January 31, 2020
9:00am - 12:30pm
Instructors: Greg Janée, Ian Lessing, Jon Jablonski, Zach Sisco
Helpers: Torin White, Kristi Liu
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, William Dyer, Frank Pabodie, and Valentina Roerich led expeditions to the Pole of Inaccessibility in the South Pacific, and then onward to Antarctica. Two years ago, their expeditions were found in a storage locker at Miskatonic University. Their data has been scanned and OCR’d, and we now want to store that information in a way that will make search and analysis easy.
Three common options for storage are text files, spreadsheets, and databases.
Relational databases, however, include powerful tools for search and analysis, and can handle large, complex data sets. These lessons will show how to use a relational database and the SQL language to explore the expeditions’ data.
Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.
For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing".
Who: The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.
Where: UCSB Library, Collaboratory rm 2324; 525 UCen Road, Santa Barbara, CA. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.
When: January 31, 2020. Add to your Google Calendar.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).
Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organizers have checked that:
Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.
Contact: Please email library-collaboratory@ucsb.edu for more information.
Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct.This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.
We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.
| Before | Pre-workshop survey and setup |
| 09:00 | Selecting data |
| 09:15 | Sorting and removing duplicates |
| 09:35 | Filtering |
| 09:55 | Calculating new values |
| 10:05 | Missing data |
| 10:35 | Aggregation |
| 10:55 | Combining data |
| 11:35 | Data hygiene |
| 12:05 | Creating and modifying data |
| 12:30 | Post-workshop survey |
Software: install one of these.
Windows Users: follow these instructions to use SQLite from the command prompt.
Data: