useR! 2024: Full Schedule

In Person & Virtual
8 - 11 July, 2024
Learn more and Register to Attend

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Please note: This schedule is automatically displayed in Central European Time (UTC+1). To see the schedule in your preferred timezone, please select from the drop-down menu to the right, above "Filter by Date." The schedule is subject to change.

13:20 CEST

Shinydraw: Quickly Wireframe Shiny Apps in Excalidraw - Michael Page, cynkra

Wireframing Shiny apps is a time consuming process, typically involving proprietary tools. This often results in the wireframing stage of development coming with increased costs, or being skipped entirely. One alternative has been to use Excalidraw, an open-source virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams through a simple and intuitive graphical user interface. But, to date, the use of Excalidraw has still been a time intensive process requiring individual Shiny components to be drawn from scratch. That was, until now. Enter shinydraw: an Excalidraw library that offers pre-drawn Shiny components including inputs, outputs, theming, and more. Drawing wireframes with shinydraw is as simple as loading the library and then dragging-and-dropping the components you desire. It is a batteries included approach to wireframing, with a near-zero learning curve, leveraging the powers of open-source technologies and standards. This talk will show you how easy it is to get started using the shinydraw library so you can get building Shiny wireframes within minutes.

Speakers

Michael Page

Mr, cynkra

Mike Page is a data scientist with more than five years of experience working with R in the third sector. Here, his focus has been on developing open-source Shiny apps and tools such as the humaniverse collection of R packages. Mike holds a Masters by Research degree in psychoendocrinology... Read More →

Tuesday July 9, 2024 13:20 - 13:25 CEST
Pinzgau + Tennegau

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Lightning Talk

13:35 CEST

Dandelion Hub - A central repository for de-central actions for ecosocial justice based on R/Shiny - Wilmar Igl, Private

Social and ecological systems around the world are experiencing multiple crises [1]. Decision makers have shown a lack of ability or will to take action to reduce current social and ecological injustices [2]. However, individuals without formal political or economic power can contribute to peacefully guiding the world back to a sustainable pathway. The Dandelion Hub (https://dhub.global) serves as a central repository for de-central, non-violent actions for ecosocial justice.

The Dandelion Hub (DHub) uses a web frontend (R/Shiny) and database backend (MariaDB) to record and report actions across a broad spectrum of non-violent actions according to the classification by Sharp (1973) [3].

As of 2024-01-28, 2,389,238 activists across 615 actions in 180 cities, 50 countries, and 6 continents, who took part in non-violent actions between 2018-08-20 to 2024-01-14, are represented in the repository.

Open-source technology, such as R/Shiny, can contribute to the socio-ecological transformation of society.

References:
[1] WEF (2024). http://tinyurl.com/2995u9jh
[2] IPCC (2023). http://tinyurl.com/5cybutfs
[3] Sharp, Gene (1973). http://tinyurl.com/2jvhvxwt

Speakers

Wilmar Igl

PhD, Private

Wilmar Igl, PhD, has a background in medical statistics and psychology. He has over 20 years of professional experience in the life sciences and has also been active in the climate movement since 2018. His experiences have resulted in broader interests in eco-social justice and projects... Read More →

Tuesday July 9, 2024 13:35 - 13:40 CEST
Pongau + Flachgau

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Lightning Talk

13:35 CEST

Unlock Your Data Insights Faster: The 'CohortBuilder' Way. - Adam Forys, Roche

Cohort analysis is vital for understanding patterns and trends within datasets, particularly in fields like healthcare, marketing, and user analytics. The 'cohortBuilder' and 'shinyCohortBuilder' packages in R offer a convenient approach to defining and manipulating cohorts. If you're exploring ways to streamline your cohort analysis workflow within Shiny, this talk will introduce you to powerful tools worth exploring. During the presentation, I will demonstrate the core concepts of the 'cohortBuilder' ecosystem, highlighting their strengths in performing cohort analysis and visualization within R Shiny.

Speakers

Adam Forys

Mr., Roche

Adam is a Principal Data Scientist at Roche. He is dedicated to building R packages that empower teams working on SDTM. He is committed to collaboration and enjoys guiding others in overcoming technical obstacles and optimizing their data science workflows.

Tuesday July 9, 2024 13:35 - 13:40 CEST
Attersee

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Lightning Talk

14:10 CEST

Reproducible Data Science with WebAssembly and WebR - George Stagg, Posit, PBC

A fundamental principle of the scientific method is peer review and independent verification of results. Good science depends on transparency and reproducibility. However, in a recent study a substantial 74% of research code failed to run without errors, often caused by diverse computing environments. This talk will discuss the principles of numerical reproducibility in research and show how software can be pinned to specific versions and self-contained as a universal binary package using WebAssembly. This ensures seamless reproducibility on any machine equipped with a modern web browser and, using tools such as Shinylive, could provide a new way for researchers to share results with the community.

Speakers

George Stagg

Software Engineer, Posit, PBC

George is a senior software engineer working on the webR project as part of the Open Source Team at Posit. A former academic, George also has experience with teaching and research in computational mathematics, statistics and physics. When not working with software, George enjoys hacking... Read More →

Tuesday July 9, 2024 14:10 - 14:30 CEST
Salzburg II

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

14:30 CEST

Real-Time Anomaly Detection on Voting Sundays Using R and Shiny - Simon Graf, Statistisches Amt Kanton Zürich

Swiss voters head to the polls around four times a year. One of the responsibilities of the cantons is to collect the results from the municipalities, process and transmit them to the federal level. The Canton of Zurich used to check the data manually and gave feedback in case of suspicious looking results, however this non-systematic approach on an individual data point level was error-prone, labour-intense and often lacked the context of historical trends and issue specific dynamics. To remedy these shortcomings, we developed an R- and Shiny-based application called “PlausiApp”, which conducts outlier detection in real-time on a variety of results, such as shares of voting channels used, intracommunal differences in participation levels, or the deviation of the results from our prediction. It is in use since 2020. The application works as follows: Prior to the voting Sunday, we load historical data and store it in the project repository. On the voting Sunday, the application transforms the live data and runs the checks. Finally, the results are presented in a shiny dashboard.

Speakers

Simon Graf

Political Data Scientist, Statistisches Amt Kanton Zürich

Political Data Scienctist

Tuesday July 9, 2024 14:30 - 14:50 CEST
Salzburg II

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

14:50 CEST

No-Code Data Analysis and Visualization Dashboards with Blockr - David Granjon, cynkra GmbH & John Coene, The Y Company

Despite widespread adoption of tools such as Shiny and dplyr, creating dashboards in R remains challenging for non-coding developers. Solutions like PowerBI or Tableau, while popular, are proprietary and expensive, offer limited reproducibility, and have restricted integration with the R ecosystem. To address this gap, we introduce blockr, an open-source dashboard builder (https://github.com/blockr-org). blockr simplifies the construction of parameterized data pipelines as a web application, enabling collaboration and easy sharing of results through self-contained code generation. We emphasize modularity by decomposing pipelines into 'blocks'. These 'blocks' can be assembled into 'stacks', which can be connected so that the output of one stack serves as the input for others. This architecture results in a reactive dashboard that allows upstream changes to cascade through the analysis, providing instant feedback to the user. General-purpose blocks provided by blockr can be combined with user-created blocks to expand functionality to use-case specific needs. This approach makes it easy to leverage the vast and mature ecosystem of R packages.

Speakers

David Granjon

Lead Shiny, cynkra GmbH

David Granjon is Lead Shiny at cynkra since September 2023. He holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Université Pierre et Marie Curie and Université de Lausanne. He is the founder of the open source RinteRface organization, where he develops Shiny extensions, writes books and... Read More →

John Coene

Co-Founder, The Y Company

Tuesday July 9, 2024 14:50 - 15:10 CEST
Salzburg II

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

15:10 CEST

MaNTrA Labor Room Analytics Platform: Harnessing the Power of R for Public Health - Girdhari Bora & Ajil Joseph, Tattva Foundation

MaNTrA dashboard is a Shiny based web application designed for visualizing and reporting Maternal and Child Health Indicators. The application captures data from labour room registries in Public Health Facilities in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The application currently supports the state health department in tracking and visualizing data for over 4.5 million deliveries from 5800 facilities and is growing at a rate of approximately 6000 deliveries per day. Moreover, the application is further being scaled to cover all 7000 delivery points in the state with almost 40,000 users at different levels of decision making. The dashboard facilitates user role-based access with 11 pages providing GIS visualizations, advanced drill-down functionalities and custom reports as per the user requirements. The application tracks indicators related to deliveries, births, birth and death registrations, patient feedback and medical practitioner performance. Considering the scale and volume of the dashboard, the application is designed for optimal memory consumption, concurrent user handling and faster processing thus providing the best experience for the end users.

Speakers

Ajil Joseph

Research Scientist (Data Analytics), Tattva Foundation

A data analyst and an information systems researcher specializing in shiny web app development, data visualization and system design. Has expertise in developing health analytics platforms, statistical modelling and machine learning model development in R. Currently, working as the... Read More →

Girdhari Bora

Chief Innovation Officer, Tattva Foundation

Girdhari Bora is an ICT4D professional with nearly 20 years of experience in e-innovation, digital health, and action research. He has led many projects in scalable e-innovations across sectors such as public health, microfinance, agriculture, and education. He is the co-founder of... Read More →

Tuesday July 9, 2024 15:10 - 15:30 CEST
Salzburg II

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

15:30 CEST

Deploying RShiny-Based Applications in Financial Institutions - Goran Lovric, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich AG

This session focuses on a detailed approach to deploy RShiny-based applications in risk management of financial institutions on in-house servers, also providing examples and a case study of those applications such as internal rating models, GRC tools, incident management tools as well as risk assessment tools. The focus is clearly on utilizing in-house servers and architecture to deploy RShiny-based applications quantifying, presenting and reporting risk within the environment of a European Central Bank (ECB) regulated bank.

Speakers

Goran Lovric

Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich AG

Goran Lovric has over 17 years of professional experience in reputable, national and international financial companies, carrying senior management and senior leadership responsibilities in (financial and non-financial) risk management. Mr. Lovric holds degrees in Law and Quantitative... Read More →

Tuesday July 9, 2024 15:30 - 15:50 CEST
Salzburg II

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

13:30 CEST

Ambiorix - a web framework for R - John Coene, The Y Company

The {ambiorix} package is a web framework for R inspired by express.js which allows building traditional web application, and RESTful APIs.

Speakers

John Coene

Co-Founder, The Y Company

Wednesday July 10, 2024 13:30 - 15:00 CEST
TBD

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Poster Session

13:30 CEST

RKernel: Yet Another Jupyter Kernel for R - Martin Elff, Zeppelin Universität, Friedrichshafen

A new Jupyter kernel for R is presented. Jupyter is a web and desktop application that allows to create notebooks that combine R code with (textual and graphical) output created by this code. While other kernels for R already exist, the presented one has a several advantages: It gives maximal control to the useR of how R objects are presented in the frontend, it fully supports the Jupyter widget infrastructure, and it allows using R's own debugging infrastructure.

The new kernel is available from Github as open source package.

Speakers

Martin Elff

Prof. Dr., Zeppelin Universität, Friedrichshafen

Martin Elff is a professor of political sociology at Zeppelin University (Friedrichshafen, Germany). He is the author of "Data Management with R: A Guide for Social Scientists" (Sage Publications) and of three R packages published on CRAN. He has published research articles on electoral... Read More →

Wednesday July 10, 2024 13:30 - 15:00 CEST
TBD

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Poster Session

13:30 CEST

StatLearning: A Shiny App for Practicing Statistical Hypothesis Testing - Juan Claramunt, Leiden University

With this poster, we want to introduce StatLearning, our shiny app for practicing diverse statistical tests. This app is a step forward in digital exercising. While many digital exercises only provide data and questions, StatLearning provides an individualized learning path. To do so, we analyzed the different types of students and their preferred learning styles (reading, watching, listening, etc.). Besides, apart from the data and questions, we provide the users with statistical definitions and help windows. These windows include written explanations and videos. Moreover, we consider the diverse student's abilities, allowing students to skip steps if their statistical abilities are advanced while providing extra help for students with lower skills. This way, we aim for students with low abilities to reach advanced skills by practicing. We aim to introduce StatLearning to other R users at the conference who might find it useful for their courses. Furthermore, we would like to receive feedback to improve our app. We have used this app for three years and keep improving it yearly. Therefore, any new suggestions are welcomed.

Speakers

Juan Claramunt

Specialist in sciencific information, Leiden University

Bachelor in Mathematics at Universidad de Cantabria, Utrecht University & Brown University.Master in Methodology and Statistics for the Behavioural, Biomedical, and Social Sciences, & European Master in Official Statistics (Utrecht University).Scientific information specialist at... Read More →

Wednesday July 10, 2024 13:30 - 15:00 CEST
TBD

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Poster Session

13:30 CEST

Volcano.View: Building Dashboards That Aren't Slow - Michael Galanakis, Hasselt University / Novo Nordisk

We introduce the R package volcano.view that allows users to create interactive dashboards for proteomics data. Proteomics results are high-dimensional, making interactive dashboards crucial for navigating the thousands of proteins. However, the many data points that need to render also introduced slow load times when using the R package Shiny. We therefore showcase an alternative approach using the JavaScript libraries React and D3. We compared the performance between volcano.view and shiny using Google's Lighthouse tool. The package was developed to visualize results from the SomaScan proteomics assay. The package is organized into modules that can add different functionality. It can include gene set enrichment results, as wells compare results from different studies. Although, the package was developed to be used on proteomics data, it can easily be used more broadly. Although, using React to develop your dashboard is more time consuming and requires more training for data scientists when compared to Shiny. It also offers tools for greatly improving performance. Researchers should be aware of this trade-off between performance and development time.

Speakers

Michael Galanakis

Mr, Hasselt University / Novo Nordisk

Michael is an industrial PhD fellow working with Novo Nordisk and Hasselt university. He has experience working as a statistician in both clinical trials and epidemiological studies, where he has co-authored 9 peer-reviewed publications. He completed his bachelor's in mathematics... Read More →

Wednesday July 10, 2024 13:30 - 15:00 CEST
TBD

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Poster Session

13:30 CEST

WebApp Studio for productionizing shiny applications, rmakrdown and R Plumber APIs

Webapp studio that gives the possibility to R developpers to build, test and deploy entreprise level shiny dashboards, rmakrdown reports and plumber APIs on a large scale (> 100 users) in a very intuitive fashion

Speakers

Farid Azouaou

CTO, thaink²

A Data passionate with more than 10 years experience in the fields of analytics & AI for industry. I worked for different companies in different fields, the last one was at Mercedes-Benz Mobility before landing at thaink² as a CTO & Co-founder.I humbly consider myself an expert in... Read More →

Wednesday July 10, 2024 13:30 - 15:00 CEST
TBD

Shiny + dashboards + web apps, Poster Session

11:30 CEST

Crafting Intuitive Spatial Select Fields with ReactJS, R, and Nivo Library - Anastasiia Kostiv, esqLABS GmbH

"Unleash the Power of Spatial Visualization: Exploring ReactR, Nivo, and NivoR" Join us for an electrifying session at UseR2024, where we'll dive into the dynamic world of spatial data visualization like never before! Delve into the cutting-edge capabilities of the ReactR package as we showcase its ability to create breathtaking UI experiences using React libraries. Get ready to be spellbound as we unveil the secrets of intuitive spatial data filtering and selection, leveraging the unparalleled features of Nivo widgets. But that's not all! Brace yourself for the unveiling of NivoR, a groundbreaking collaboration of Shiny, ReactR, React.js, and the Nivo framework. Witness the fusion of art and technology as we demonstrate how NivoR pushes the boundaries of possibility in data visualization, offering an immersive journey into the heart of interactive spatial exploration. Join us at UseR2024 for a session that promises to ignite your imagination, elevate your understanding, and leave you inspired by the endless possibilities of spatial visualization!" Be ready to test the nivoR package during the talk!

Speakers

Anastasiia Kostiv

Senior Software Developer, esqLABS GmbH

Experienced Senior Software Engineer and Data Analyst with a diverse background in engineering, web development, and data science. Successfully implements advanced techniques in healthcare and data management. Creator of shinycalendar and nivoR packages. Passionate about addressing... Read More →

Thursday July 11, 2024 11:30 - 11:50 CEST
Wolfgangsee

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

11:30 CEST

Navigating the R Ecosystem Using R-Universe - Jeroen Ooms, rOpenSci

One of the hardest parts of effectively using R, is finding the best packages for the problem you are trying to solve. This might even be as important as being fluent in the language itself. Building your code on reliable foundations is essential for good results, and difficult to change later on in a project. There are over 20.000 packages on CRAN and many more on other networks such as BioConductor and GitHub. New packages are released every day. The quality and scope of packages varies, which can make it difficult to judge which tools are the best choice, and get a sense of the software landscape in general. R-universe [https://r-universe.dev] is an ambitious platform supported by rOpenSci and the R consortium to help you publish, discover, and start using R packages. In this talk we show different ways in which you can use the search engine, dashboards, and APIs to browse the R ecosystem. R-universe shows you everything there is to know about packages and their maintainers, prepares binaries for all platforms, and provides beautifully rendered documentation to help you get you started immediately.

Speakers

Jeroen Ooms

Research software engineer, rOpenSci

Jeroen is staff member of rOpenSci, and maintains too many R packages.

Thursday July 11, 2024 11:30 - 11:50 CEST
Pongau + Flachgau

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

11:50 CEST

How I Built an API for My Life (and How You Can Too) - Deepansh Khurana, Appsilon

Last year, I built two apps for myself since all the existing apps were either too bloated or privacy nightmares: Ebenezer (finances) and Livingston (travel). A pattern emerged: bespoke apps named after literary characters, which were now the mainstays of my browser window. I wondered: what if there was a dashboard for my life? My networth from Ebenezer. My upcoming trips from Livingston. And possibly more literary-character-themed apps? With a stack of R, AWS DynamoDb, S3, EC2, Plumber, ShinyProxy, Google Sheets and more, I built an infinitely extensible framework for my life: Hrafnagud (the all-seeing Odin). In this talk, I aim to share my journey, hacks and learnings and inspire and empower you to build things for yourself, too!

Speakers

Deepansh Khurana

R/Shiny Developer, Appsilon

Deepansh is a data enthusiast proficient in both R and Python, with a penchant for exploratory analysis. He enjoys the open-ended nature of data analysis and building applications on all sorts of topics in general. He lives for the coincidental insights and "aha!" moments. When not... Read More →

Thursday July 11, 2024 11:50 - 12:10 CEST
Pongau + Flachgau

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

11:50 CEST

Template for Engaging Quiz with GenAI Response - Lynna Jirpongopas, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Let R Shiny and shinysurveys do the heavy lifting of creating a web application to test generative AI use cases or concepts. The use case we are exploring here is a Career Archetype Quiz. The quiz aims to provide career insights and advice to the app user. This session provides a template for creating a quiz while leveraging the capabilities of AI-generated responses. Ultimately this quiz template can be used for other types topics and personalized responses.

Speakers

Lynna Jirpongopas

Data Scientist, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Lynna has comprehensive background in data science within high-tech environments. She's a math graduate from the University of California, San Diego. Recently, she has expanded her expertise by completing a Professional Certificate in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University... Read More →

Thursday July 11, 2024 11:50 - 12:10 CEST
Wolfgangsee

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

12:10 CEST

CRAS: Cybersecurity Risk Analysis and Simulation Shiny App - Emilio L. Cano, Rey Juan Carlos University

Risk analysis and management rely on sound statistical methods and Montecarlo simulation. Performing and reporting quantitative risk has become crucial in Cybersecurity, which affects all sectors, including finance. Actually, Cybersecurity risks are included within the “operational risks” in the finance sector. The FAIR methodology has become a standard for cybersecurity risk analysis using PERT and triangular distributions to simulate loss based on experts input. However, other distributions and methods can be used for analysing risks, e.g., lognormal. In this work, we present a shiny app for simulating cybersecurity losses, allowing the user to choose whether to use the FAIR methodology, or modifications to it, such as different probability distributions, or modifications on the FAIR ontology. Statistical analysis of the simulation results are shown by means of interactive tables and plots. A quarto report can be generated automatically. The app is also useful for teaching Risk Analysis in Degree courses on cybersecurity. Future work includes adding more probability distributions, such as extreme value distributions, and publish the app in CRAN as a contributed package.

Speakers

Emilio L. Cano

Associate Professor, Rey Juan Carlos University

I’m a passionate Data Scientist, Statistician, enthusiast of the R statistical software and programming language. I am the President of the “Comunidad R Hispano” Association (Spanish R Users) and the author of the SixSigma package at CRAN. I serve as Associate Professor at Rey... Read More →

Thursday July 11, 2024 12:10 - 12:30 CEST
Wolfgangsee

Shiny + dashboards + web apps

12:30 CEST

Parts Beyond Code: Crafting Sensible Statistician-Led Automation with Shiny in Pharma - Gregory Chen, MSD

The R Shiny framework empowers statisticians to create interactive apps without much excursion from a typical curriculum of R. This technique can significantly enhance internal processes across the pharmaceutical industry and potentially in other sectors, by automating tasks to boost efficiency and productivity. However, the journey from concept to integration of Shiny-based tools into business workflows involves much more than coding. Critical aspects such as user experience and seamless integration with existing processes are often underestimated but essential for the successful deployment of these tools. In this presentation, we delve into the nuances of creating value-added Shiny apps that transcend basic functionality to become integral components of business operations. By examining a recent project of ours, an automation spanning from statistical analysis planning to reporting, we highlight the pivotal elements outside of coding. These learning and thinking are summarized by four key topics (design thinking on the product and user experience, collaboration mode in a product team, verification/validation, change management), and by different phases of the product lifecycle.

Speakers

Gregory Chen

Principal Statistician, MSD

Gregory Chen, with a PhD in Statistics and 13+ years in the pharmaceutical industry, currently work as a Principal Statistician in the space of health technology assessment (HTA) in MSD, based in Switzerland. His past work spans across manufacturing, quality control, and clinical... Read More →

Thursday July 11, 2024 12:30 - 12:50 CEST
Wolfgangsee

Shiny + dashboards + web apps