Big Data Lunchtime Seminar: 'R or Python? What's your favourite data analysis tool?'

Location
Learning Centre UG05
Dates
Wednesday 9 December 2015 (13:00-14:00)
Contact

If you would like to attend and join the Institute of Advanced Studies Big Data network which brings together researchers and professional services from across the campus please email Sarah Jeffery.

09 Dec 2015

Dr Grace Garner and Christoph Stich (both School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences) will discuss ‘R or Python? What’s your favourite data analysis tool?’ in this lunchtime seminar as part of the Institute of Advanced Studies' Big Data Network.

Visualising, analysing and modelling data are integral components of hydrology. R is a powerful open source programming language and environment that has been widely adopted by the hydrological research community to implement the many analyses and methods that are not incorporated in conventional statistical and spreadsheet packages. Dr Garner will demonstrate (using examples from research conducted by the Water Sciences group at the University of Birmingham) how R code and R’s library of user contributed packages can be used to provide solutions to hydrological problems.”

Bigger and larger amounts of data are becoming an ever more integral part of not only geography but all areas of research. But how to best analyze such data? Python is a mature and flexible programming language that has gained widespread adoption in scientific computing. Christoph Stich will outline the main reason for using and not using Python for data-analysis and relate them to his own research - understanding and modelling human behaviour.