R Consortium

Andy Thomason, code performance consultant and lecturer at the University of London covering programming, physics and AI courses focused on game development, created an open source project to add Rust’s performance, reliability, and productivity to R. Andy created the Extendr package, a safe and user-friendly R extension interface for using Rust. The project was supported by a grant from the R Consortium.

Extendr is a toolkit for building extensions to R using Rust. R users can add high performance features to R without having to worry about crashes due to segmentation faults and other problems associated with C and C++. Extendr manages the lifetime of wrapped R objects so that they are available for garbage collection when they reach the end of their life.

Rust is extremely user-friendly and has been voted one of the most loved languages on Stack Overflow for several years. 

ExtendR is available on crates.io.

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By joining R with Rust, Extendr makes it possible to write packages and small functions in Rust. What problem are you solving by doing this?

The integration of R and Rust through Extendr addresses a specific challenge encountered by individuals with an R background when it comes to writing code in languages like C and C++. While R users often face difficulties when working with C or C++ code, Rust offers a more accessible and streamlined alternative, focused on multi-threaded programs. The package is meant to help simplify the process from R to Rust. 

What sort of use cases provided by R users helped with the design requirements?

I originally started working with a biotech start-up in Oxford, where most of their business logic was written in R. They were working on solving tricky problems with Bayesian Inference in particular. Bayesian inference is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes’ theorem is used to update the probability for a hypothesis as more evidence or information becomes available. I started coding C and C++ extensions to R to solve these problems using improved exponential functions.

For Bayesian Inference, you work in log space. Initially, I was using C++ but later the company I was working for started using Rust instead, and I started liking Rust. Using Rust, I was much more productive than with C++.

My interest then got me to study R internals to the point I could start writing something like this Extendr package. More people joined the community, brought things to it, and it has grown since!

How far along are you on the project? 

It works! We have a strong team committing every day (andy-thomason, clauswilke, yutannihilation, multimeric, CGMossa, Ilia-Kosenkov). There are regular contributors to the project, and they work constantly to improve Extendr. 

As yet, we don’t have a large number of applications. It would be great if more people knew about and were involved in using this useful language. 

If you want to consider using or contributing to Extendr, please contact us through Discord.

How did you get involved?

Having dedicated several years to working with Sony and the PlayStation consoles, I gained valuable experience in compiler development. Interestingly, my spouse, who is also a scientist, uses R. She often collaborates with colleagues learning to use Rust. Furthermore, we have friends who use R for drug trial designs, with a shared objective of cost reduction – drug trials are notoriously expensive. 

Also of this means I looked into both programming languages, R and Rust. By utilizing R, significant time and financial resources can be saved. It inspired us to set out to build a bridge between Rust and R, leveraging the strengths of each. 

Rust excels when dealing with vast amounts of data, and it proved to be exceptional for storing and retrieving multi-terabyte datasets. Rust acted as a powerhouse that facilitates data processing, while R empowered statisticians to draw meaningful conclusions and perform clustering analyses. In this symbiotic relationship, R served as the cognitive component, and Rust as the practical execution framework. The meticulous engineering nature of Rust ensured that everything aligned flawlessly, allowing R to seamlessly integrate and thrive in this cooperative ecosystem.

What are the next steps with the project?

Our contributors Hiroaki Yutani and Claus Wilke have put quite a lot of effort into plotting – there are also plans for 3D plotting. Ilia Kosenkov in Helsinki is the current maintainer and the project is very active. We also hope to release documentation in book form. 

What do you do for your day job?

I am a consultant for a number of different industries. I also teach Rust programming to people all over the world like employees of Google and Fastly. Recently I have been consulting with a blockchain company about data organization and data-related problems. They use R for analyzing stock prices. I am also writing a book on Rust performance – making Rust go fast. 

What non-project hobbies do you have?

Outside of my projects, I enjoy spending time with my kids, who provide plenty of entertainment. I also have a fascination with Soviet brutalist architecture, which I share with my son. We also find pleasure in exploring areas on the Thames near Oxford.

What was your experience working with the R Consortium? Would you recommend applying for a grant to others?

The process of working with the R Consortium was brilliant! It was a great project to dive into during my transition from employee to consultant. Some tasks were structured, while others allowed for experimentation and refining the project’s structure. Over the past year, we’ve seen increased interest, especially in the collaboration between Rust and R. 

The project has a vibrant Discord group (Extendr – R Adventures in Rust) where scientists seek help and support. 

I highly recommend others apply for grants through the R Consortium to contribute to meaningful projects and join a supportive community.

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About ISC Funded Projects

A major goal of the R Consortium is to strengthen and improve the infrastructure supporting the R Ecosystem. We seek to accomplish this by funding projects that will improve both technical infrastructure and social infrastructure. 

Mustafa Cavus, organizer of the Eskisehir R User Group, in Turkey, discussed the diverse and thriving R community in Eskisehir. He shared the details of a 4-day event hosted by the group, which covered beginner-level talks and advanced topics for expert users. He also shared some useful techniques for hosting successful events. 

Please share your background and involvement with the RUGS group.

I am working as an Assistant Professor at Eskisehir Technical University, Department of Statistics. My teaching work focuses on Machine Learning, Data Visualization, and Statistical Hypothesis Testing using R. Additionally, I am actively researching Explainable AI at mi2.ai.

I have a Ph.D. in Applied Statistics and have gained post-doctoral research experience at the Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science, Warsaw University of Technology. My journey with R started during my undergraduate years, and it has greatly advanced my academic career.

Inspired by the productivity and impact of local R groups and events worldwide, my colleague Ugur Dar and I decided to establish a local R user group in Eskisehir in 2019. Our aim was to foster a vibrant user community within our region.

Can you share what the R community is like in Eskisehir? 

The pioneer R users in Eskisehir primarily come from academia, focusing on teaching and research. This group consists of undergraduate students from various disciplines who seek to enhance their skills in data-related fields, as well as graduate students and researchers engaged in analytical research. In recent years, there has been growing interest from diverse industries, including finance, medicine, and more. The group’s areas of interest encompass data visualization, descriptive analysis, and predictive modeling.

You had a Meetup Learn R, can you share more on the topic covered? Why this topic? 

We organized a four-day event on Learn R, which took place on November 13th and 26th, as well as December 17th and 19th. This event was a collaboration with the Eskisehir Technical University Data Science Society. Throughout the event, we delved into various aspects of R, starting from the basics and progressing toward designing user interfaces using R.

On the first day, we commenced with the session “Introduction to R Programming,” covering topics such as understanding the essence of R, effectively handling error messages, and exploring basic data types, data structures, operators, loops, and functions in R. We provided hands-on examples to reinforce learning.

The subsequent session, “Data Manipulation with R,” focused on the practical applications of the {dplyr} package and its functions for manipulating data.

Once participants had gained a glimpse of R and acquired useful data manipulation skills, we proceeded to advanced topics such as “Data Visualization with {ggplot2}” and “Designing User Interfaces with {Shiny}.” These sessions were led by Ugur, an expert in these fields, who actively applies these techniques in the banking sector at Visbanking.

Our primary goal in selecting these topics was to enhance the skills of individuals who were new to R or had only a beginner-level understanding. Furthermore, we aimed to provide initial training to meet the increasing demand for human resources in our country, particularly in areas such as data visualization and user interface design.

Who is the target audience for attending this event? 

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic obligated a shift to online events. Fortunately, organizing such events now allows us to reach a wider audience. Initially, we had planned for this event to be a face-to-face gathering primarily for undergraduate students in Eskisehir. However, in response to numerous requests, we decided to change it to an online format. This modification enables not only participants from Eskisehir but also participants from all across Turkey who are interested in learning R to have easy access to the event.

With the aim of attracting a diverse range of participants, we have carefully prepared comprehensive content that caters to both beginners and those seeking more advanced knowledge. Our curriculum covers fundamental concepts and progressively delves into advanced topics.

Any techniques you recommend using for planning for or during the event? (Github, Zoom, other) Can these techniques be used to make your group more inclusive to people unable to attend physical events in the future?   

Certainly! We now have access to many online platforms and tools for hosting events, and the options available continue to expand rapidly. It is crucial to consider the familiarity of the target audience with the chosen tools to ensure a positive experience.

For our event, we decided to use the widely-used Zoom platform, which is prevalent in Turkey. We also made the training materials available in a public repository on GitHub. Additionally, we uploaded the recordings on YouTube, allowing those who missed the session to catch up.

We think that comprehensive documentation of an event enhances its impact and longevity. The content we developed for this particular event is expected to serve as a valuable resource for individuals interested in learning R for years to come.

Lastly, in order to gauge the effectiveness of an event, we encourage participants to provide feedback using tools such as Google Forms. This valuable feedback will aid us in planning future events more efficiently.

Please share any additional details you would like included in the blog. 

Thanks. I would like to express my gratitude to Ugur for his invaluable support in our R initiatives. Additionally, I extend my appreciation to Gizem Altun, Seyma Gunonu, and Zeynep Afra Sezer for their exceptional organizational contributions.

Our city and country are home to numerous enthusiastic R users, and the opportunity to meet and exchange experiences with them is an integral aspect of R users’ culture. Finally, I extend an invitation to all those who are interested to reach out to us and actively participate in our events. We firmly believe that knowledge becomes more useful when shared. 

Greetings from Eskisehir to the R community! 👋

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How do I Join?

R Consortium’s R User Group and Small Conference Support Program (RUGS) provides grants to help R groups around the world organize, share information and support each other. We have given grants over the past four years, encompassing over 65,000 members in 35 countries. We would like to include you! Cash grants and meetup.com accounts are awarded based on the intended use of the funds and the amount of money available to distribute. We are now accepting applications!

The R Consortium recently talked to Rachel Heyard of the Zürich R User Group to discuss the vibrant R community in Zürich. The group collaborates with different companies in Zürich to host events, providing network opportunities for the R community.

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Please share about your background and involvement with the RUGS group.

I received my Masters in Statistics from the University of Strasbourg, France, and my Ph.D. in Biostatistics at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. I started using R during my Masters for different projects and assignments. During my Ph.D. I became more proficient in it and also wrote my first packages. After my Ph.D., I left academia and worked for the Swiss National Science Foundation in Bern as a statistician. 

I used R to analyze data on how the Swiss National Science Foundation is distributing funding to research projects and got to also do some research but this time research on research. I got very interested in what we call meta-science and decided to go back to academia. I have been working on my postdoc since October 2021 a postdoc at the Center for Reproducible Science at the University of Zürich. I do a lot of teaching: I am teaching good research practices to Ph.D. students and postdocs from different disciplines.

After things settled down a bit, we tried organizing a few meetups, but we struggled to gain momentum in the team. However,  now we have planned three sponsored events for this year. One in July, one in September, and one in November. We are hopeful that it will work out and we will gain momentum again with the meetups. 

Can you share what the R community is like in Zürich?

It is actually very diverse, and we have a lot of people from different domains. There are many from academia as we have two big universities in Zürich, the University of Zürich and ETH.  Data journalists are attending, as well as people from re-insurance, official statistics, pharma, and other fields. 

What industry are you currently in? How do you use R in your work?

I currently work in academia and I teach a block course on Good Research Practices. We teach the steps of good and reproducible research including starting with a study protocol and then registering this study protocol. We also teach them all kinds of steps to avoid questionable research practices like p-hacking. 

Part of this course is two hours on dynamic reporting with R as well as another hour on how to use Git for version control. The course is very interesting because participants are early career researchers doing their Ph.D. or postdoc. They all come from very different fields and some already have some experience in R while others are using it for the first time. So you never know what’s gonna happen in the course. Sometimes it is easier to teach the course because the participants are familiar with R. Other times it’s really difficult because they are all coming from different backgrounds and some have never used R before. So you have to be very dynamic in teaching and adapt to the level of the participants. The goal is not to make people who’ve never used R or R Markdown before proficient in R. It is to have them experience it once and see the benefit. Maybe get them interested in it, hoping that they use it in the future or learn more about it. 

What trends do you currently see in R language and your industry? Any trends you see developing in the near future?

I need to follow the latest trends more often. For example, I am still teaching R Markdown but we have been thinking about switching to Quarto. That might be a big development because some of our participants are Python users. So for them, it might be good to use Quarto because it’s easier to use with Python. 

When I did my Ph.D. I was a base R user and at the university, people are still using a lot of base R. When I left academia to join the Swiss National Science Foundation, I started using tidyverse and also got proficient in it. It is so much easier to handle messy data and do data processing with tidyverse. 

Now that I am teaching R, I also teach tidyverse. For people who are not statisticians like me and have to do a lot of data handling, tidyverse is much easier to get into as compared to base R. That’s not very recent anymore but for me, it’s one of the biggest changes I saw for my personal work. 

Any techniques you recommend using for planning for or during the event? (Github, zoom, other) Can these techniques be used to make your group more inclusive to people that are unable to attend physical events in the future? 

I think Slack is a really great tool for organizers. It’s an asynchronous conversation that you can always go back to. We also collect ideas for speakers in a Google doc. Whenever we talk to somebody who could be interested in giving a talk, we quickly write down their name and contact details. So whenever we need a speakers we go back to this document. 

I also feel that it is very productive for the organizers to meet in person and have a drink or coffee together and discuss. Because it feels more urgent and is great for discussing future meetups. While Slack is great at times we might forget about conversations when we get busy. 

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How do I Join?

R Consortium’s R User Group and Small Conference Support Program (RUGS) provides grants to help R groups around the world organize, share information and support each other. We have given grants over the past four years, encompassing over 65,000 members in 35 countries. We would like to include you! Cash grants and meetup.com accounts are awarded based on the intended use of the funds and the amount of money available to distribute. We are now accepting applications!