Workshop

Explore NEON Workshop - University of Tennessee Chattanooga

NEON & University of Tennessee Chattanooga

May 20, 2020 - May 22, 2020

Update: This workshop has been converted to an online 3-day 4-hr per day workshop from May 20-22, 2020 each day from 1-5pm EDT. There will be an optional 4-hour R Bootcamp offered the days before the workshop. Pre-registration is required and preference will be given to those participants previously registered for the in-person workhop, however, additional workshop spaces are available.

This workshop introduces participants to NEON, teaches them how to access and work with NEON data, and allows them to interact with NEON science staff to get assistance working on the specific data products they are interested in using. The workshop includes hands-on, interactive instruction on how to access and work with NEON data, both through the NEON data portal and programmatically.

Optional R Bootcamp: A four-hour preparatory online R bootcamp will be offered by the University of Tennessee Chatanooga on May 18th and 19th for participants that need to learn basic R programming. Registration is required to participate.

This workshop is co-sponsored by NEON and a NSF Big Data Spoke award to University of Tennessee Chatanooga.

Application

Faculty, graduate students, and researchers are welcome to apply. The workshop is limited to 40 participants. There is not cost to attend the workshop. Participants must commit to particpating in the entiretly of the workshop. Participants are expected to attend all four hours each of the three days and not leave for other meetings or commitments.

Individuals from minority serving institutions, primarily undergraduate institutions, and community colleges are especially encouraged to apply.

Participant selection has already occured and the workshop is full.

Required Prior Knowledge

All coding instruction will be conducted in R and participants will be able to complete the workshop best if they have at least an introduction to coding. Participants without past experience working in a programming environment are encouraged to complete a basic introduction to R to understand the basics -- training options can be found on the Resources for Learning R page. Participants using other programming languages are welcome to attend, however, instruction and assistance in the programming language of preference may not be available. The University of Tennessee Chattanooga is also offering a 1-day R bootcamp for participants prior to the workshop that individuals who do not frequently use R should plan on attending.

Workshop Schedule

Schedule subject to change. For detailed schedule and links to resources, see Workshop Materials in right hand menu.

Location: Online. Virtual meeting link will be sent to registered participants.

Times: As the workshop was originally planned to be held in Chattanooga, TN, all times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC -4).

Pre-Workshop

All participants will be asked to complete self-paced online tutorials/videos before the workshop to have their laptops set up for the workshop and to learn some initial information about NEON. Details provided in Workshop Materials in right menu.

Monday 18 May and Tuesday 19 May (Optional)

R Bootcamp, taught by University of Tennessee Chattanooga faculty

Day 1: Wednesday 20 May: Accessing & Understanding NEON data

Time	Topic
13:00	Welcome & introductions
13:40	NEON Q&A – your questions not answered in prep materials
14:00	Exploring NEON data
14:15	BREAK
14:30	Accessing NEON data
16:00	Access & explore NEON data of interest
17:00	End of Day

Day 2: Thursday 21 May: Using NEON Data, Part 1

Time	Topic
13:00	Questions
13:15	Access & work with NEON spatial data
14:00	Breakout Rooms, First Round of Topics: Guided work with specific data products of interest
16:30	NEON Research Support
17:00	End of Day

Day 3: Friday 22 May: : Using NEON Data, Part 2

Time	Topic
13:00	Questions
13:15	NEON Data Processing: People & tools to ensure high quality data
14:00	Breakout Rooms, Second Round of Topics: Guided work with specific data products of interest
16:20	Funding NEON-related Research
16:35	Resources for Teaching with NEON Data
17:00	End of Day

Workshop Host

Hong Qin, Computer Science and Engineering and Biology, University of Tennessee Chattanooga

Workshop Instructors

Megan A. Jones; Twitter: @meganahjones, Research Scientist, Science Education; NEON program, Battelle
Donal O'Leary; Data Science Educator; NEON program, Battelle

Additional NEON scientists will participate in portions of the Explore NEON workshop.

Please get in touch with the instructors prior to the workshop with any questions.

Accessibility

If you have any questions regarding the accessibility of the workshop format, please contact Megan Jones.

Twitter?

Please tweet at @NEON_Sci and using the hashtag using #NEONData during this workshop!

This page currently provides details on the content that are expected. Linked and downloadable resources will be added closer to the workshop dates.

Computer Set Up Instructions

These computer workshop instructions must be completed before starting the Exploring & Downloading NEON Data portion of the Pre-workshop Introductory Materials.

R & RStudio

To participant in this workshop, you will need a computer with the most current version of R, and preferably RStudio, loaded on your computer. Prior to the workshop you should have R and, preferably, RStudio installed on your computer.

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Install R Packages

Please have these packages installed and updated prior to the start of the workshop.

 install.packages("devtools")
 install.packages("neonUtilities")
 install.packages("raster")
 devtools::install_github("NEONScience/NEON-geolocation/geoNEON")
 install.packages("BiocManager")
 BiocManager::install("rhdf5")

Update R Packages

In RStudio, you can go to Tools --> Check for package updates to update previously installed packages on your computer. Or you can use update.packages() to update all packages that are installed in R automatically. More on Packages in R

Monitors

To allow for participants to view the workshop instructors (including screensharing) and to follow along with the activities on their own computer, we recommend participants have two screens to view the workshop. If you do not have access to dual monitors, alternatives include calling into the virtual meeting on a tablet or extra-large cell phone (smaller cell phone screens will make it challenging to see the presentation materials). In these are not options, the workshop can still be completed with a single monitor/screen.

Pre-workshop Materials

Please complete all materials prior to the start of the workshop. The workshop will start with time for asking questions based on these introductory materials. Please keep a list of questions or concepts you need clarified.

The Future of Science is Open ( Video (6 mins))
Introduction to NEON (Video (4 mins) )
Navigating the resources from NEON (Tutorial , Video (7 mins). The tutorial covers more material than the video includes).
Explore and Download NEON data (Tutorial, Video (6 mins). The video only includes exploring the data on the data portal, not the complete tutorial).
NEON Spatial Design & Geospatial Data ( Video (6 mins))

Day 1: Wednesday 20 May