Data Science with R: Data Analysis and Visualization

Overview
This course is a 35-hour program designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to R. You’ll learn how to load, save, and transform data as well as how to write functions, generate graphs, and fit basic statistical models with data. In addition to a theoretical framework in which you will learn the process of data analysis, this course focuses on the practical tools needed in data analysis and visualization. By the end of the course, you will have mastered the essential skills of processing, manipulating and analyzing data of various types, creating advanced visualizations, generating reports, and documenting your codes.

Prerequisites
Basic knowledge about computer components
Basic knowledge about programming

Syllabus
Unit 1: Basic Programming with R
Introduction to R
What is R?
Why R?
How to learn R
RStudio, packages, and the workspace
Basic R language elements
Data object types
Local data import/export
Introducing functions and control statements
In-depth study of data objects
Functions
Functional Programming

Unit 2: Basic Data Elements
Data transformation
Reshape
Split
Combine
Character manipulation
String manipulation
Dates and timestamps
Web data capture
API data sources
Connecting to an external database

Unit 3: Manipulating Data with “dplyr”
Subset, transform, and reorder datasets
Join datasets
Groupwise operations on datasets

Unit 4: Data Graphics and Data Visualization
Core ideas of data graphics and data visualization
R graphics engines
Base
Grid
Lattice
ggplot2
Big data graphics with ggplot2

Unit 5: Advanced Visualization
Customized graphics with ggplot2
Titles
Coordinate systems
Scales
Themes
Axis labels
Legends
Other plotting cases
Violin Plots
Pie charts
Mosaic plots
Hierarchical tree diagrams
scatter plots with multidimensional data
Time-series visualizations
Maps
R and interactive visualizations
Final Project

After 35 hours of structured lectures, students are encouraged to work on an exploratory data analysis project based on their own interests. A project presentation demo will be arranged afterwards.