August SURF Meeting : "The Power of Graphics in R" with Sean Carmody

In addition to its statistical computing prowess, R is one of the most sophisticated and flexible tools around for visualizing quantitative data. It can produce a wide variety of chart types, including scatter plots, box plots, dot plots, mosaic plots, 3D charts and more. Tweaking chart settings and adding customized annotations is a breeze and the charts can readily be output to a range of formats including images (jpeg or png), PDF and metafile formats.

Topics covered in this talk include:

* Getting started with graphing in R
* The basic charting types available
* Customising charts (labels, axes, colour, annotations and more)
* Managing different output formats
* A look at the more advanced charting packages: lattice and ggplot2

Anyone who ever has a need to visualize their data, whether simply for exploration or for producing slick graphics for reports and presentations can benefit from learning to use R's graphics features. The material presented here will get you well on your way. If you have ever been frustrated when trying to get charts in Excel to behave themselves, you will never look back once you switch to R.

Sean Carmody is a mathematician by training and spent most of his working life in the financial markets, working for or consulting to banks, brokers and fund managers. He has used R in a wide range of applications including credit analysis, developing bond investment strategies and operational risk modelling. Sean is also a little obsessed with data visualization, a topic he often turns to on his blog Stubborn Mule (http://www.stubbornmu... (http://www.stubbornmule.net)). Needless to say virtually all of the charts on the blog have been produced using R.

Meeting from 5:45pm for a 6pm Talk.

We're made a booking for dinner at a nearby pub and it would be great to see you there. Space is limited, so RSVP seperately to the 7:30pm dinner event to confirm your place.