Building Data Visualizations on the Web

Title: Building Data Visualizations on the Web

Workshop Lead: Phil Renaud

Host: Jodrey School of Computer Science and the Acadia Institute for Data Analytics

Date/Time: November 20, 6:30-9:00pm

Location: Patterson Hall, Classroom 107

Abstract: Learn how to gather, parse, and visualize data using freely-available web-based tools. We'll discuss modern best-practices for data visualization, how to collect non-tabular data from diverse sources and transform it into usable information and represent it visually -- in the form of tables, charts, and even complex network graphs. Sorry, this intro will not allow sufficient time to explore data brought by the participants.

Audience: Post-secondary students, faculty, staff, business and industry persons. All participants must bring their own laptop (Mac or Windows preferred), and should be comfortable with using software such as a text editor, Excel, and a web browser.

Agenda:
6:30 - Arrival, registration and refreshments
7:00 - History and importance of data visualization
-State of modern data visualization on the web,
-Intro to a basic web-based toolkit (chrome, observable)
-Capturing and manipulating data on the web
7:45 - Break and refreshments
8:00 - Tutorial on how to visualize said data (using D3, using Gephi)
9:00 - Summary and farewell

Prerequisite hardware and software: All participants must bring their own laptop (and charger) that can connect via WiFi to the Acadia network. The laptop must have a current version of the Chrome browser and a text/code editor (eg: Notepad, TextEdit, Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, Sublime). In advance, please install Gephi - the free open graph visualization software (https://gephi.org/).

Prerequisite knowledge: Familiarity with the Chrome browser and its development windows and basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Bio: Phil Renaud is a data developer with interests ranging from data visualization to natural language processing and data journalism. Most of his code involves Javascript (D3.js, Ember) and Python (Pandas, NumPy, NLTK). In 2013 he co-founded Affinio, a Halifax-based data science company, where he serves as the VP Engineering.

Price: This workshop is FREE, but please register by Friday, November 16, 2018, to ensure sufficient food for all. To register, please send an email to Keilani Tupper. or to Andrew MCintyre

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