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The holidays might be the “hap-happiest season of all,” but the fall is without a doubt, the busiest. There’s a back-to-the-grindstone feel, even if we never stopped working! Kids are back in school, new projects are started and funds are released (or not), and the weekends are full of sports, yard work, and other activities. Depending on where you live, the temperatures may not change, but the vibe surely has. And, that’s okay. We’re ready for it. Our team is full of energy, and we want to share all the great things that made these past few months awesome. We’ll talk about some of the great conferences and events we attended, our CANA Foundation, and what we do with all the brain power at CANA - like supporting our Independent Research & Development (IRAD) Program. We’re also excited we’ve had time this summer to work hard on CANA’s Warehouse Management Solutions - services and software that we know are a proven game-changer - and we will soon be rolling that out in force. Have a great fall, y’all! Fun fact: CANA has grown by 45% in the past two years. Things are happening at CANA! Although CANA is a fully virtual company, there are events and occasions where face-to-face makes for some powerful connections. CANA recently attended the Pentagon Energy Expo in Washington D.C., and then crossed the country to San Diego to attend the American Conference Institute’s Unmanned Systems West event. Along with our partners, Naval Information Warfare Center-Pacific and NavalX SoCal Tech Bridge, we were able to share important messages about technology innovation and how it serves the warfighter. Will Berry, CANA Principal Program Manager and our lead on SoCal Tech Bridge’s electric Tactical Humanitarian Operation Response (eTHOR) pilot, shared his experiences. Coast to Coast CANA Attends Key Events By: Will Berry Pentagon Energy Expo The Pentagon Energy Expo took place over two busy days in September, one sunny and one rainy. Regardless of the weather, the courtyard of the Pentagon was the ideal setting for over a hundred exhibitors ringing the central courtyard walking path to demonstrate emerging technology capabilities that will help preserve U.S. military dominance in future contested logistics environments. The Expo was hosted by a number of Department of Defense sponsors including the individual Service branches, and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (OUSD), Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (OUSD(A&S)), Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF), and the Operational Energy Prototype Fund (OEPF). These sponsors had the opportunity to view a variety of cutting-edge technology, including vehicle electrification, installation energy resilience, batteries, energy storage, energy distribution, power generation, software, and cybersecurity. One of the standout exhibits was the eTHOR, a project funded by OECIF, sponsored by National Information Warfare Center-Pacific (NIWC PAC), and project-managed by CANA. eTHOR will provide a network of electric vehicles capable of storage, transport, delivery, and exportation of energy in a contested environment. In addition, the system is an agile 5G network infrastructure, deploying and extending 5G’s low latency, high bandwidth capabilities to the expeditionary force enabling unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and all domain command and control. The goal of the system is to increase the efficiency of energy logistics in a contested environment and provide sufficient network communications to enable the future force. A tag line of the Expo was, “[e]nergy is the key enabler that will keep the Joint Forces in the fight to achieve decisive victory.” With that in mind, the eTHOR exhibit showcased electric vehicle technology and exportable energy all-in-one by having a DANNAR Mobile Power Station (MPS) at the eTHOR booth. It was a unique visual draw that brought hundreds of visitors to the exhibit. Amongst those visitors was Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks, resulting in a special opportunity to directly share the significant energy plus 5G communications capabilities the eTHOR system will bring to bear. In regards to the Expo, Deputy Defense Secretary Hicks was quoted that energy innovation, "...has to do with national security and what it takes to have the capabilities we need for the warfighter today and going forward.” Well said, we believe, and the eTHOR project is excited to deliver. Unmanned Systems West The Unmanned Systems West Conference took place late September in San Diego, CA, and was a fascinating forum of presentations, analysis and discussion. It focused on how the military, government, technology industry, and academics can work together to develop capabilities that advance Unmanned Systems (UxS) capabilities to benefit the warfighter on land, sea and air. The conference was billed as an opportunity to further dialogue on tactical and technical priorities and the challenges of autonomy and artificial intelligence and to shine a light on ongoing research and innovation that will help integrate both UxS and robotic capabilities. It was successfully achieved on all fronts. Over the two day conference, there were a number of common themes woven through the presentations and panel discussions, including the need for increased collaborative research on design to decrease prototyping systems costs and to increase design speed. Ideas, such as low-cost platform sharing based on common vehicle chassis, were recognized as a tactic to accelerate change; otherwise we risk losing from an acquisition perspective. While there were many different perspectives offered by the presenters and panelists, the iterative design notion – to collaborate, develop, test, fail fast, and evolve – was a common theme that encapsulated the pathway to effectively meet requirements and achieve success. On Day One, the conference was capstoned with a special presentation by one of our partners, NavalX So Cal Tech Bridge Director, Captain Ben Cohen, USMC, who discussed industry innovation needs and requirements. Attendees were enlightened to Capt Cohen’s unique perspective as a Marine Corps warfighter and as the new Director of the NavalX So Cal Tech Bridge. Amongst other things, Capt Cohen discussed bringing warfighters into the academic/industry ecosystem by highlighting the need to focus capabilities on the diverse pool of end users first, with the technology to follow. By focusing on the end user first, the culture of the warfighter is taken into account, which is paramount because, as Capt Cohen stated, “...culture eats strategy for lunch.” #innovation #warfighter #autonomy #5G #connected The CANA Foundation 5K Celebration “5for5” By: Kassie McRostie CANA established the CANA Foundation in 2017 on the premise that we are blessed with individual talents, financial resources, and a successful company that provides a platform for the CANA family to connect with and give back to community areas we feel passionate and care about. We believe we have an obligation to use our skills and resources to help individuals and organizations in our communities overcome any barriers they face. Truly, we rise by lifting others. This year, in 2022, we celebrate five years of the CANA Foundation! These past five years have given us opportunities to give back to our communities in more ways than we could have imagined. Our team has turned their passions into purpose with over 45 completed initiatives. To celebrate the five year anniversary, CANA decided to do our own internal 5K competition! Over the months of June, July and August, the CANA team was challenged to complete as many individual 5Ks as they could over the course of the three months. The “5for5” could be done in any form - kayak, bike, run, walk, skydive, or whatever they wanted! The best part about the celebration is, for every 5K our team members did, we put the CANAer’s favorite charity into a raffle drawing. At the end of the summer, we randomly selected three of the submitted charities to receive a special CANA Foundation donation. Our team had fun sharing photos of themselves at various stages of their 5Ks; we were able to share so many different perspectives! From the beach to the mountains, Team CANA completed over 347 5Ks and over 1,079 miles. If you can imagine, that’s the air distance from Philadelphia to Orlando! Needless to say, our CANAers showed up and rocked the “5for5.” The winning charities selected for CANA contributions ranged from womens’ groups to animal shelters to veterans organizations. We still have three months left to celebrate the CANA Foundation’s 5 Year Anniversary, so stay tuned to see how we wrap up this year! CANA 5for5 Video Link #giveback #CANAFoundation One of the things we pride ourselves on here at CANA is the curiosity and drive of our team. We think our Independent Research & Development (IRAD) program is a great way to encourage that love of learning and thinking outside-the-box. The program enables CANAers to initiate outside projects of professional and personal interest and submit them as proposals to receive degrees of company support such as dedicated time, funding, or technical assistance. IRADs offer a way to potentially bring a new, useful concept or solution closer to fruition. Our Principal AI Analyst, Chris Cichy, recently proposed an exciting Requirements Gaming IRAD to the CANA team. Independent Research & Development (IRAD) Live, Virtual, and Constructive Simulation (LVC Sim) By: Chris Cichy The vision of this IRAD is to utilize a game engine that supports modifications and scripting to develop Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) training environments to support concept, doctrine, and requirements development. LVC Simulation (LVC Sim) training has multiple markets within and outside of the Department of Defense; it is applicable to any agency in which training is cost or effort prohibitive, in this case, interagency firefighting. LVC Sim, built on an open world gaming engine, would allow real time wargaming capability with a minimal investment and could be made playable by a large audience to increase the sample size and remove currently existing stovepipes. Playable demonstrations and videos can be made to visualize and pitch new technology and concepts and could be used to develop new marketing tools for a customer’s requirements. For this particular IRAD, CANA could augment its game modification experience through a proposed innovation challenge, or “hackathon.” The goal of this hackathon would be to modify one virtual twin of a technology from an automated fire fighting research and development project led by partners NIWC Pacific and the NavalX SoCal Tech Bridge called Project Vesta. With this head start in development and the experience gained by working with the innovation challenge participants, CANA would develop each of the assets from Project Vesta and create playable use cases for the pilot. Randomizing certain variables within the game world would then allow for a Project Vesta specific virtual training system. The long-range potential is limitless. Follow-on exploration might include producing a virtual training environment for autonomous vehicle software; developing tactics and doctrine lesson plans as modification packs; synthetic training data for Artificial Intelligence (AI) models; or developing synthetic environments with integrated Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) for the training of deep learning models. They are ideas on the cutting edge, and CANA is excited by what our team will think up next! UPCOMING EVENTS/PODCASTS CANA Top Guns! A Chat with Team CANA Top Gun Graduates In this first video episode of the CANA Connection Podcast, our host Rob Cranston, President and COO of CANA, has a fun chat with Top Gun Graduates and Team CANA members, Connor McLemore and Michael Albrecht about their experiences from the Top Gun program and their thoughts on the recent blockbuster Top Gun Maverick. Buckle up and enjoy the ride and as always remember to Analyse, Assess and Execute. [ Video ] [ Audio ] Talking esports at Full Sail University with Sari Kitelyn In this special CANA ESPORTS episode of the CANA Connection Podcast, Host Rob Cranston with fellow CANAer Co-Host Jack Murray speak with Sari Kitelyn, the Director of esports and Project Development at Full Sail University. So, join in as the team has a great conversation about the unique environment and opportunities presented at Full Sail University and the future of esports in education, and its inclusivity efforts in esports as a whole and within the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). [ Video ] [ Audio ] 5 Years of the CANA Foundation In this episode of the CANA Connection Podcast our Host and President of CANA Rob Cranston, along with fellow CANAers, Digital Media Coordinator Kassie McRostie, and Senior Operations Manager Kenny McRostie talk about the 5 years of the CANA Foundation, its history, the current efforts, and the future of the foundation. So, join in as the team has a great conversation about the CANA Foundation outreach efforts and its bright future at CANA and beyond. [ Video ] [ Audio ] Talking eSports Business & Law with Justin M Jacobson Esq. In this CANA ESPORTS episode of the CANA Connection Podcast, Host Rob Cranston and fellow CANAer Co-Host Jack Murray speak with Justin M. Jacobson, Esq., an Entertainment and Esports Attorney, Professor, and Author of "The Essential Guide to the Business & Law of Esports & Professional Video Gaming." So, join in as the team has an insightful conversation about the unique challenges and opportunities involved with the future of esports. [ Video ] [ Audio ] The CANA Connection Newsletter Copyright ©2022 CANA LLC.

Recently CANA had its annual Company Spring Offsite. It was once again held at the lovely Airlie resort and hotel in Warrenton, VA. As always, the Airlie was very accommodating and a refreshing location to host our meetings and get together. Beyond the lovely atmosphere provided by the rolling hills of Warrenton, VA, the Offsite afforded our team a great chance to connect face to face and to talk about the current state of CANA and the future of where we are going. The general theme of the offsite was technology and more to the point, our utilization of current technologies and how we at CANA are using them or could use them to expand our footprint into the analytics, logistics, and operational realms with the new technologies. Look for some great blog posts and articles from our CANA team members coming soon about some of these technologies, and what the future holds for everyone as new data utilization tech becomes more common. The annual Offsite also provided us the chance to welcome aboard a couple of new team members to the CANA family. CANA would like to welcome the talents and expertise of Mr. Jerome Dixon and Mr. Tom Turner. WELCOME ABOARD OUR NEW TEAM MEMBERS! Jerome Dixon retired from the U.S. Navy in 2016. He is passionate about the balance between People, Processes, and Technology and how best to use these strategic levers to drive up organizational effectiveness and add value. Jerome joins our team as Senior Operations Research Analyst at CANA. Tom Turner also joins CANA as a Senior Operations Research Analyst bringing his former US Marine Corps experience and years of private, public and corporate sector analyses. "His unique background adds a deeper depth and breadth of expertise and experience to our various clients and their diverging interests. The passion both these new team members bring to the table will help CANA in the government, corporate and public sectors with strategic advantage and efficiencies as well as how best to use People, Processes, and Technology to solve or improve societal challenges. So, as we welcome new members and build upon our own technologies, 2017 continues to look bright for CANA and awesome for our clients. #CANAFoundation #CANA #team #offsite #technologies #analytics #analysis #2017

CANA is proud to announce that Walt DeGrange, one of its Principal Operations Research Analysts, was just elected as the President of the INFORMS Sports Analytics Society. Learn more about INFORMS here. #informs #sports #analysis #analytics #WaltDeGrange

At CANA, we believe in maintaining strong community bonds. Our community starts within our core of talented employees and extends to our clients, partners, professional organizations, families, and individual social circles – our community impacts our way of thinking through an exchange of ideas, concepts, history, and feedback. These connections allow us to understand how we can provide better services and products to positively impact personal lives and business outcomes. To support these bonds, we have taken a small, but important step to open up our ideas, concepts, solutions and products to our CANA Community – through a new part of our Website, called “CANA Connection”. CANA Connection is a virtual place where you can visit to see the latest happenings at CANA, read blog posts from our talented and visionary employees, and engage us in a conversation. We know that this increased level of virtual interaction will lead us to identifying new problems to tackle and help engage with our innovations processes to help create improvements throughout our community. CANA Advisors embraces a virtual business model. We feel that this helps us get outside of the ‘cube farm’ mentality of chasing a number and puts us in a place where our workforce is able to more freely engage in active conversation outside the boundaries of traditional brick and mortar. Our virtual workforce adds additional client and partner benefit, allowing us to engage clients and partners across a wide geographical area while also allowing us to use the latest technology to effectively collaborate, brainstorm, and improve government and business operations. We are proud of our workforce and are glad that we can support them to “work their passion” in an environment that best suites them. CANA Connection adds to CANA’s robust collaborative infrastructure and is your connection into our community – yes, this is now your community too. Keep coming back to see our posts. Connect with us on our social media pages – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Engage. We look forward to sharing our ideas and hearing yours! #CANA #Connection #outreach #community

Connecting to you is important to us. To improve how we do this - providing you information and getting your feedback - we developed a new Website. We feel that this site is more modern, aesthetic, mobile friendly, and sensible. Let us know what you think. CANA Connection is a great place for you to connect with us. We consider you as part of our extended community of clients, partners and otherwise collaborators. This is the place where you will find our latest news and ideas - where you are able to interact with our team of professionals on current topics that are relevant to you. You will also find an event calendar to stay up to date on our upcoming activity. To complement our new site, you will also see a jump in our social media sites (Google+, FaceBook, Linked In, and Twitter). Click the social media icons below to engage us on these sites too. So, welcome to our new site! Take advantage of our CANA Connection site and, by all means, provide us feedback. Let us know how you would like to engage. What kind of information would you like to see on our new site? #new #website #CANAAdvisors #CANA #connection #community #blog #launch

We are proud to announce the following newest members to the CANA team. Each brings their own unique set of skills as well as deep expertise and experience to our Logistics & Analytics services. Please welcome Jackie Knapp, Aaron Luprek, and John Moore to CANA! Jackie Knapp is a career business analyst who brings decades of experience providing in-depth business analyses and financial planning support to both commercial and government projects. Jackie joins CANA as a Business Analyst. [LinkedIN profile] Aaron Luprek is a talented software developer who brings immediate expertise in multiple software languages. He, too, boasts experience working with both commercial and government clients. Aaron joins CANA as a Senior Software Developer. [LinkedIN profile] John Moore brings a wealth of expertise in project management, operations research, change management, business process re-engineering and performance management & measurement to the CANA Team. Most recently, he has dedicated his expert services to multiple DoD clients to include the USMC and the U.S. Army. He joins CANA as a Senior Operations Research Analyst. [LinkedIN profile] Welcome aboard! #Jackie #Aaron #JOhn #businessanalyst #softwaredeveloper #researchanalyst #CANA #CANAAdvisors #team

As fellow MORSians, CANA understands the impact and value that MORS members have provided through continued volunteering - a similar principle that CANA also supports through purposeful give-back. With decades of combined military service and application of operations research methods to military and commercial logistics problems, CANA appreciates the value of MORS and recognizes the positive impact that the MORS community has had on important National Security decisions. For more information on MORS and the MORS community go to www.mors.org. #MORS #Phalanx #CANAAdvisors #research #operationsresearch #nationalsecurity

CANA would like to congratulate our Director of Analytics, Mr. Norman Reitter, as the new president of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS). This is a significant achievement and adds to Norm’s distinguished career in National Security Analysis. In becoming President of MORS, he joins a distinguished cadre of past presidents including Wayne Hughes, Gregory Parnell, and his Master’s Advisor, Dr. David Schrady. Norm has served as a Director of MORS since 2011. Prior to becoming President-Elect in 2015, he served as Vice President, Financial Management. You can read about Norm’s plans for his year as President as well as the rest of the Society’s activities here. #CANA #MORS #president #award #phalanx #society #NormanReitter

This is not a pipe I, like the rest of our team, frequently use the R language for statistical analysis for various projects. One really cool feature of R is that it has a vibrant user community and contributors. I was working on some analysis last week and saw an example using the ‘pipe’ operator %>% along with a lot of ‘buzz’ on sites like Stack Overflow and R Bloggers. I have to admit at first, I was resistant to a new package and functions, and I simply didn’t ‘get it’. Still, the magritttr package seemed to be changing the way people wrote functions in R. I tried it – mostly to rebut my colleagues who had recommended it. After a few minutes of stumbling around, and much to my shock and amazement, have concluded that they were right! What does the ‘pipe’ operator do? The pipe operator does a (deceptively) simple thing. It takes whatever is on the left hand side of the operator, and ‘pipes’ it to the first argument to the right hand side. So, x %>% f() = f(x). The simplest example I can think of is the following: library(magrittr) 3 %>% + 2 [1] 5 Big deal, right? Actually, it is a big deal, because you can chain them together! Consider this: library(magrittr) data(cars) cars %>% subset(speed<50) %>% subset(dist > 10) %>% plot() Reading from left to right, it is completely obvious even to a non-programmer what was done. And the best part? The ‘cars’ object remains pristine, and no accessory datasets were stored in the process! The Name Magrittr is a nod to the Belgian painter Rene Margritte, and his painting ‘The Treachery of Images’ (The French at the bottom translates to ‘this is not a pipe’). #magritttr #Rlanguage #analysis #PIPE #pipes #functions #statisticalanalysis #statistics

The defining characteristic of a professional is the constant drive to be as fully proficient as possible in their chosen endeavor. One standardized way of measuring proficiency in Operations Research and several other fields – notably computer science – are certifications. A Certification is a voluntary credential that professionals acquire to demonstrate their competence in the community. This is distinctly different than Licensure, which are legally mandated to perform a certain type of work. If certifications are voluntary, why pursue them? To my mind, there are three reasons: First, to demonstrate your competence to your colleagues (and potential employer) Second, to demonstrate your competence to yourself Third, as a goal for self-study. I’ll address each of these in turn, and then speak to the three professional certifications I currently hold: Certified Analytics Professional (CAP, INFORMS), Accredited Professional Statistician, (PStat, American Statistical Association), Chartered Statistician (CStat, Royal Statistical Society). For professionals in the fields of Operations Research and Statistics, the need to demonstrate competence has never been greater, and was brought into sharp focus during my recent transition from the US Navy. I never needed to demonstrate my competence via certification inside Navy, because the community is small, we all knew each other, and we all routinely saw examples of each other’s work product. Approaching transition, I realized that the field of people currently claiming membership in the OR “Tribe” was far greater than the true size of our profession. The normal means to overcome this difficulty, showing a portfolio of recent relevant work, was not an option because all of the work I did was privileged (a common problem in our field). Certification from INFORMS was a great way to demonstrate professional competence without sharing work examples. People take certifications for a number of reasons; I will expound on mine below. The common reasons are because it is mandated by an employer or contract, because the individual wants to demonstrate to others that they have a given level of competence, or that they want to demonstrate to themselves that they are competent. As you will see below, my experience is a mixture of desiring to demonstrate my competence to myself, and some good natured, but pointed, encouragement from my mentors in the broader community. It probably doesn’t matter why a person undertakes a course of action if it is, in the long run, good for both themselves and the Profession. In short, I took the CAP exam for three reasons; first, because I write a recurring article for INFORMS/Analtyics Magazine, and felt that it may be conspicuous to be a regular contributor without having the certification. Second, my family happened to be out of town the week that the test was offered and I had nothing better to do. Finally, I had dinner with a colleague who was a CAP and he essentially told me to ‘man up’ and do it. I took the PStat certification for two reasons; first, I have been privately concerned for the past few years that there may be negative growth in Analytics in the future. How can I make such a heretical comment? As was mentioned in the keynote address of the 2016 INFORMS/Analytics conference in April of this year, businesses have put a lot of resources against “Analytics” and do not uniformly feel that they have received the expected return. (note: In my own practice I am hyper-attuned to this sentiment.) I felt that it was important to have a second qualification as a hedge against an uncertain future. However, the real reason was that I had lunch with a colleague who was a PStat and he essentially told me to ‘man up’ and do it. Yes, it is the same colleague from the preceding paragraph. I took the CStat certification for two reasons, and these are not nearly as satisfying as the preceding two. First, I saw advertised in Significance that for a limited time, the Royal Society would automatically confer CStat status to any PStat holder that applied. This is not simply ‘certificate collecting’ but adds my name to a third professional registry, which may prove useful should I ever desire to do business in the United Kingdom. The real reason, however, is so that I can have a meal with my colleague from the last two paragraphs and it will be my turn to do the goading! The Process I will now briefly discuss the mechanics of application for CAP and PStat: CAP. The Certified Analytics Professional currently consists of a verification of education and experience, verification of soft skills, ethics pledge, and written examination. The best reference for exam preparation is the CAP Website. For those looking to take the exam, I will make two comments: It is a ‘breadth’ of knowledge exam, not a ‘depth’ exam. There were areas of the exam that I had no education or previous contact with. This is a common experience. The best way to prepare using the materials from the INFORMS website is to understand not only why the right answers are ‘right’ but also why the wrong answers are ‘incorrect’. PStat. The Accredited Professional Statistician is different in that there is no written exam. Petitioners must demonstrate professionalism in several areas to include: education, practice, commitment to continued education and ethics pledge. I found this to be more daunting than the CAP process. There is an interesting aspect to PStat that I did not know before sitting in a 15 June webinar by ASA’s Executive Director – applicants who fail to achieve PStat standing are mentored by ASA – given career advice, if you will, as to what personal and professional milestones are next in their careers. CStat. Because of the conferral agreement, for me this consisted of submitting my credentials from ASA for review by the Royal Society. “Junior” Qualifications Both INFORMS and ASA offer lower level qualifications – the “Associate Certified Analytics Professional” and the Graduate Statistician (GStat). These are meant to serve as ‘stepping stones’ for early career professionals enroute to eventual full certification. I’ve covered the external reasons in this note, and would now like to turn to the internal, personal reasons for seeking certifications. Each one for me has led to a personal reckoning of the state of my career, and what ‘next things’ I should be doing – not just in terms of Practice, but also Scholarship and Service. The satisfaction of having attained certification and (re)affirming your commitment to the Profession and the Profession’s recognition of your efforts is immense, and well worth the price of admission, both in terms of money and ‘sweat equity’. Article by Harrison Schramm, Principal Operations Research Analyst, CANA Advisors #certifications #professional #licensure #INFORMS #CAP #PStat #CStat #Accredited #analytics #ASA #GStat #qualifications #sweatequity

The June 2016 INFORMS OR/MS Today contained two articles authored by CANA analysts. OR/MS Today is a bimonthly publication covering a broad range of operations research subjects. It has a readership of over ten thousand. Our very own Harrison Schramm’s article coauthored by Scott Nestler and covers why understanding p-values are important. < Link to INFORMS Article > In addition, CANA's Walt DeGrange was coauthored with Gary Cokins, Stephen Chambal, and Russell Walker. In an article that presents sports analytics and the development of a new sports analytics taxonomy. It also explains why an analytics taxonomy is important for the growth of the sports analytics field commercially and academically. < Link to INFORMS Article > CANA Advisors is proud to have thought leaders like Harrison and Walt. #statisticalanalysis #pvaules #sports #analytics #INFORMS #WaltDeGrange #GaryCokins #StephenChambal #RussellWalker

R Markdown I've gone a little bit off the 'deep end' when it comes to programming in R recently. I was turned on to Markdown a few months ago by a friend, but haven't really had time to play with it. Until now. The builders of Markdown at RStudio have a technical explanation of Markdown; but to me, it is: A tool that brings word processing functions to a level playing field with the analysis and graphics already resident in R. Ok, sounds cool - why would anyone want that? When I start an analysis project, I'm a madman (sorry, colleagues). I write code like a fiend and have datasets with names like: TF, TFNZ, TFD, TFD2, TFDD, TotalMassRetain, SiberianKhatru, and so on. At some point, the mania of the beginning of the project settles down, and there are three things I have to do. Tasks: 1. Write Stable, usable code. Note: 'Usable' means 'Usable by someone other than me' 2. Write a report 3. Produce professional graphics, export, save, reformat, import, resize, etc. This is how using Markdown compares with my previous production method. Three disparate tasks are now combined into one, consolidated task. Markdown puts the code in the document. It's hard to think of a better, more stable way to save code. Chunks of code are inside the document (and can be easily cross-ported using the <- To Console function of the History window in RStudio). This is especially useful when importing graphics, because they are automatically created and rendered in the destination format. Markdown can render (or knit) to Word, HTML, or LaTeX. And, if the data changes, the report changes as well. A very quick drive The RStudio example uses the mtcars dataset that comes standard in R::Base. Here, I'm going to play with the 'Old Faithful' dataset, which can be accessed by the command data ("faithful"). We can compute a summary of the data in the following chunk of code: {R tableEX, echo = FALSE} faithful %>% summary() %>% kable() We can also make nice looking graphs using ggplot2: Eruptions and Waiting Time for Old Faithful We can even do linear regression inside Markdown: Two final thoughts 1. If wanted to repeat analysis with different data, I would only have to change one line of code. 2. This document was written in R Markdown. Markdown is a simple formatting syntax for authoring HTML, PDF, and MS Word documents. For more details on using R Markdown see http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com. #RMarkdown #RStudio #dataset #documentpreparation #analysis