Friday Discussions
Fridays, 12:10–1:00 PM, Asmundson 242 — every week with class. Discussion is the practical, bonus side of the course: coding skills, problem-set help, material we couldn’t get to in lecture, and occasional bigger-picture sessions on how to work and learn as a scientist-programmer.
Discussions are loosely structured. There is no problem set attached — bring your laptop and your questions.
Fall 2026 Fridays — schedule as decided
| Date | Topic | Materials |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 25 | Intro to R crash course, part 1 — for anyone new to R (basic syntax) | Materials → |
| Oct 2 | Intro to R crash course, part 2 — continuation, incl. loops & apply functions | Materials → |
| Oct 9 | How to: data wrangling (data.table) | coming |
| Oct 16 | How to: data wrangling (tidyverse) | coming |
| Oct 23 | How to: write functions | coming |
| Oct 30 | No class (instructor travel) | |
| Nov 6 | Making publication-ready figures | coming |
| Nov 13 | Make your own R package | coming |
| Nov 20 | How to: parallelize / big data in R | coming |
| Nov 27 | No class (Thanksgiving) | |
| Dec 4 | Bonus: mixed effect models | coming |
Materials are posted here as each session is finalized, closer to the date.
Potential topics (backlog)
Ideas and built-but-unscheduled material that can be pulled into a session if the schedule shifts or extra time opens up:
- Coding in the Age of AI (+ Code Audit activity)
- How Do You Actually Learn to Code?
Have a topic you want to discuss? Post in the Canvas discussion board or bring it up in class. These sessions exist because the formal curriculum can’t cover everything that matters.