10.2 Training and courses

I have attended a wide variety of courses during my first year, both externally and internally to the University of Leicester. The external courses I attended are:

  • Efficient R Programming, on November 8th 2016, organised by the Royal Statistical Society in London. The instructor was Dr. Colin Gillespie, from the University of Newcastle, United Kingdom, and Jumping Rivers. The course covered how to program efficiently with R; in particular, it covered common pitfalls when writing R code, code profiling, interfacing with C++, and parallel programming. General hints and tips were provided.

  • Introduction to causal inference, on April 25th and 26th 2017, organised by the Biostatistics Research Group at the University of Leicester and delivered by Dr. Arvid Sjölander from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. The course provided foundational concepts of causal inference such as the difference between association and causation, the counterfactual framework, exchangeability, directed acyclic graphs, methods for estimating a causal effect, etc. Additionally, it provided an introduction to more advanced methods such as instrumental variables and Mendelian randomisation.

  • Using simulation studies to evaluate statistical methods, on May 22nd 2017, organised by University College London. The course was delivered by Dr. Tim Morris, Prof. Ian White and Dr. Michael Crowther, and it covered the rationale for using simulation studies, important concepts to keep in mind when planning a simulation study, computational tools, estimates of uncertainty, and tools for improving reporting and dissemination.

  • Workshop on Joint modelling of longitudinal and time-to-event data with R, on July 5th, 2017, organised by the Department of Biostatistics of the University of Liverpool. The course was delivered by Dr. Graeme Hickey and provided an introduction to joint models of longitudinal and survival data, including extensions to incorporate competing risks and multiple longitudinal processes. The course included a practical session using R.

I have attended a few courses within the University and not offered on PROSE; specifically, I attended a course on Time series analysis with R (November 10th, 2016), a course on Data visualisation (November 15th, 2016), and a course on High performance computing at Leicester (February 8th, 2017). The latter was particularly important, as it allowed me to take advantage of the high-performance computing facilities offered by the University more efficiently. I also attended the Preparing to teach in higher education workshop, strand A (July 24th and 27th 2017).

Finally, I attended the following PROSE training sessions to develop personal and communication skills in research settings:

  • Planning your literature search, October 21st 2016;

  • Conducting your literature search, October 25th 2016 ;

  • Assertiveness, November 14th 2016;

  • Introduction to critical thinking, December 15th 2016;

  • Presentations A: Fundamentals of an effective presentation, January 30th 2017;

  • Communication in research and other work settings, January 31st 2017;

  • Enhancing your digital profile, February 2nd 2017;

  • Saying it with your abstract, February 10th 2017;

  • Designing a poster, February 27th 2017;

  • Leadership in research and other work environments, February 28th 2017;

  • Preparing for the probation review (Physical natural and medical sciences), May 30th 2017.