Computing 101 Workshop – Winter 2025

Overview

This 3-day workshop will cover some of the common tools used in open source development. It is targeted at novice users. The workshop will be broken into two parts:

  1. Computing basics (day 1) – Topics covered: basic terminal usage, UNIX, git, and GitHub.
  2. Intro to R (days 2 & 3) – Topics covered:  variables, control flow, function, loops, data visualization, data cleaning, and data reports.

The format will be a mixture of lectures and labs. Each day will consist of a morning and afternoon session, each lasting approximately two hours. See below for a more detailed schedule. The workshop will be in-person only. Workshop materials will be made available online afterward.

🗓ī¸ Dates

Part 1 (Computing basics): Monday January 20, 2025

Part 2 (Intro to R): Thursday January 23 & Friday January 24, 2025

đŸŽ¯ Location

Jan 20 and 23: Hinds Hall 347
Jan 24: Hinds Hall 111

📋 Registration

If you would like to register for the workshop, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/tPoa245UUUggrcwp7.

Registration is open to all Syracuse University and SUNY ESF students, staff, and faculty. There is no fee, but space is limited, so sign up soon.

đŸ’ģ Prerequisites

The workshop will be cross-disciplinary and no prior programming experience is needed. You will need to bring your own computer. Attendees should install the following software before the workshop:

  • R
  • RStudio
  • Git:
    • Windows Users: Install Git for Windows
    • Mac Users: Open a Terminal app and type sudo xcode-select --install then hit the <return> key. After it installs, type git --version followed by <return> to make sure git installed correctly.
    • Linux Users (Ubuntu): Open a terminal and type sudo apt install git-all.

⏲ Schedule

The workshop will start at 10:00AM each day. We will also be available 9:00 – 10:00AM on Monday and Thursday to help people setup their computers for the workshop.

Day Time Location Topics covered (subject to change)
Mon. Jan. 20 9:00AM - 10:00AM Hinds 347 Setup bash (optional)
Mon. Jan. 20 10:00AM – 12:00PM Hinds 347 Part I, Computing Basics Bash, working with files/directories, and pipes
Mon. Jan. 20 1:00PM - 2:00PM Hinds 347 Setup ssh keys (optional)
Mon. Jan. 20 2:00PM - 4:00PM Hinds 347 Part I, Computing Basics git and GitHub
Thurs. Jan. 23 9:00AM - 10:00AM Hinds 336 Setup R (optional)
Thurs. Jan. 23 10:00AM - 12:00PM Hinds 347 Part II, Introduction to R R: variables, assignments, types, and functions
Thurs. Jan. 23 2:00PM - 4:00PM R: data visualization with ggplot2
Fri. Jan. 24 10:00AM - 12:00PM Hinds 111 R: data cleaning with the tidyverse
Fri. Jan. 24 2:00PM - 4:00PM R: data reports with RMarkdown

📖 Workshop materials

Workshop materials will be uploaded after the workshop.