcMap users who are interested in making the switch to ArcGIS Pro and will cover topics such as: the timeline of support for ArcMap, licensing and access, differences and similarities between the two programs, and how to import files from ArcMap and share your content.
Access an online version of this workshop.
Visualizing Texts with Voyant Tools
Virtual Workshop | November 2, 2022
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)
Voyant Tools is a web-based text reading and analysis environment. Essentially it is a toolkit that aims to make text analysis accessible. In this workshop you will learn to use the web-based application Voyant Tools to analyze and visualize the text content of documents.
*Presented in collaboration with DMDS.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Machine Learning with R: Support Vector Machine (SVM) Classification
Virtual Workshop | November 7
Instructor: Shaila Jamal (DASH Support Assistant)
Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a supervised machine learning algorithm used for both classification and regression. This workshop will only cover the theoretical and practical parts of SVM classification as SVM is mostly used in classification problems. After the introduction, participants will receive hands-on training in the implementation of SVM classification in R, as well as training and testing datasets and setting up tuning and kernal parameters.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Intro to Machine Learning with Python
Virtual Workshop | November 28, 2022
Instructor: Isaac Kinley (DASH Support Assistant)
Machine learning is an exciting way to get more insight out of your data. Working with Python, this workshop will cover some basic theory and algorithms for feature learning, classification, and regression.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Intro to R Programming
Virtual Workshop | December 2, 2022
Instructor: Isaac Kinley (DASH Support Assistant)
R has a powerful suite of high-level statistical functions, but sometimes you need lower-level control over the functionality of your script. In this workshop, you will learn how to write programs in R using functions and control flow. We will cover functions, conditional blocks, loops, and debugging.
Watch a recording of the workshop.
Data Visualization with MATLAB
Virtual Workshop | January 20, 2023
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)
Learn how you can create publication-quality figures using MATLAB or its free alternative, Octave. We will cover plotting options for one- and two-dimensional continuous and categorical data and explore options for customizing your figure’s appearance.
Sound Data
Virtual Workshop | January 26, 2023
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)
This workshop will cover both the theory and practice of data sonification. This includes going over the brief history of sonification, what sonification can do, the different types of sonification, which types of data work best in sound and an example of tools such as TwoTone and Tone.js
*Presented in collaboration with DMDS.
How to Lie with Data
Virtual Roundtable | January 31, 2023
Presenters: Vass Bednar (Executive Director of the Public Policy in Digital Society Program), Dr. Cal Biruk (Associate Professor of Anthropology), Jeffrey Demaine (Bibliometrics and Research Impact Librarian), Saman Goudarzi (Cartographic Resources Librarian), Christine Homuth (Spatial Information Specialist), and Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian), with an introductory address by the Sherman Centre’s Co-Directors Dr. Jay Brodeur and Dr. Andrea Zeffiro.
Data may seem objective or neutral, but that’s not always the case. At this roundtable, learn about how data can be manipulated, skewed, or collected so poorly that any findings are extremely suspect. This session aims to build critical literacy and build attendees’ understanding of data collection, statistics, visualizations including infographics, charts, graphs, and maps, and the Data Justice movement.
*Presented in collaboration with DMDS.
Watch a recording of the event.
Data Visualization in R using ggplot2
Virtual Workshop | February 13, 2023
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)
This workshop will provide an introduction to ggplot2, an open-source data visualization package for the statistical programming language R. This workshop will go over basic tips for creating visualizations and customizing the design of those graphs. A basic familiarity with R will be helpful for this workshop.
Intro to Geospatial Data
Virtual Workshop | February 14, 2023
Instructor: Christine Homuth (Spatial Information Specialist)
Geospatial data is data about objects or features on or near the surface of the Earth and can be mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. This workshop introduces participants to geospatial data formats and concepts as well as sources for this data.
Computational Approaches to Text Preparation and Analysis
Virtual Workshop | February 16, 2023
Instructors: Jay Brodeur (Administrative Director of the Sherman Centre) and Devon Mordell (Educational Developer, The Macpherson Institute)
Are you interested in textual analysis but unsure about where to start? Join us for an interactive “no experience required” introduction to the fundamental concepts, processes, and methodological approaches for preparing and analyzing text using computational approaches. Following a general introduction to the topic, participants will be guided through prepared exercises that demonstrate how different software packages (OpenRefine, Python) can be used to prepare for and perform textual analysis.
*Presented in collaboration with DMDS.
Machine Learning with R: Random Forest Classification Approach
Virtual Workshop | February 21, 2023
Instructor: Shaila Jamal (DASH Support Assistant)
The Random Forest is a powerful algorithm used for classification in the industry. The classification algorithm consists of many decision trees to get more accurate predictions. This workshop will go over the theoretical part of Random Forest, then provide attendees with hands-on training on conducting Random Forest classification, training the data, testing accuracy, and working with tuning parameters.
Intro to LaTeX
Virtual Workshop | March 2, 2023
Instructor: John Fink (Digital Scholarship Librarian)
This workshop will give you a grounding in LaTeX, a document typesetting program. Widely used in STEM disciplines for its facility in typsetting formulas and equations, LaTeX produces beautiful and usable output. You’ll learn the difference between word processors and typesetters, how to produce those formulae and equations, and the many kinds of documents the LaTeX system can produce. This session will be recorded and made available openly.
Visual Data Analysis with Microsoft Excel
Virtual Workshop | March 14, 2023
Instructor: Shaila Jamal (DASH Support Assistant)
Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data. This workshop will cover topics such as applications of data analysis basics for visualizations; effective designs of basic charts such as pie charts, bar charts, and scatterplots; time series analysis and visualization; and more advanced analytical displays like bar-in-bar, slope charts, dot plots, and bullet charts.
How to Copy ArcGIS Online Content Between Accounts
Asynchronous Virtual Tutorial | March 29, 2023
Instructor: Christine Homuth (Spatial Information Specialist)
Current students, staff, and faculty have access to ArcGIS Online through the Educational Institution Agreement, but did you know you can copy content from your McMaster ArcGIS Online account to your personal account? This tutorial will provide you with resources and tools to clone content between accounts.
Qualitative Data: Practices for RDM Planning and Sharing
Hybrid Workshop | April 5, 2023
Instructor: Danica Evering (Research Data Management Specialist)
Qualitative methods let us share nuanced interpretations of multifaceted issues. They let us understand lived experiences and motivations, see a research question from different standpoints, and highlight contexts. Qualitative research data can take the form of interview transcripts, oral histories, focus groups, field notes, audio, video, and more. Some qualitative researchers are accustomed to research data management (RDM) and data sharing, while others are less familiar. This workshop welcomes both groups to learn about best practices and considerations for managing and sharing quantitative data. We’ll start with practical skills and workflows, and then move on to a discussion about hesitations and urgencies. Qualitative research often grows out of relationships of trust, and information is deeply contextual, making data sharing sticky. However, communities are often approached by different researchers for similar information, and data sharing can also help alleviate research fatigue. Let’s learn and unpack together!
*Presented in collaboration with RDM.
Cleaning Up Messy Data with Python and Pandas
Virtual Workshop | April 6, 2023
Instructor: Maya Flannery (DASH Support Assistant)
Raw data often require special preparation for efficient statistical analyses and visualization. This workshop will introduce useful Python functionality along with the pandas package to help organize your raw data and create a clean dataset. Participants will learn how to read multiple CSV files, filter and manipulate their data, and then combine them into a single dataframe according to best practices.
Version Control with Git
Virtual Workshop | April 11, 2023
Instructor: John Fink (Digital Scholarship Librarian)
Come learn about git! Git is a version control system widely used in software engineering, academia, and anywhere where projects need reliable and granular versioning — especially when the projects need to scale to thousands of contributors. You’ll learn the basics of working with git repositories, how to pull new repositories from sites like Github, and more.
*Presented in collaboration with RDM.