Introduction to R Packages for Bayesian Models

At this virtual meetup, R-Ladies RTP member Melissa Wong (she/her), will introduce some R packages (rstanarm, rethinking, and possibly brms) for Bayesian models that are a bit easier to get started with than rstan. Melissa will include examples of both a simple linear regression and a semi-parametric regression in all packages, and talk about what she found to be a beginner-friendly path to work up to using rstan directly.

Melissa's Bio: I'm a Senior Engineer with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. I started my career as a software and systems engineer. Since finishing my M.S. in Statistics I've become interested in learning more about Bayesian methods and causal inference.

Special thanks to Melissa for suggesting, developing, and leading this meetup!

What do I bring?
Please login to Zoom using a laptop or computer with the capabilities to run R and RStudio. We encourage attendees to install or update their versions of R and RStudio as well as their R packages. To update your R Packages in RStudio go to Tools > "Check for package updates...". Here are links to free downloads for R (https://cran.r-project.org/) and RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download). Downloading and installing both of these programs before this meetup will help us keep on schedule and make sure you learn the most you can while at the meetup event.

Who is this event for?
Beginners are welcome and encouraged to join this event but please install the most recent version of both R and RStudio on your laptop before attending this meetup event. See information above for instructions.

Where will it take place?
Please join us online via Zoom. A link to join will be provided when you RSVP.

All events are intended for women as leaders, mentors, members, and attendees. We are emphatically queer and trans friendly. Men are welcomed to attend as guests and must be accompanied by the R-Lady who invited them. This group was created so those who identify as women have a comfortable place to learn. If you would like to attend and feel excluded, please introduce yourself to an organizer.