​The HKS Library brings you: Programming + Pizza – Workshop Edition! Programming + Pizza is an event series that invites everyone interested in programming tools and computational research to build skills and community. Folks of all experience levels are welcome to learn and collaborate with one another (and eat pizza).

Registration for this event is now closed.

This workshop edition of Programming + Pizza will be led by James Capobianco, Research & Data Librarian at the HKS Library. James' Introduction to Machine Learning workshop will cover some of the basic concepts of supervised machine learning. Machine Learning is a set of methods used to detect patterns in data then use those patterns to make predictions on future data. In this workshop you’ll learn:

• Basic principles and methods of Machine Learning (training and testing splits, calculating error, and overfitting)
• How to implement basic Machine Learning models with tabular data in R
• How to use Decision Trees and Random Forests in R

A quick note on Random Forests: Random Forests combine many Decision Trees to create a model and make predictions. This model tends to work quite well with tabular data, the kind typically used at HKS. But the model can also be harder to interpret than, say, a linear regression model. This workshop will get you started on that interpretation.

Who: This workshop is geared toward graduate students and other researchers who already have basic knowledge of R, including Tidyverse.

Where: Library Commons (ground floor of Littauer, to the left of the HKS Library's main entrance).

When: Wednesday, April 12, 5:00 - 7:00 pm.

Requirements: We will be using R and the Tidyverse package in this workshop. Participants must bring a laptop with R installed. To install R and Tidyverse, follow the instructions on this page (scroll down to "R and RStudio").

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop location is wheelchair/scooter accessible, and accessible restrooms are available. If we can make learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities), please contact us and we will attempt to provide them.

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