Ken Vu

Drawing a Christmas card with the ggplot2 package

Regular talk, 11:40-11:55

When the elves aren’t around to help with the holiday festivities, Santa can always count on R programmers to do the job! After getting my Master’s Degree in Statistics last year, I was slowly losing my knowledge of R, which I obtained from my graduate education. Since I enjoyed programming in R so much, I wanted to figure out how to preserve my knowledge of it. At the same time, I wanted to spread some holiday cheer during the Christmas season, which was around the time I began to realize how much I have not kept practicing my R programming skills as much as I used to. Inspired by examples of aRtistry I saw online, I found a way to do both; I drew a Christmas card using R code. It involved rigorous pre-planning, storyboarding, lots of trial and error, and of course, the ggplot2 package to design it. In this talk, I’ll explain my entire creative process behind creating this Christmas card with R, and show how it deepened my understanding of the grammar of graphics. This talk shares with the audience a unique way of using R to create R attendees can explore and learn from, which both align with R Cascadia’s goal of promoting different uses of R, having learning opportunities, and connect R programmers with one another.

Pronouns: he/him San Jose, CA Ken Vu is an R enthusiast who first learned the programming language while completing his MS in Statistics at California State University - East Bay. Currently, he provides data insights, survey research, and online content curation services for non-profit and public organizations, especially in areas concerning education or environmental conservation. Additionally, he co-faciliates the r4ds book club as a member of the r4ds Online Learning Community, providing inclusive and accessible ways for R users of all skill levels and backgrounds to learn data science techniques in R. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, writing for his Quarto blog The R Files, and eating at new restaurants with friends and family. You can find Ken Vu on Mastodon at @kenvu777.