Each month, we feature an update from a Study Group Lead. This month we hear from Marcos Vital (@marcosvital on Github), who manages a Grupo de Estudos at the Universidade Federal de Alagoas (UFAL) in Brazil.

Study Group Description:

Our study group is called, for short, Open Science, Programming and R Study Group. But the official name is: Grupo_de_Estudos <- read.table (Open Science, Programação e R), just like a R command to read a data frame (that came up during a lab meeting about the group creation)!

We gather together faculty staff, grad and undergrad students interested in Open Science and R, with most of us coming from a Biological Science background. We want to learn more about programming, discuss and promote Open Science practices, and share experiences about working with open tools like R and other languages.

Even though most members have at least a little experience with R, we are currently interested in learning a little bit about Python, so right now we are focusing in learning the basics of programming logic using this language. We come together every month at the second Thursday for our regular meetings, but also have at least another meeting between regular ones (usually for a more coordinated practical session or lecture by someone willing to teach some tool or technique to the group).

Everyone is welcome to come up to any meeting! So far we live streamed every meeting we had, and plan to do so every time, so people can join online as well! You can say hi on GitHub (here: https://github.com/marcosvital/studyGroup/issues/5 ) or mail me: marcosvital at gmail dot com.

Interested in the Study Group program? Like to start your own? Find out more on our site!