Introductory Scientific Computing Workshop (Fall 2022)

Instructors: Cheyenne Wakeland-Hart, John Andrew Chwe

General Information

This workshop develops and teaches the scientific computing skills needed to conduct psychological research. Its target audience is researchers who have little to no prior computational experience, and its lessons are psychology-specific, building on learners’ existing knowledge to enable them to quickly apply skills learned to their own research.

Who: The course is aimed at graduate, postbac, and undergraduate students, as well as other researchers. You don’t need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: Schermerhorn Hall, Morningside campus, Room 200C (Python) & 200B (R)

When: Friday, September 30th, 2022

Requirements: Participants must participate using 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). Cheyenne will hold an office hour on September 22nd at 6:30-7:30pm at this zoom link for people who need help with installing these software packages.

Code of Conduct: Everyone who participates in this workshop is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. 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 make learning easier for you (e.g., sign-language interpreters) please get in touch using the contact details below, and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please email psych-methods-support@columbia.edu for more information.

Surveys

Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.

Pre-Workshop Survey

Post-Workshop Survey

Schedule

Session 1: Python (9/30/22) 9:00am - 1:00pm

Session 2: R (9/30/22) 2:00pm - 5:00pm

Setup

To participate in this workshop, you will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

R

R is a programming language that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and statistical analysis. To interact with R, we use RStudio. For setup instructions, please select your operating system below.

Video Tutorial: R Installation for MacOS

Install R by downloading and running this .pkg file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.

Video Tutorial: R Installation for Windows

Install R by downloading and running this .exe file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE. Note that if you have separate user and admin accounts, you should run the installers as administrator (right-click on .exe file and select “Run as administrator” instead of double-clicking). Otherwise problems may occur later, for example when installing R packages.

You can download the binary files for your distribution from CRAN. Or you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu to run sudo apt-get install r-base; and for Fedora run sudo dnf install R). Also, please install the RStudio IDE.

Python

Python is a popular language for research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend Anaconda, an all-in-one installer.

Regardless of how you choose to install it, please make sure you install Python version 3.x (e.g., 3.6 is fine).

We will teach Python using the Jupyter notebook, a programming environment that runs in a web browser. For this to work you will need a reasonably up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers are all supported (some older browsers, including Internet Explorer version 9 and below, are not).

For setup instructions, please select your operating system below.

Video Tutorial: Python Installation for MacOS

Open https://www.anaconda.com/download/#macos with your web browser. Download the Python 3 installer for OS X. Then, install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation.

Video Tutorial: Python Installation for Windows

Open https://www.anaconda.com/download/#windows with your web browser. Download the Python 3 installer for Windows. Then, install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation except make sure to check Add Anaconda to my PATH environment variable.

Open https://www.anaconda.com/download/#linux with your web browser. Download the Python 3 installer for Linux.

To proceed with installation:

  1. Open a terminal window.

  2. Type bash Anaconda3 and then press Tab. The name of the file you just downloaded should appear. If it does not, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the file, for example with cd Downloads. Then, try again.

  3. Press Return. You will follow the text-only prompts. To move through the text, press Spacebar. Type yes and press enter to approve the license. Press enter to approve the default location for the files. Type yes and press enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH (this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).

  4. Close the terminal window.