Learning Communities
DaSL Learning Communities are events designed to catalyze community and conversations around shared workflows and interests in biomedical data science topics. They are spaces where folks from across Fred Hutch and the Cancer Consortium can meet to see new methods and ways of working, to share their own insights into their work, and to get constructive feedback about how they could improve their computing work.
In Learning Communities we hold closely the belief that we are all on the same team. Even though you may be the only computing or data science practitioner in your working group, we are committed to creating an environment where all feel welcome to share their experiences. This way, despite the challenges we face in our work, we can all learn from each other and improve our skills.
DaSL employees will moderate, attend, and occasionally present on topics in the Learning Communities.
Learning Communities Mission Statement
The Mission of DaSL Learning Communities is to provide a psychologically safe, professional environment to co-learn topics in biomedical data science and to share and apply this knowledge together across groups at Fred Hutch.
Learning Community Topics
Each topic will be given monthly starting in February. You are strongly encouraged to bring any problems or issues you have within the topic and the group will attempt to help each other.
Data Science Programming
Do you want to grow your skills with Data Science programming languages such as R or Python? Come learn with the Data Science Programming Learning Community sessions.
Possible topics include:
- Getting help when you’re stuck with code
- Cool software packages that make your life easier
- Tips and tricks that have helped you in your research
- Getting feedback on software you’ve developed
Data4All
There are some data science topics that aren’t necessarily R/Python related, such as principles of visualization, presentation, and working with spreadsheets. Or perhaps the Data Science Programming topics seem a little too intimidating? Come join the Data4All sessions.
Possible topics include:
- Getting feedback on figures and visualizations
- Lightning talks about cool visualizations or dashboards
- Visualization and Dashboard development
Reproducible Research
Making our research useful to others requires careful attention to detail not only in how we collect data, but how we share it and make details of our analysis available to others. There are many research products beyond the publication: the software scripts we’ve written, the data we’ve generated. If you want to know how to make your work reproducible, then come to these sessions.
Possible topics include:
- Getting help starting a Data management plan for your lab
- How to use GitHub or other open repositories (such as protocols.io or Open Science Framework) to share your work
- Principles of Open Science and groups
Learning Community Event Schedule
Learning Community Events will begin again in February.
All communities are open and available to everyone in the Fred Hutch Consortium community and beyond. Some events are remote, and some are hybrid / in-person. Stay tuned for more information.
The following is a list of events for the current quarter. You can RSVP for any event by clicking on it.
Learning Community Values:
- Research doesn’t need to be lonely. We learn and work best with our peers.
- The ways that data impacts our work at Fred Hutch are wide and varied. There is no one right way, but there are best practices we can aspire to.
- Sharing knowledge in public is important. Together, our collective knowledge can help us all improve how we work. Everyone knows something that could help someone else in our community.
- Asking questions is a way of taking care of our peers. They often may have the same questions, but might be reluctant to ask them.
Participation Guidelines
Please be aware that all Learning Community events adhere to the Learning Community Participation Guidelines. This is to ensure a safe space for all.