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April 2026: Fake data and R projects

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R ConsortiumJumping RiversRedhat
About this event

What to expect

Whether you're wrestling with sensitive data or setting up your first R project, this hands-on session from Edinburgh's EdinbR community offers practical solutions to two of the most common challenges facing R developers today.

Making Fake Data for Testing

Mike Spencer, Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and independent data consultant, will demonstrate how to generate realistic synthetic datasets for development and testing. If you've ever needed to share code publicly, work with external collaborators without proper data clearance, or prototype features using sensitive data, this session provides the tools you need. Learn techniques for creating "good enough" data that maintains statistical properties while protecting privacy — essential skills for modern data science workflows.

Mike brings extensive experience from research, engineering, and data maturity projects. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Mastodon.

Crowd-Sourced R Project Setup

The second half takes an innovative approach: collective wisdom-sharing on R project configuration. Claire Hayman from the Animal and Plant Health Agency joins Mike to facilitate a collaborative session where participants share their best practices, favourite packages, and project structure conventions. Whether you're just starting with R or have years of experience, you'll discover new approaches and contribute your own insights.

This interactive format is perfect for:

  • New R users seeking guidance on project organisation
  • Experienced developers looking to refine their workflows
  • Anyone interested in community-driven learning
  • Data scientists working in regulated environments

Practical Focus: Both sessions emphasise immediately applicable techniques you can implement in your next project.

Who Should Attend: R users at all levels, data scientists handling sensitive information, research software engineers, and anyone building reproducible analytical pipelines.

The event takes place at Teaching Room 02, Old College at the University of Edinburgh, with support from sponsors including the R Consortium, Jumping Rivers, and Redhat.

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