Data

RStudio Professional Drivers 2021.10.0

Announcing the 2021.10.0 release of the RStudio Professional Drivers, with single sign-on (SSO) for Hive and Impala

RStudio Professional Drivers 1.8.0

Announcing the 1.8.0 release of the RStudio Professional Drivers, with a fully supported Snowflake driver, a more compatible NTLMv2 support for the Microsoft SQLServer driver, and other updated drivers

RStudio Professional Drivers 1.7.0

Announcing the 1.7.0 release of the RStudio Professional Drivers, which includes security updates, a preview release of the Snowflake driver, an updated Oracle driver, and other changes

RStudio Professional Drivers 1.6.0

Announcing RStudio Professional Drivers

Article Spotlight: Persistent data storage in Shiny apps

RStudio v0.99 Preview: Data Viewer Improvements

Zero Tolerance for Dirty Data: A Pointblank Prescription for Data Hygiene (Arnav Patel, Synovus)

Zero Tolerance for Dirty Data: A Pointblank Prescription for Data Hygiene Speaker(s): Arnav Patel Abstract: Data validation is an exercise that is commonly forgotten. It can be difficult to start the exercise, let alone figure out a holistic approach to cleaning and understanding data. This is a problem that affects us all regardless of experience, expertise, or complexity of work. With Pointblank’s suite of validation functions, you can scan your data, present that scan in a visually appealing and unique report, and then define validation rules at scale in a methodical manner. I want to show why pointblank, above other validation packages, is the best validation approach through its simple yet appealing reporting features and comprehensive validation schema. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Who are 'the ggplot2 extenders' and how to become one (Gina Reynolds) | posit::conf(2025)

Who are 'the ggplot2 extenders' and how to become one Speaker(s): Evangeline 'Gina' Reynolds Abstract: The ggplot2 extension ecosystem is large and robust. Still, even for the most competent ggplot2 users, jumping into writing extensions may not feel straightforward. But the extension-interested should know, it is a great time to get into extension. New efforts exist to support and connect extenders! This talk will discuss some new getting-started resources for extenders and will highlight the ggplot2 extenders meetup and discussions. YouTube Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpUeWjs9wDGc4C_Db_u4T7g_rDmw9ZkXE Join Form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3M1KwUPrmTfEGuuQp0fZ0J7dZkk_82gb310JCvdouMTa_7Q/viewform Website - https://ggplot2-extenders.github.io/ggplot-extension-club/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Gina Reynolds

When R Met Python: A Meet Cute on Posit Connect (Blake Abbenante, Suffolk Construction)

When R Met Python: A Meet Cute on Posit Connect Speaker(s): Blake Abbenante Abstract: Data teams often leverage multiple programming languages—driven by a multitude of reasons, be it task-specific requirements or personal preference. In this talk, I'll share how we enabled our developer base to build in the language of their choice, and how we leverage Posit Connect to unify them. By exposing core functionality as APIs using R’s plumber and Python’s FastAPI packages, and building parity in internal packages for both languages, we created a shared toolkit that streamlines workflows and fosters collaboration. Join me to explore our journey in breaking down language barriers and empowering data innovation. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

What we're doing to make Quarto fast(er) (Carlos Scheidegger, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

What we're doing to make Quarto fast(er) Speaker(s): Carlos Scheidegger Abstract: Quarto is a powerful system, but its performance leaves much to be desired. In this talk, I'll go through the things that make Quarto slow, and I will describe the journey I'm taking in 2025 to fix the issues. This is going to be a deeper technical talk on performance analysis, profiling, and will include discussing the custom tooling we've had to build to measure performance in a system as complex as Quarto. Quarto markdown repo: https://github.com/rstudio/rstudio-conf/blob/main/2025/github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-markdown posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Carlos Scheidegger

What R We Counting? (Ben Arancibia, GSK) | posit::conf(2025)

What R We Counting? Speaker(s): Ben Arancibia Abstract: GSK Biostatistics mandates that all new tools be written using open-source languages and open-source code achieve parity with proprietary software by the end of 2025. Given this ambitious timeline, someone might ask, "How is the open-source adoption going?" This seemingly simple question involves complexities: What metrics do you track? How to measure success? How to show progress? GSK addressed these by leveraging our internal GitHub data, using open-source R packages like {gh}, scheduling our data pipeline on Posit Connect, and generating diverse reports/dashboards. We’ll share our journey of transitioning to R and other open-source tools, offering insights on scaling full enterprise open-source adoption. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Web applications with Shiny and React and AI (Winston Chang, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Web applications with Shiny and React (and AI) Speaker(s): Winston Chang If you've ever wanted to have complete control over the UI for a Shiny application, this talk might be for you. In this talk I'll show how to integrate a back end written in Shiny (for R or Python) with a front end written in React.js. This lets you combine Shiny's reactivity with the flexibility of the React web development ecosystem. In the past, writing a front end in React was a large time investment, and would be reserved only for a serious project. However, with today's agentic AI coding tools, it can make sense to create a React front end even for smaller-scale applications. But even with AI involved, you will still need to know some React or be willing to learn about it. GitHub Repo - https://github.com/wch/shiny-react CLI tool - https://github.com/wch/create-shiny-react-app Anthropic Dashboard - https://github.com/wch/anthropic_dashboard posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Winston Chang

Virtual Day Q & A Hangout with Virtual Speakers | posit::conf(2025)

Have you ever joined a Posit Data Science Hangout? In this Hangout-style event, co-hosts Rachel Dempsey & Libby Heeren moderated an hour-long Q&A with the posit::conf(2025) Virtual Day talk session speakers. Just like at the Hangout, questions came from the attendees, which is always a lot of fun! Virtual Day Speakers include: Dylan Pieper Gina Reynolds John Coene Kennedy Mwavu Ryszard Szymanski

Gina Reynolds

Virtual Day AMA with Rich Iannone | posit::conf(2025)

Libby Heeren from the Data Science Hangout hosts an AMA (ask me anything) session with Rich Iannone, a software engineer at Posit. Rich fielded questions from participants about everything from his journey in open source development to the guitars on the wall behind him. He was asked about his very first package, talked about the importance of personal projects for career growth, and described some of the differences between CRAN and PyPI as package repositories/distributors. Rich emphasized the value of community engagement and encouraged data newcomers to contribute to open source. He also shared his interests in niche packages (and hiding easter eggs in his open source code!) and the challenges of transitioning personal projects to public ones

Rich Iannone

Using Quarto to Improve Formatting/Automate the Generation of Hundreds of Reports (Keaton Wilson)

Using Quarto to Improve Formatting and Automate the Generation of Hundreds of Reports Speaker(s): Keaton Wilson Abstract: This presentation showcases how KS&R’s Decision Sciences and Innovation (DSI) team modernized a legacy reporting pipeline to automate and scale custom survey report generation. Using tidyverse and Quarto, the team produced hundreds of personalized PDFs weekly over three months. Hosted on GitHub, the project integrated version control and streamlined collaboration while documentation ensured easy onboarding and adaptability. Attendees will gain insights into automating report workflows, overcoming implementation challenges, integrating custom formatting and fostering collaboration using tidyverse, Quarto, and GitHub. Materials - https://github.com/ksrinc/posit_conf_2025_quarto_automation posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Using paired programming to have fun & sell your solutions (Kris Fabick & Kristin Carr)

Self-sufficient deployment: using pair programming to have fun and sell your solutions Speaker(s): Kris Fabick; Kristin Carr Abstract: Are you on a business team lacking resources to get data science projects actually deployed for your non-technical end users? Join us on a case study journey involving Posit Connect, Vetiver, and Streamlit. We will discuss how to successfully deploy "department-level", bilingual data science solutions quickly enough to solve problems before they become obsolete by focusing on how to harness the power of pair programming. Come see how to make your work life simpler, more fulfilling, and more fun! Materials - https://github.com/kfabick03/positconf2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Use Your Data Skills for Good (Sharon Machlis) | posit::conf(2025)

Use Your Data Skills for Good: Ideas for Community Service Speaker(s): Sharon Machlis Abstract: Community service doesn't have to mean finding a group where your skills match their needs. You can also see a data-related need and jump in to fill it. Are there interesting things to do in your town, but no one place to find them? You could create a searchable, auto-updating local events calendar. Do you live someplace where local election results aren't published the way you'd like people to see them? If data is publicly available, you could analyze and publish it yourself. You'll leave this session with some ideas on how your data skills can help your community -- even if you're not ready to commit to formal volunteering with an outside organization. Materials - https://github.com/smach/positconf_2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Uncharted Nuuk: Data Exploration in Search of the Unexpected (Emil Malta, Statistics Greenland)

Uncharted Nuuk: Data Exploration in Search of the Unexpected Speaker(s): Emil Malta Abstract: Good graphs are more than simple decorations. They are effective tools for challenging your intuition, and can uncover engaging narratives along the way. Using examples from official statistics, this talk shows how tools like API packages can query data from official registers, streamlining ways to import and tidy data, so your time is better spent on story telling with data visualisation. Highlighting Nuuk, a symbol of Greenland's rapid change, I'll demonstrate how to use these tools to turn complex registers into clear, impactful stories. If you work with official statistics, as an educator, journalist or in government, this talk offers practical insights for streamlining workflows and crafting engaging visualizations. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Trustworthy Data Visualization (Kieran Healy, Duke University) | posit::conf(2025)

Trustworthy Data Visualization Speaker(s): Kieran Healy Abstract: Visualizations are the most widespread, the most immediately accessible, and in some ways the most authoritative-looking way to present results to audiences, including when the audience is just yourself. In this talk I ask: what makes a visualization trustworthy? How do tools like R and ggplot to help us achieve that goal? And what are their limits, especially now that it's easier than it has ever been to do untrustworthy things with data? Link: Kieran Healy's website - https://kieranhealy.org/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Trust, but Verify: Lessons from Deploying LLMs in a Large Health System (Timothy Keyes)

Trust, but Verify: Lessons from Deploying LLMs in a Large Health System Speaker(s): Timothy Keyes Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are transforming how data practitioners work with unstructured text data. However, in high-stakes domains like medicine, we need to ensure that “hallucinated” clinical details don’t mislead clinicians. This talk will present a framework for evaluating and monitoring LLM systems, drawing from a real-world deployment at Stanford Health Care. We will describe how we built and assessed an LLM-powered system for real-time, automated chart abstraction within patients’ electronic health records, focusing on methods for measuring accuracy, consistency, and safety. Additionally, we will discuss how open-source tools like Chatlas and Quarto powered the work across our team’s combined Python- and R-based workflows. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Translating R for Data Science into Portuguese: A Community-Led Initiative (Beatriz Milz, UFABC)

Translating R for Data Science into Portuguese: A Community-Led Initiative Speaker(s): Beatriz Milz Abstract: How can open-source collaboration help make data science more accessible and expand Posit’s global impact? The book "R for Data Science" by Hadley Wickham, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Garrett Grolemund is a key resource for learning R and the tidyverse. In a collaborative effort, volunteers from the R community translated the second edition into Brazilian Portuguese, making it freely available online. This talk explores the translation journey, the challenges of adapting technical content, and key lessons learned to support future translation teams. Materials - https://beamilz.com/talks/en/2025-posit-conf/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Hadley Wickham, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel

Tips & tricks from the maintainers of Positron (Sharon Wang & Melissa Barca) | posit::conf(2025)

Tips & tricks from the maintainers of Positron Speaker(s): Melissa Barca; Sharon Wang Abstract: Positron is Posit’s next-generation IDE for data science. Finding your groove in a new IDE takes time, so we’ve got some tips and tricks to help you feel more at home in Positron! We’ll cover key navigation concepts, helpful features for different workflows, and configuration settings for a pleasant IDE experience. Plus, we’ll show you how to explore what Positron is doing under the hood – so you can understand it more deeply and solve problems with confidence. Whether you’re just getting started or already using Positron, these tips will help you settle into your data science workflow and get the most out of everything Positron has to offer. Materials - https://github.com/sharon-wang/positron-tips-and-tricks posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

There's a new Plumber in town (Thomas Lin Pedersen, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

There's a new Plumber in town Speaker(s): Thomas Lin Pedersen Abstract: Announcing plumber2! The popular plumber package has gotten a successor. In this talk I'll walk the audience through the "How" and the "Why", what it means for existing plumber APIs, and of course showcase a range of amazing things that are suddenly possible with the new iteration. If you are an existing plumber user I hope to leave you full of excitement about the future of plumber. If you have never used plumber before I hope this talk will show you just how easy it is to create modern and powerful web servers in R. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Thomas Lin Pedersen

Theming Made Easy: Introducing brand.yml (Garrick Aden-Buie, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Theming Made Easy: Introducing brand.yml Speaker(s): Garrick Aden-Buie Abstract: brand.yml is an exciting new project from Posit that radically simplifies theming. Every data science tool supports some form of theme and appearance customization, but each app framework, output format, or visualization tool requires its own special syntax for theming. The goal of brand.yml is to create a portable and unified interface for brand-related theming that can be used anywhere that data science artifacts are produced. As a collaboration between the Shiny and Quarto teams, brand.yml provides a single interface to setting baseline themes in reports and apps across the R and Python ecosystems. In this talk, I’ll introduce brand.yml and showcase the many ways that brand.yml can bring consistent styles to your data science outputs. Materials - https://github.com/gadenbuie/brand-yml-posit-conf-2025 Slides - https://pkg.garrickadenbuie.com/brand-yml-posit-conf-2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Garrick Aden-Buie

The Psychology of Technologists (Cat Hicks, Catharsis Consulting) | posit::conf(2025)

The Psychology of Technologists Speaker(s): Cat Hicks Abstract: Technology teams are struggling to be heard. Technologists are grappling with high turnover, high burnout, and low resilience in the face of rapidly-accelerating technological change. Even though effective technical teams are an essential part of our world continuing to work, many organizations struggle to understand their technical teams, stuck in old stereotypes that treat technical people like isolated machines. To build a thriving future, we need a new way of working together and understanding our own minds as we build technology. In my empirical research across thousands of developers, technical managers and their teams, we've explored what a psychologically-rich environment looks like for modern technologists and found important signals that can guide teams toward greater resilience, innovation, and thriving. In this keynote we'll unlock access to the psychological sciences and evidence that you can use to make your every day more human. Links: Dr. Cat Hicks - https://www.drcathicks.com/ Catharsis Consulting - https://www.catharsisinsight.com/ Center for Open Science (COS) - https://www.cos.io/ Fight for the Human Newsletter - https://www.fightforthehuman.com/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

The Power of Snowflake and Posit Workbench (Jonathan Regenstein, Snowflake) | posit::conf(2025)

The Power of Snowflake and Posit Workbench: Macroeconomic Data Exploration in the Cloud Speaker(s): Jonathan Regenstein Abstract: In this talk, we will utilize the Posit Workbench Native App to demonstrate how macroeconomic research can be run in the Snowflake cloud, powered by R & RStudio. Starting with data sourced from the Snowflake marketplace, we will import, transform, visualize, and, finally, model data using the Orbital framework to push tidymodels down to the cloud. This is full-stack, R-driven macroeconomic research in the cloud. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

The Curse of Documentation (Michael Chow, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

The Curse of Documentation Speaker(s): Michael Chow Abstract: In Greek mythology, Tantalus was doomed to stand with a lake of water below him and branches of fruit close above. When he went to drink the water it receded, and when he reached to eat the fruit it was blown beyond his grasp. What he needed was forever at arms length. Software documentation often puts users in a similar bind. The information is there, but something doesn’t quite connect. Maybe you try and fail to adapt an example to your use case. Maybe it’s unclear how a bunch of functions fit together. In this talk, I'll discuss how effective user guides--like R for Data Science and the React.js guide--break the curse. I'll focus on three factors behind effective guides: strategic information, inductive learning, and task sequencing. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Michael Chow

Teaching data visualization with R entirely in Quarto (Claus Wilke, UT Austin) | posit::conf(2025)

Teaching data visualization with R entirely in Quarto Speaker(s): Claus Wilke Abstract: When teaching a programming course, we may want to employ several different modes of content delivery. First, slides. (And it should be easy to integrate code and code output into them.) Second, practical exercises, where students can try out programming concepts in a guided manner. Third, an in-class live programming environment, to ad-lib during lectures. Fourth, a framework for graded assignments. Fifth, a class website. All of these components can be created with Quarto and webR. I will explain how I used these technologies for my data visualization class at UT Austin, covering how the different components work, what issues I encountered, and what I think best practices are if you want to create a similar course yourself. Materials - https://github.com/clauswilke/PositConf2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Teaching Data Sharing through R Data Packages (Kelly McConville, Bucknell) | posit::conf(2025)

Teaching Data Sharing through R Data Packages Speaker(s): Kelly McConville Abstract: Data science courses tend to teach students reproducible workflows. However, the origin of the data used in these workflows and definitions of the variables used are often not emphasized. This talk addresses this gap by focusing on how to teach students effective data sharing through the creation of R data packages. We’ll explore how to leverage key packages, such as devtools and usethis, and will demonstrate how to guide students in generating appropriate documentation through ReadMes, help files, and vignettes. Furthermore, we’ll discuss common pitfalls encountered when first learning to create R packages and will propose how to structure a project assignment where an R data package serves as the primary deliverable. Materials - https://mcconvil.github.io/r-data-package-talk-f25/data_packages_talk posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Talk data to me: How to present youR data to any audience (Freda Warner, CIHR) | posit::conf(2025)

Talk data to me: How to present youR data to any audience Speaker(s): Freda Warner Abstract: Translating data and analytics to diverse audiences is a vital part of any data scientists’ job, no matter what level. Strong data communication skills are valuable for every shiny app or quarto-generated presentation you give, and involve more than just avoiding pie charts! This presentation will cover creating a narrative with your data, identifying key messages, creating effective slides and visuals, and delivering an oral presentation that is not only articulate, but will help your audience understand and remember your message. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

surveydown (John Paul Helveston, GWU) | posit::conf(2025)

surveydown: A Markdown-Based Platform for Interactive and Reproducible Surveys Using Quarto and Shiny Speaker(s): John Paul Helveston Abstract: This talk introduces the surveydown R package and survey platform, which leverages the Quarto publication system and R shiny web framework to create reproducible and interactive surveys. While most survey platforms rely on graphical interfaces or spreadsheets to define survey content, surveydown uses plain text (markdown and R code chunks), enabling version control and collaboration via tools like GitHub. It supports complex features like conditional skip logic, dynamic questions, and complex randomization as well as a diverse set of question types and formatting options. The open-source package gives researchers full control over survey implementation and data storage, with reproducible workflows that integrate with R data analysis. GitHub Repo - https://github.com/surveydown-dev/surveydown Materials - https://github.com/jhelvy/2025-posit-conf-surveydown posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Shinystate (Eric Nantz, Eli Lilly) | posit::conf(2025)

shinystate: Launching collaboration and session management to new heights in Shiny applications Speaker(s): Eric Nantz Abstract: Shiny is being used more regularly as a front end to sophisticated workflows in data science, often with a large number of inputs and intricate reactivity. End users desire a way to save their progress through the application workflow and share their state of the application with others for review. For small applications, the existing Shiny bookmarkable state feature is a valid approach. However, many of the production Shiny applications I've created require more granular control. Enter {shinystate}, my new R package that offers an intuitive class system and integration with {pins} to let developers choose where to save application state, ability to save multiple sessions at once, and bring collaboration to new heights for end users. Materials - https://rpodcast.github.io/shinystate-positconf2025/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

shinyGovStyle- accessible gov design in RShiny (Cameron Race & Sarah Wong-Brown) | posit::conf(2025)

shinyGovStyle - accessible government design in RShiny Speakers: Cameron Race; Sarah Wong-Brown Abstract: In the UK, public sector websites are required to be accessible to all users. Government analysts are increasingly turning to R Shiny to enhance data dissemination. Enter **shinyGovstyle**, a package crafted by UK government analysts that seamlessly incorporates **GOV.UK's frontend design components into shiny functions**, allowing R users to effortlessly emulate the design of other GOV.UK services

Semantic Search for the Rest of Us with DuckDB (Marcos Huerta, Carmax) | posit::conf(2025)

Semantic Search for the Rest of Us with DuckDB Speaker(s): Marcos Huerta Abstract: Semantic search matches a search query against documents not just by directly matching words, but by ranking results using semantic meaning - for example searching for “cat” could also turn up documents that have “tiger.” While many enterprise level solutions exist for semantic search, I will show a low memory technique in Python that enables live semantic search for small to medium document collections that need to be deployed in constrained memory/ CPU environments - such as Posit Connect Cloud or a small cloud server. I will show how a web app (such as Shiny for Python) using just a few hundred megabytes of memory can enable live search using the fixed array support in DuckDB, and the open source library LlamaCPP. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

See if talking to the doctor is right for you (Max Hockstein, Georgetown) | posit::conf(2025)

See if talking to the doctor is right for you. Speaker(s): Max Hockstein Abstract: Clinicians and data professionals have different approaches to data which can lead to communication difficulties within a research team. This session will highlight common areas of confusion between data scientists and clinicians. Several techniques will be reviewed to facilitate communication using several examples in R. There will also be a real, live-clinician who wants to hear from you and will apologize for the actions of any past clinician researchers. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Same Data, Different Tools: Visualizing with R and Python (Olivia Hebner, Summit)

Same Data, Different Tools: Visualizing with R and Python Speaker(s): Olivia Hebner Abstract: In 2024, our team participated in a data challenge to recreate a visualization from W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1900 Paris Exposition using modern tools. We split into two groups—one using R and the other Python—to compare their strengths and limitations. Both teams used census and geographic data to map county-level populations for 1870 and 1880. Team R used ggplot2 and grid for precise layout control, while Team Python used matplotlib’s subplot system for structuring. This challenge pushed us beyond more traditional data science visualizations, requiring creative approaches to mimic Du Bois’s design. Attendees will gain insights into data wrangling, visualization techniques, and layout design to guide their own projects. Materials - https://github.com/summitllc/Du-Bois-Challenge-2024 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Running a polyglot data science community (Melissa Van Bussel, StatCan) | posit::conf(2025)

Running a polyglot data science community Speaker(s): Melissa Van Bussel Abstract: Running a successful data science community is CHALLENGING! And it's even more challenging when you have a very large group of people, especially if they use different programming languages or are at different steps in their data journeys. It can be done, though, and in my talk I'll share the strategies that we've been using at Statistics Canada to keep the 1000+ members of our R and Python User Group interested and involved. I'll also talk about why you don't have to limit the target audience of your data science community to just one group -- creating polyglot communities that embrace multiple programming languages is a great way to ensure the long-term success and relevance of these groups. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

rOpenSci Champions: Building Communities of Open-Source Leaders (Noam Ross, rOpenSci)

rOpenSci Champions: Building Communities of Open-Source Leaders Speaker(s): Noam Ross Abstract: rOpenSci's Champions program is designed to build a diverse, inclusive, and sustainable community of scientific R developers. We identify emerging leaders in open science from underrepresented communities globally. We link them together with each other and with mentors who are experienced software engineers and teachers. In a months long program of skill and project building, they create, contribute to and review R packages. Then they bring those approaches back to their local scientific communities. In this talk, I will discuss the methods and accomplishments of the Champions program, and discuss how we can use this approach to build sustainable communities to maintain open-source software. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Ripples of Change with R- It's more than just coding (Yvonne Kienast, CIHI) | posit::conf(2025)

Ripples of Change with R: It’s more than just coding Speaker(s): Yvonne Kienast Abstract: Switching from SAS to R is not just a technical shift – it requires a whole new way of thinking! This journey of moving a SAS-centered coding team to R was filled with strategies, challenges, and unexpected roadblocks. Change can be frustrating, but with the right mindset and approach, it becomes an opportunity for growth and empowerment. As a forward-thinking R strategist and advocate for growth, I am excited to help you discover practical strategies to ease the transition, overcome resistance and frustration, and empower teams to embrace R with confidence. Whether you team is starting on a similar path or is struggling, I will share insights on how to navigate challenges, avoid pitfalls, and hopefully leave you with a roadmap for success. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

R-multiverse: a new way to publish R packages (Will Landau, Eli Lilly) | posit::conf(2025)

R-multiverse: a new way to publish R packages Speaker(s): Will Landau Abstract: R-multiverse is a new dual repository for R packages, based on infrastructure from R-universe and GitHub. We would like to invite the developer community to contribute packages. With R-multiverse, users have a central place for installing packages. Automated quarterly production snapshots enforce quality. Package maintainers retain most of the freedom and flexibility of self-publishing. Maintainers directly control package releases through GitHub or GitLab. R-multiverse originated from the R Consortium Repositories Working Group. It has transparent governance, and it operates in a collaborative and open way. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

R & Python playing nice, in Production (Claudia Penaloza, Continental Tires) | posit::conf(2025)

R & Python playing nice, in production Speaker(s): Claudia Penaloza Abstract: Hi, I’m Claudia Peñaloza, a Data Scientist at Continental Tires, where going data-driven can be an adventure. What started as a proof of concept a few years ago, evolved into Conti’s first-ever Predictive Machine Learning Model for R&D! A baby, a wedding, two lateral moves, and three hires later, our team had also evolved… from mostly R to mostly Python developers. Rewriting 1000+ commits? No thanks. Instead, we got R and Python to play nice. With Renv, Poetry, and Docker, we keep things reproducible, portable, and deployable on various ML-Ops platforms. The takeaway? With the right tools, teams can mix and match languages, leveraging the best in each, and still build solid, scalable solutions. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Quarto for Business Collaboration & Technical Documentation in Word docx format (Bill Pikounis, J&J)

Quarto for Business Collaboration and Technical Documentation in Word docx format Speaker(s): Bill Pikounis Abstract: Microsoft Word documents have remained a critical channel of statistical evidence and influence for the manufacturing of a safe and effective supply of therapies to treat diseases. The incorporation of statistical content – narratives, graphs, and tables – into health authority dossiers worldwide requires speed in terms of days and sometimes hours to generate statistical source content for decision-making and official documentation. Quarto provides an efficient solution to address these needs. This presentation illustrates and covers concepts of the solution that builds upon R and the Posit platform to reliably produce an automated and flexible workflow for figure and table captions, autonumbering, and cross-referencing in docx format. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Putting an {ellmer} AI in production with the blessing of IT (Andrie de Vries) | posit::conf(2025)

Putting an {ellmer} AI in production with the blessing of IT Speaker(s): Andrie de Vries Abstract: I had an idea to automate a process by letting an AI extract information from PDF attachments. Writing the 20 lines of {ellmer} code was very simple. My users loved the idea. But IT had different feelings, especially initially. It took multiple design changes to get IT comfortable with running experiments in our financial system. They need a solution that is secure, with guardrails, wouldn’t leak sensitive information and could be easily maintained. We wrote a simple browser extension to reduce the friction of copy/paste between different systems. If you want to put an AI in production, make sure you consider the impact on other teams, in particular IT and Information security. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/ Keywords: production, AI, LLM

Purrrfectly parallel, purrrfectly distributed (Charlie Gao, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Purrrfectly parallel, purrrfectly distributed Speaker(s): Charlie Gao Abstract: purrr is a powerful functional programming toolkit that has long been a cornerstone of the tidyverse. In 2025, it receives a modernization that means you can use it to harness the power of all computing cores on your machine, dramatically speeding up map operations. More excitingly, it opens up the doors to distributed computing. Through the mirai framework used by purrr, this is made embarrassingly simple. For those in small businesses, or even large ones – every case where there is a spare server in your network, you can now put to good use in simple, straightforward steps. Let us show you how distributed computing is no longer the preserve of those with access to high performance compute clusters. Materials - https://shikokuchuo-posit2025.share.connect.posit.cloud/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Charlie Gao

Precision Medicine for All: Using Tidymodels to Validate PRS in Brazil (Flávia Rius) | posit::conf

Precision Medicine for All: Using Tidymodels to Validate Breast Cancer PRS in Brazil Speaker(s): Flávia E. Rius Abstract: Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are a powerful way to measure someone’s risk for common diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. However, most PRS are developed using data from European populations, making it challenging to generalize results to other ancestries. In this talk, I’ll show how I used tidymodels tools—like yardstick, recipes, and workflows—to calculate metrics and validate a breast cancer PRS in the highly admixed Brazilian population. You will learn how to leverage tidymodels to make precision medicine more inclusive. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Practical {renv} (Shannon Pileggi, The PCCTC) | posit::conf(2025)

Talk title: Practical {renv} Speaker(s): Shannon Pileggi Abstract: The {renv} package aims to help users create reproducible environments for R projects. In theory, this is great! In practice, restoring a package environment can be a frustrating process due to overlooked R configuration requirements. Join me to better understand the source of environment restoration issues and learn strategies for successful maintenance of {renv}-backed projects. Materials - https://github.com/shannonpileggi/practical-renv Example - https://github.com/shannonpileggi/jsonlite-example posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Positron: The First Five Minutes (Isabella Velásquez, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Isabella Velásquez from the developer relations team at Posit introduces Positron, a comprehensive tool that integrates coding, documentation, and command line functionalities. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Positron for Babies: Communicating Technical Concepts to all Audiences (Ryan Johnson)

Positron for Babies: Communicating Technical Concepts to all Audiences Speaker(s): Ryan Johnson Abstract: Data science is full of complex topics—Bayesian statistics, neural networks, databases, and more. Now, imagine teaching one of these to a baby. What would you say? How would you say it? This exercise highlights the power of simplification: anyone can teach, and anyone can learn. Breaking down complexity makes data science accessible, impactful, and fosters greater creativity and flexibility. In this talk, I’ll share my approach to simplifying data science education with a playful demonstration using Posit’s new IDE, Positron, as the focus! posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Positron AI Session (George Stagg, Winston Chang, Tomasz Kalinowski , Carson Sievert) | posit::conf

George Stagg, Winston Chang, and Tomasz Kalinowski introduce AI capabilities in Positron, including Positron Assistant, a tool still in preview that enhances coding and data analysis. 0:00 Introduction to Posit's approach to AI 0:23 George Stagg: Positron Assistant 11:03 Winston Chang: Databot 21:30 Tomasz Kalinowski: ragnar 31:13 Carson Sievert: chatlas 41:42 Q&A posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Carson Sievert, George Stagg, Tomasz Kalinowski, Winston Chang

Posit and the modern data stack: Using Posit, Snowflake, and Databricks (James Blair)

James Blair, a senior product manager at Posit, discusses the integration of Posit tools with partners like Snowflake and Databricks, emphasizing the role of AI in enhancing data scientists' efficiency. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Polyglot Data Science: Why and How to Combine R and Python (Jeroen Janssens) | posit::conf(2025)

Polyglot Data Science: Why and How to Combine R and Python Speaker(s): Jeroen Janssens Abstract: Doing everything in one language is convenient but not always possible. For example, your Python app might need an algorithm only available as an R package. Or your R analysis might need to fit into a Python pipeline. What do you do? You take a polyglot approach! Many data scientists hesitate to explore beyond their main language, but combining R and Python can be powerful. In my talk, I’ll explain why polyglot data science is beneficial and address common concerns. Then, I’ll show you how to make it happen using tools like Quarto, Positron, Reticulate, and the Unix command line. By the end, you’ll gain a fresh perspective and practical ideas to start. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Jeroen Janssens

Plotgardener Genomic Data Visualization Made Easy (Rishabh Sharma Vemuri & Abiye Berhanu)

Plotgardener – Genomic Data Visualization Made Easy Speaker(s): Rishabh Sharma Vemuri & Abiye Berhanu plotgardener repo - https://phanstiellab.github.io/plotgardener/ Abstract: Plotgardener is an R package with over 10,000 downloads that empowers users to programmatically generate complex, publication-quality figures based on genomic data. However, its reliance on R creates a significant barrier for users with limited coding experience. We developed an intuitive desktop application that uses Python to structure and load Plotgardener’s features, providing a seamless experience for users, including non-programmers. Built with Electron—the framework behind VSCode and Slack—the Plotgardener app provides a friendly interface allowing users to create, edit, and visualize genomic data, demonstrating how R and Python can work in harmony to expand the reach of data science tools to new audiences. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Outgrowing Your Laptop with Positron (Austin Dickey, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Outgrowing Your Laptop with Positron Speaker(s): Austin Dickey Abstract: Ever run out of memory or time when crunching data, making a visualization, or training a model? As computational demands and data sizes grow, many practitioners find their laptops behaving more like cranky toddlers than high-performance machines. In this talk, we’ll demo how the Positron IDE helps you scale your development without losing your sanity or your data. You’ll learn how Positron can integrate into different setups and see how lazy-evaluated libraries like Ibis can manage data too big for memory. Whether you're building AI models, running complex simulations, or working with large-scale datasets, you’ll walk away with techniques for doing it better with Positron. Materials - https://github.com/austin3dickey/ssh-demo posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Oops! I accidentally made a production dashboard (Jonathan Keane, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Oops! I accidentally made a production dashboard Speaker(s): Jonathan Keane Abstract: As data scientists we love making decisions with data. But we also don’t always do this with our own work. Ever wonder if that dashboard you are about to spend hours updating from line charts to 3D pie charts is actually being used? With usage metrics it’s easy for you to see, analyze, and show just how much traction your app is getting. Not only does this let you decide where to prioritize your efforts, it can help you demonstrate the impact you have on your business. This talk will explore how to be data-driven with your own work and tools we have for maintaining our work when it becomes important. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

On Teaching Adults to Code (Kristin Bott, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

On teaching adults to code Speaker(s): Kristin Bott Abstract: Working with code can be deeply rewarding, but learning to code can be daunting; similarly, changing the code habits of a team may feel monstrous. For the last three years, the Posit Academy team has been working to teach adults to code in a way that sticks with individual learners, scales within organizations, and leaves individuals able to adapt in an evolving technological landscape. In this talk, I will share some lessons we’ve learned, speak to the importance of communities of practice, and provide actionable steps for effectively connecting learners and code. Materials - https://github.com/RhoBott/posit-conf-2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Old Apps, New Tricks: How AI can write Automated Tests for your Shiny Apps (Karan Gathani, Posit)

Old Apps, New Tricks: How AI can write Automated Tests for your Shiny Apps Speaker(s): Karan Gathani Abstract: As Shiny applications grow in complexity, comprehensive testing becomes crucial yet often overlooked. Many developers struggle to implement proper testing due to time constraints and technical barriers. To address this challenge, we're introducing an innovative solution that automatically generates regression tests for existing Shiny apps. By leveraging AI models trained on testing best practices, the Shiny package will streamline the testing process, making it more accessible and efficient for developers of all skill levels. Materials - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/130bJNGp3XIlKPaouA8K0Lv0O3P7OFesW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105060716153365836674&rtpof=true&sd=true posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Karan Gathani

Observability at scale (Barret Schloerke, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Observability at scale: Monitoring Shiny Applications with OpenTelemetry Speaker(s): Barret Schloerke Abstract: Understanding what happens behind the scenes in production Shiny applications has always been challenging. When users experience slow response times or unexpected behavior, developers are left guessing where bottlenecks occur. This talk introduces OpenTelemetry integration for Shiny for R, a new approach to profiling code and understanding application behavior. Through a chat-enabled weather application, we'll explore how complex user interactions trigger cascading events across multiple processes. You'll learn how OpenTelemetry's "high-quality, ubiquitous, and portable telemetry" can provide complete visibility into your Shiny application's performance with minimal setup... just a few environment variables! After walking through the chat app, you'll have a taste of how to implement comprehensive monitoring for your Shiny applications in production, enabling you to proactively identify and resolve unexpected performance issues. Materials - https://github.com/schloerke/presentation-2025-09-17-posit-conf-otel posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Barret Schloerke

Multiple Console Sessions in Positron (Dhruvi Sompura, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Multiple Console Sessions in Positron Speaker(s): Dhruvi Sompura Abstract: When it comes to everyday data science work, having access to one interactive R or Python session is often just not enough to get meaningful work done. Having access to multiple interactive sessions has proven useful across a wide variety of data science IDEs, and it has recently become available in Positron! In this talk, learn why data science practitioners need to be able to fluently access more than one interactive session, the specifics of when you might reach for an additional console session to solve a problem, and how to manage multiple console sessions in Positron. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Modular, layout-as-code approach for customizable Shiny dashboards (Kim Schouten, De NZa)

Modular, layout-as-code approach for customizable Shiny dashboards Speaker(s): Kim Schouten Abstract: To improve government supervision in the healthcare space, we have designed a Shiny dashboard that enables us to adhere to GDPR and other regulations and share different bits of information with different types of stakeholders. For that, we have implemented a ‘layout-as-code’ system where each user can have its own layout of pages and modules, stored as json in the database. Users have the option to drag and drop modules to different locations or change the layout altogether, adding and removing modules as needed! For developers, this system of loosely coupled modules helps to quickly contribute to the project as a new module needs only a couple of lines of code to integrate it within the framework. Materials - https://github.com/KSchouten/elemental posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Making Things Nice in Python (Rich Iannone, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Making Things Nice in Python Speaker(s): Rich Iannone Abstract: When working on the Great Tables and Pointblank Python packages, we've tried to make them 'nice'. These packages give you a lot of convenient options, and a large volume of docs and examples. In the Python world, this might be received differently than it would be in R. Whether it was integrating Polars selectors in Great Tables or accepting a multitude of DataFrames and DB tables in Pointblank, these design choices can be seen as surprising things to established Python developers. However, I argue it's good to be doing this! People are benefitting from these approaches. I'll share a few of these developer stories with the takeaway being that Python packages could and should pay attention to good user experience. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Rich Iannone

Making the most of artificial and human intelligence for data science (Hadley Wickham, Joe Cheng)

Making the most of artificial and human intelligence for data science Speaker(s): Hadley Wickham; Joe Cheng Abstract: This presentation explores the complex and often contradictory nature of large language models (LLMs) in data science, acknowledging the simultaneous excitement and apprehension that we feel toward these technologies. We’ll provide a practical framework to help you understand the LLM ecosystem (from foundation models and hosting to SDKs and applications) that supports our current philosophy: augmenting, not replacing human intelligence. The talk demonstrates how Posit is addressing this space through two complementary approaches: building SDKs and tools that help you create your own LLM-powered solutions, and developing integrated LLM capabilities directly into data science workflows through tools like Positron assistant and databot. We’ll showcase practical, immediately useful applications while addressing current limitations, providing you with both the emotional preparation and technical foundation needed to effectively leverage LLMs in their data science practice today. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Hadley Wickham, Joe Cheng

Making Ecological Modelling Accesible with EcoCommons (Jenna Wraith, QCIF) | posit::conf(2025)

Breaking Barriers: Making Ecological Modelling Accessible with EcoCommons Speaker(s): Jenna Wraith Abstract: Would koalas prefer to live on the East Coast or West Coast of the US? Answering complex questions like this requires robust and scalable technology. Enter EcoCommons, a cutting-edge platform built on an R package that’s scientifically rigorous and designed for scale. EcoCommons efficiently runs millions of models to help researchers, governments, and NGOs make data-driven decisions. Whether it's predicting habitat loss, optimising conservation strategies, or advising policy, this platform turns R into a powerhouse for real-world impact—all while building a thriving community of practice. In this talk, we’ll explore the challenges of running R at scale, lessons learned, and how our community is shaping the future of modelling. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Make Big Geospatial Data Accessible with Arrow (Cari Gostic, Sonoma Technology) | posit::conf(2025)

Make Big Geospatial Data Accessible with Arrow Abstract: Firelytics is a methodology that computes sub-daily wildfire growth metrics for over 22,000 wildfires that burned in California since 2012. The Firelytics dataset is used in studies funded by NOAA and NASA to better understand wildfire behavior and health implications of wildfire smoke. The accompanying Firelytics Dashboard lets a user map the sub-daily timeseries of fire progression for any wildfire in the dataset. Firelytics is a novel tool for historical fire analysis in California which will help to better predict and plan for future wildfires. Sfarrow, the spatial extension of the Arrow package, facilitates the real-time querying of big spatial data that is necessary to share the Firelytics dataset in this accessible, visual format. Speaker(s): Cari Gostic posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

maidr: Empowering Accessible, Multimodal Data Visualizations (JooYoung Seo) | posit::conf(2025)

maidr: Empowering Accessible, Multimodal Data Visualizations Speaker(s): JooYoung Seo Abstract: maidr is a Python package that transforms visualizations into accessible multimodal representations. Designed for both blind/low-vision and sighted users, it integrates with libraries like matplotlib and seaborn and supports interactive environments such as Quarto, Jupyter Notebooks, Google Colab, Streamlit, and Shiny. With a simple function call, maidr synchronizes visual, tactile (Braille), textual, audible (sonification), and conversational outputs, enabling reproducible, inclusive workflows. By creating, modifying and sharing accessible visualizations, maidr fosters collaborative insights by bridging the gap between blind/low-vision and sighted users, empowering inclusive, data-driven decision-making that leverages diverse perspectives. GitHub Repo - https://github.com/xability/py-maidr posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Lift Off! Building REST APIs that Fly (Joe Kirincic, RESTORE-Skills) | posit::conf(2025)

Lift Off! Building REST APIs that Fly Speaker(s): Joe Kirincic Abstract: Picture the scene: you've successfully deployed your ML model as a plumber API into production. Your company loves it! One team uses the API's predictions as an input to their own ML model. Another team displays the predictions in an internal Shiny app. But once adoption reaches a certain point, your API's performance starts to degrade. What can you do to help your service maintain high performance in the face of high demand? In this talk, we'll show some strategies for taking your API performance to the next level. Using two R packages, {yyjsonr} and {mirai}, we can augment our API with faster JSON processing and better responsiveness through asynchronous computing, allowing our services to do great things at scale at no additional cost. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Leveraging LLMs for student feedback in introductory data science courses (Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel)

Leveraging LLMs for student feedback in introductory data science courses Speaker(s): Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel Abstract: A considerable recent challenge for learners and teachers of data science courses is the proliferation of the use of LLM-based tools in generating answers. In this talk, I will introduce an R package that leverages LLMs to produce immediate feedback on student work to motivate them to give it a try themselves first. I will discuss technical details of augmenting models with course materials, backend and user interface decisions, challenges around evaluations that are not done correctly by the LLM, and student feedback from the first set of users. Finally, I will touch on incorporating this tool into low-stakes assessment and ethical considerations for the formal assessment structure of the course relying on LLMs. Slides - http://duke.is/help-from-ai-conf25 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel

Keeping Data Alive: Persistent Storage Options for Dynamic Cloud Applications (Alex Chisholm, Posit)

Keeping Data Alive: Persistent Storage Options for Dynamic Cloud Applications Speaker(s): Alex Chisholm Abstract: Building cloud-based data applications that evolve over time requires persistent storage solutions. Without a way to record new information or modify datasets, applications like Shiny or Streamlit would reset after each session, losing potentially valuable information. This talk explores persistent storage options ranging from lightweight solutions like Google Sheets to scalable services like Amazon S3 and MotherDuck. We’ll also cover securing connections to these services using Posit Connect Cloud’s secret variable management. By the end, you’ll understand common persistent storage solutions, their trade-offs, and how to choose the best approach for your specific project. Aquarium Search App - https://github.com/alex-chisholm/aquarium-search posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

It's all fun and games til your analysis code is finished (Alex Rossell Hayes) | posit::conf(2025)

It's all fun and games til your analysis code is finished: the player package in R Speaker(s): Alex Rossell Hayes Abstract: The player package is a set of games built entirely in R that you can play in the R console. This lighthearted, humor-filled talk will introduce the package and demo some of its games, including opportunities for audience participation. If selected for a full talk, this will also include a demonstration of how the package code comes together, including approachable introductions to concepts like object-oriented programming with R6 and message handling with cli. The talk will show how playing around with R can be one of the best ways to learn new techniques (some of which can even be carried over into more serious programming). player repo: https://github.com/rossellhayes/player posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Is that LLM feature any good? (Simon P. Couch, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Is that LLM feature any good? Speaker(s): Simon P. Couch Abstract: The ellmer package has enabled R users to build all sorts of powerful LLM-enabled tools. How do you test these features, though? How do you know whether a change to your prompt made any difference, or if a much cheaper model would work just as well for your users? This talk introduces an R port of Inspect, a Python framework for LLM evaluation that has been widely adopted by both LLM developers and tool builders. Attendees will learn about the process of—and importance of—evaluating LLM-enabled apps empirically. Materials - https://github.com/simonpcouch/conf-25 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Integrating AI, Data Science Platforms, and Psychological Safety (Chris Engelhardt, Gen Re)

From Framework to Function: Integrating AI, Data Science Platforms, and Psychological Safety Speaker(s): Chris Engelhardt Abstract: Navigating the vast array of AI and data science tools can be daunting. This talk details our journey to address this challenge, starting with an enterprise data architecture and followed by the development an AI framework—a foundational layer of AI services. We advanced by integrating developer-preferred data science platforms, such as Posit Workbench and Posit Connect, alongside Databricks for centralized data governance. Our choices have enabled us to use Posit Workbench and Databricks to perform analyses and reporting with enhanced efficiency and alignment with modern architectures and governance standards. The rapid integration of these services was driven by a focus on psychological safety, a catalyst for enhancing team performance. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Instant Impact: Developing {docorator} to Simplify R Adoption for Teams (Becca Krouse, GSK)

Instant Impact: Developing {docorator} to Simplify R Adoption for Teams Speaker(s): Becca Krouse Abstract: Although R supports comprehensive analysis workflows, creating polished, production-ready PDFs directly from R remained a challenge for our pharma teams. With teams facing looming deadlines, our R enablement team swiftly created {docorator}—an open-source R package that transforms R-based tables and figures into production-level PDFs. By adorning results with “decorations” like headers, footers, and page numbers, {docorator} produces seamless, polished documents. Powered by Quarto, it also auto-sizes {gt} tables for user ease. Attendees will learn how {docorator} became the missing piece in GSK’s R workflows and learn how focusing on quick, simple solutions can have a lasting impact. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

IDE-ntity Crisis: Choosing the Right Tool for Me (Isabel Zimmerman, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

IDE-ntity Crisis: Choosing the Right Tool for Me Speaker(s): Isabel Zimmerman Abstract: Data practitioners have more IDE choices than ever, but not all are built for the same purpose. JupyterLab prioritizes a notebook-first experience, while VS Code focuses on software engineering with extensible features. Others, like Positron, are designed specifically for data scientists, streamlining workflows and boosting productivity. Understanding these trade-offs helps you find the best fit. By the end of the session, you'll have a clear framework for choosing the right IDE for your data science and analytics tasks. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Isabel Zimmerman

How non-programmers can make sparks fly when using testthat during package development (L. McKenna)

Enemies to lovers: How non-programmers can make sparks fly when using testthat during package development Speaker(s): Libby McKenna Abstract: You’re just a data scientist, self-taught in R, trying to find your way in the world of package development. It’s just a package named testthat, hoping to help a developer make sure their package is operating as intended. You meet. You hate each other. The package seems a little daunting and quite frankly, a little tedious. Surely only “real” programmers use this! The package thinks you’re inept for not immediately putting it to use. As fate would have it, you attend this talk and discover you are indeed compatible. Sparks fly, a package is born. This talk will help less experienced programmers learn about testing, automated workflows, how to write good tests, and why it’s all worth it when it pays off in quality and efficiency. Steamy. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

How I got unstuck with Python (Julia Silge, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

How I got unstuck with Python Speaker(s): Julia Silge Abstract: Python as a language is known for being explicit, simple, readable, and beautiful. At the same time, the tooling around using and writing this language has not always made people feel productive and delighted. I know this has been true for me! In this talk, learn about recent improvements in tooling for Python that have finally addressed my own persistent challenges. Posit’s new IDE, Positron, provides a next generation environment for Python data practice, and this new IDE plays nicely with modern language tooling from the Python community. Whether you are Python curious or looking for ways to improve your Python workflows, hear about how I finally got myself unstuck with the most popular programming language in the world. Materials - https://github.com/juliasilge/get-unstuck-with-python posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Julia Silge

History repeats itself: What the Du Bois Challenge taught me about reproducing design (Simi Ndaba)

History repeats itself: What the Du Bois Challenge taught me about reproducing visualisations Speaker(s): Simisani Ndaba Abstract: In 2024, I participated in the Du Bois challenge to recreate W.E.B Du Bois’s iconic 1900s charts on African American sociology. By reproducing the old graphs and their annotations, themes, accessibility and visible contrasts, I levelled up my visualisation skills. I learnt about complexity of design, colour palettes, fonts, styling, and of course appropriate R packages. This experience empowered me beyond the DuBois challenge and used what I learnt to take part in the 30-day chart challenge, Genuary and Tidy Tuesday. In this talk, I will share what I learnt so that you too can more easily become familiar with unfamiliar charts and craft your own visualizations to regale stories. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Hacking Productivity with LLMs (Nic Crane, NC Data Labs) | posit::conf(2025)

Hacking Productivity with LLMs: What Works (and What Doesn’t) Speaker(s): Nic Crane Abstract: Over the past 18 months, I've used large language models (LLMs) in a series of experiments to improve my productivity as a developer on open source projects in R. I wanted to see if these tools could help with the repetitive, frustrating, or time-consuming parts of development, freeing me up to focus on the interesting problems. The results were mixed: some of these experiments were wildly successful, but others were clear failures. In this talk, I'll share what worked, what didn't, and what I learned. I'll explore important questions to ask around the kinds of tasks LLMs are good for and where they fall short, how to use LLMs to build lasting skills, and why in some cases, investing in human connection pays off more than AI assistance. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Get Your Ducks in a Row with Databases (Melissa Albino Hegeman, NYS OGS) | posit::conf(2025)

Get your ducks in a row... faster Shiny apps with DuckDB Speaker(s): Melissa Albino Hegeman Abstract: Our small team tackled sluggish Shiny applications by implementing DuckDB as a cache layer, transforming slow, resource-intensive operations into responsive user experiences. Initially, our application pulled data directly from SQL Server, performing real-time aggregations that resulted in poor response times. By restructuring our pipeline to pre-compute results in DuckDB, we significantly improved performance. This presentation demonstrates how we identified bottlenecks, implemented DuckDB integration, and measured improvements. We'll share practical examples of DuckDB integration with R, discuss trade-offs, and show how this accessible solution can benefit other small teams with limited resources. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Get the Latest on Posit's Commercial Products | posit::conf(2025)

Get the Latest on Posit's Commercial Products Speaker(s): Kelly O'Briant; Tom Mock; Joe Roberts; Kara Woo; Alex Chisholm; Chetan Thapar; Steve Nolen Abstract: Join us for an overview of the latest developments across Posit’s commercial product ecosystem. This session will cover Posit Workbench, Package Manager, Connect, Connect Cloud, and our growing portfolio of managed services including Snowflake and beyond. Hear directly from the product managers and engineers who are building these tools, and get insights into what’s coming next. 0:00 Introduction 3:30 Audited jobs, Positron Pro sessions, and GenAI in Workbench 14:20 Auth and integrations with RStudio Pro sessions in Package Manager 21:00 An intro to Chronicle for Posit Team 25:57 Building container images in Connect 39:50 Organization plans in Connect Cloud 49:00 A Snowflake Native App offering for Connect and Workbench 1:02:00 An intro to Posit Team Dedicated posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

From Solo to Social: Making Coding a Collaborative Adventure (Allissa Dillman, BioData Sage)

From Solo to Social: Making Coding a Collaborative Adventure Speaker(s): Allissa Dillman Abstract: What if coding were not an exclusive skill but an accessible adventure? Through community-driven, project-based learning, I transform data science education into an inclusive journey. My approach builds trust by meeting participants where they are, using familiar tools and relevant datasets. Through targeted workshops, and collaborative hackathons, I break down complex coding concepts into digestible applications for global audiences. By reimagining how we teach technical skills, I'm not just delivering education—I'm fostering a movement that makes data science accessible to all. Join me to discover how we can democratize coding and create pathways for everyone to become active members of the data science community. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

From SDKs to Agents: Building with R and Python on Databricks (Rafi Kurlansik & Zac Davies)

From SDKs to Agents: Building with R and Python on Databricks Speaker(s): Zac Davies; Rafi Kurlansik Abstract: Databricks offers a rich ecosystem of packages for R and Python developers. This session explores the key tools available—like {ellmer}, {brickster}, and the Databricks SDKs—helping developers build scalable workflows and AI-powered applications. Whether you're working in R or Python, you'll learn how to integrate your IDE, leverage Databricks-hosted LLMs, and build agentic workflows. We’ll cover practical implementations, best practices, and how to scale your projects using Databricks’ robust infrastructure. Whether you're automating workflows or deploying AI-driven solutions, this talk provides the essential toolkit for success. Materials posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

From messy to meaningful data: LLM-powered classification in R (Dylan Pieper) | posit::conf(2025)

From messy to meaningful data: LLM-powered classification in R Speaker(s): Dylan Pieper Abstract: Transform messy, unstructured data into meaningful, structured data using ellmer, Posit's R package for interacting with large language models (LLMs). LLMs can quickly convert thousands of texts, PDFs, and images into the data you need for your analysis. This talk demonstrates the practical benefits and addresses the common pitfalls of using LLMs through three examples: classifying images of Iris flowers and text descriptions of disease symptoms and crimes. Learn structured outputs, prompting strategies, model accuracy and confidence measurements, and validation techniques that blend generative AI with traditional ML concepts. Perfect for both AI-curious beginners and experienced data scientists. Materials - https://github.com/dylanpieper/posit-25 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

From Data to Dollars: Improving Medical Billing Accuracy Using NLP (Julianne Gent, Emory Healthcare)

Protecting our Healthcare Heroes: Using Natural Language Processing to Prevent Billing Mistakes in Healthcare Speaker(s): Julianne Gent Abstract: Maintaining accurate billing documentation in healthcare is essential to prevent revenue loss and preserve patient satisfaction. I’m Julianne Gent, Analytics Developer for Emory Digital, and I’m here to discuss the natural language processing algorithm we built utilizing an automated SQL-to-R pipeline. This algorithm uses packages ‘odbc’ and ‘stringr’ to import SQL queries into R, recognize billing patterns, and extract billing time. Our algorithm accurately captured billing data for 93% of over 250,000 notes. The billing provided by our hospital’s medical software? Only 40%. Our algorithm showed that an SQL-to-R pipeline can improve billing documentation and accuracy, and we are confident that it can be applied to many other industries. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Failure (and Mistakes) (Laura Gast, USO) | posit::conf(2025)

Failure (and Mistakes) Speaker(s): Laura Gast Abstract: In a field driven by precision, the power of failure is often overlooked. This talk digs into the paradoxical benefit of error in data science, drawing on high-profile missteps in data handling and personal anecdotes of falling short. Using examples from errors big and small leading to impacts big and small to the everyday misinterpretation or misuse of data that happens everywhere, we’ll focus on how to get the best out of failure. While some level of error is inevitable in data science, the most resilient and forward-thinking teams realize that errors can drive innovative and creative solutions that may not have been discovered if everything had gone as planned. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Extending the horizons of R with Rust (Andrés Quintero, ixpantia) | posit::conf(2025)

Extending the horizons of R with Rust Speaker(s): Andrés Quintero Abstract: Data volumes have skyrocketed for years, outpacing advances in hardware. When R users hit performance bottlenecks, the traditional remedy has been to reach for C++ and include it in their R code using Rccp. In the last few years Rust has emerged as a modern, high-performance alternative for extending R. In this talk, we’ll explore why Rust is a natural fit for data teams—from its robust safety to its concurrency advantages. You’ll also see real-world case studies of how organizations are leveraging Rust and R together to tackle large-scale, compute-intensive challenges. Join us to learn how Rust is expanding the horizons of what’s possible in R, some tips on extending R with Rust, and how your team can benefit from these new possibilities. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Exploring Extensions from the Posit Connect Gallery (Toph Allen) | posit::conf(2025)

Toph Allen, a software engineer at Posit, introduces the Posit Connect gallery, a platform for deploying applications, dashboards, and APIs. Posit Connect: https://posit.co/products/enterprise/connect/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Exploring Datasets in Positron (Wes McKinney, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Exploring Datasets in Positron Speaker(s): Wes McKinney Abstract: Inspecting raw data in data frames and tables can be a critical tool in the data preparation, tidying, and feature engineering process. In Positron, we made it a priority to design a modern Data Explorer component that works well for both large and small datasets. In this talk, I will discuss the design of the Data Explorer UI and its backends for Python, R, and DuckDB, and how we made it work smoothly with massive datasets having millions of rows or thousands of columns. Additionally, I will discuss the sorting, filtering, search, and statistical data visualization capabilities that we have added to help make users more productive. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Expanding Quarto's Capabilities with Lua (Christophe Dervieux, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Beyond the Basics: Expanding Quarto's Capabilities with Lua Speaker(s): Christophe Dervieux Abstract: Are you familiar with Quarto and eager to push its boundaries? This session is for those ready to explore the power of Lua for customization. Whether you're a novice implementing simple Lua filters or a seasoned developer seeking inspiration for Quarto Extensions, this talk offers valuable insights into Pandoc's and Quarto's Lua features. We’ll explore Quarto's unique Lua support, including custom AST nodes and helper functions, showcasing how both straightforward and advanced techniques can transform your documents. Through practical examples, you'll gain the confidence to extend Quarto's functionality and unlock new possibilities. Join us to elevate your Quarto projects and contribute to its growing ecosystem! Materials - https://cderv.quarto.pub/posit-conf-2025-quarto-lua/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Christophe Dervieux

Engineer Insightful Shiny Apps with Behavioral Science (Jeremy Winget, CrossStack) | posit::conf

Death by Dropdown? Engineer Insightful Shiny Apps with Behavioral Science Speaker(s): Jeremy Winget, PhD Abstract: Opening a Shiny app to endless dropdowns and scattered filters leads to immediate disengagement and feeling like "death by dropdown". This talk introduces the Behavioral Insights Design (BID) Framework, a behavioral science roadmap that transforms overwhelming dashboards into guided user journeys. Using the "Interfaces Need A Smart Vision" mnemonic, we'll explore five stages: Interpret user needs through data storytelling, Notice cognitive friction points, Anticipate user behavior, Structure the application, and Validate & empower users. Drawing from established theories and real-world production examples, attendees will see how applying behavioral science can dramatically reduce the time between "Where do I even start?" and "Aha, now I get it!". You'll leave with practical techniques using the new {bidux} package to help transform user confusion into confident exploration and build dashboards that guide users toward better decisions (and fewer ghosted users). BID Framework - https://github.com/jrwinget/bid-framework bidux docs - https://github.com/jrwinget/bidux posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Enabling geospatial workflow management with targets (Eric Scott, UArizona) | posit::conf(2025)

Enabling geospatial workflow management with targets: an R package origin story Speaker(s): Eric Scott Abstract: {geotargets} is the latest addition to the ‘targetopia’ of extensions for the workflow management package {targets} allowing integration of geospatial packages such as {terra}. {geotargets} provides custom target constructors for raster and vector objects as well as ‘target factories’ for common geospatial workflows such as iterating over tiles or creating spatial datasets. {geotargets} is currently under review at rOpenSci. In addition to discussing features of {geotargets} and some technical challenges we experienced, I’m excited to talk about how {geotargets} was made possible by the extensible design of {targets} and a group of developers from across the globe brought together by the same cryptic error message. Geotargets documentation: https://docs.ropensci.org/geotargets/ posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Empowering Learners with WebR, Pyodide, and Quarto (Ted Laderas, Fred Hutch) | posit::conf(2025)

Empowering Learners with WebR, Pyodide, and Quarto Speaker(s): Ted Laderas Abstract: WebR, Pyodide, and Quarto are powerful technologies that let you run code exercises in the Web browser. Because of this, WebR exercises can be integrated into data science lessons within RevealJS slides and Quarto websites. In this talk, I want to emphasize some considerations for using WebR/Pyodide for active learning in the classroom. Careful exercise design with WebR/Pyodide can make the difference between empowering learners and demotivating them. With our R-Bootcamp and other exercises as examples, I show scaffolding methods for teaching data science concepts gradually, as well as other design considerations. I'll finish up with showing you how to set up WebR up in your slides and websites for your Data Science Learners. Slides - https://laderast.github.io/degrees_of_freedom Repo - https://github.com/laderast/degrees_of_freedom posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Elevating Public Health Decision-Making with R Packages (Kylie Ainslie, RIVM) | posit::conf(2025)

Elevating Public Health Decision-Making with R Packages Speaker(s): Kylie Ainslie Abstract: Supporting public health decisions in high-stakes environments requires transparency, reproducibility, and efficiency. Analyzing real-world health data with complex models helps policymakers mitigate infectious disease spread. Structuring projects as R packages provides a consistent framework that enhances organization, integrates documentation, and facilitates collaboration. This approach improves coding practices, ensures reproducibility, and enables seamless sharing of tools—empowering colleagues without the resources to develop their own. This talk will demonstrate how adopting R package structures can enhance workflows and impact without requiring advanced software development skills. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Election Night Reporting Using R & Quarto (Andrew Heiss & Gabe Osterhout) | posit::conf(2025)

Election Night Reporting Using R & Quarto Speaker(s): Gabe Osterhout; Andrew Heiss Abstract: Election night reporting (ENR) is often clunky, outdated, and overpriced. The Idaho Secretary of State’s office leveraged R and Quarto to create a better ENR product for the end user while driving down costs using the open-source software we all know and love. With help from Dr. Andrew Heiss, R was used in every step of the process—from {dbplyr} backend to visualizing the results using {reactable} tables and {leaflet} maps, combining the output into a visually appealing Quarto website. Quarto was the ideal solution due to its scalability, quick deployment, responsive design, and easy navigation. In addition, Dr. Heiss will discuss the advantages of using a {targets} pipeline and creating programmatic code chunks in Quarto. GitHub Repo - https://github.com/andrewheiss/election-desk posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

duckplyr: Analyze large data with full dplyr compatibility (Kirill Müller, cynkra)

duckplyr: Analyze large data with full dplyr compatibility Speaker(s): Kirill Müller Abstract: The duckplyr package is now stable, version 1.0.0 has been published on CRAN. Learn how to use this package to speed up your existing dplyr codes with little to no changes, and how to work with larger-than-memory data using a syntax that not only feels like dplyr for data frames, but behaves exactly like that. Materials - https://github.com/cynkra/posit-conf-2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Disposable Shiny Apps (James Wade, Dow) | posit::conf(2025)

Disposable Shiny Apps Speaker(s): James Wade Abstract: Many data scientists find themselves building Shiny apps for one-off presentations, client meetings, or teaching demonstrations. These "disposable" apps can suffer from overengineering, leading to unnecessary development time and complexity. Or, the apps never get built because the development hill is too high to climb. This talk covers disposable Shiny apps - intentionally minimal applications designed for specific, short-term needs. We'll explore strategies for rapid development, including reusable templates, coding assistants, efficient styling, and design principles that prioritize speed and clarity. This talk will show how this approach can transform a typical week-long development process into a few hours while maintaining polish. Materials - https://github.com/JamesHWade/posit-conf-2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Design of Everyday Shiny Apps (Casey Aguilar-Gervase & Maya Gans, Atorus) | posit::conf(2025)

Design of Everyday Shiny Apps Speaker(s): Casey Aguilar-Gervase; Maya Gans Abstract: Donald Norman’s Design of Everyday Things shows how even smart people struggle with bad design—flipping the wrong switch, pushing a door instead of pulling. The same issues exist in Shiny apps, where function often outweighs experience. But as a Shiny developer, you are the door designer, and it’s your responsibility to create user-friendly tools. Not to worry—good design isn’t just for designers. You don’t need an art degree to build intuitive, visually appealing apps. This talk covers composition, color theory, scale, and proportion—practical rules to improve usability. We’ll show real-world examples and code-based strategies to bring these principles to life. Because good design isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. Materials - https://github.com/caseyag/Posit-Conf-25 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Deploy with Confidence: Strategies to Maximize Success (on Posit Connect) (Ryszard Szymański)

Deploy with Confidence: Strategies to Minimize Failure and Maximize Success (on Posit Connect) Speaker(s): Ryszard Szymański Abstract: Release day has arrived - you’re eager to share the latest version of your app with users. You deploy it, ready to celebrate… Then everything breaks. The app won’t load, and the errors make no sense. Despite all your efforts - testing locally, verifying in staging - production still surprises you. Deployments are tricky, full of hidden challenges that can derail even the best preparations. But with the right strategies, you can reduce risk and increase the likelihood of a successful release In this talk, we’ll explore deployment techniques such as blue/green deployments and feature flags, showing how they can be applied when working with Posit Connect. You’ll also learn what to do when the unexpected happens. Example - https://gist.github.com/rszymanski/65b140a2a2f03369d26a9fe86d01602e Package - https://github.com/szymanskir/featureflag Links - https://gist.github.com/rszymanski/4b17170a9630dd8e9af191d7e5d6b2c7 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Demystifying MLOps with Vetiver (Myles Mitchell, Jumping Rivers) | posit::conf(2025)

Demystifying MLOps with Vetiver Speaker(s): Myles Mitchell Abstract: MLOps is the process of setting up a Machine Learning lifecycle, including model training, deployment and monitoring. It is a complex topic which brings together an understanding of data processing, modelling and cloud architecture. It is therefore not surprising that many newcomers (myself included) can feel intimidated by the subject. In this talk I will draw on my experience as an organiser of local data science meetups. I will go into how MLOps is often presented within the data science community, how it could be made more accessible to students and beginners, and my current process for teaching MLOps in R and Python using my favourite package, vetiver. In summary: no, you do not have to be an expert in AWS or Azure to get started! posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Data-as-a-product: A framework for collaborative data wrangling (Clara Amorosi, BMS) | posit::conf

Data-as-a-product: A framework for collaborative data wrangling Speaker(s): Clara Amorosi Abstract: Data preparation requires substantial time and subject matter expertise but is often tailored to a single-use deadline rather than encouraging reusable workflows across a team. We developed a framework that acknowledges the time and expertise invested in data preparation and maximizes its value. Our data-as-a-product suite of R packages promotes joint code and data version control, standardizes metadata capture, tracks R package versioning, and encourages best practices such as adherence to functional programming. I'm excited to share my experience onboarding collaborators to this reproducible research framework, highlighting key challenges and lessons learned from advocating for good development practices in a dynamic research environment. GitHub Repo - https://github.com/amashadihossein/daapr posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Data Science in Production Has Never Been So Easy | Feat: Posit Connect (Adam Wang)

Data Science in Production Has Never Been So Easy | Feat: Posit Connect Speaker: Adam Wang from NMDP Abstract: Data science is most impactful when it's in production. However, there's often a disconnect between local development and a production system. I'll show how to leverage **Posit Connect** to reduce the friction between development and production, automate and reproduce your data science at scale, and empower decision makers. We’ll uncover the production architecture that powers data science at NMDP

Data Science Hangout (Rachael Dempsey, Posit & Matthew Montero, GenRe) | posit::conf(2025)

That's right, a LIVE IN PERSON Data Science Hangout! Rachel Dempsey introduces Matthew Montero, Chief Data Officer at GenRe, who shared his journey from actuary to technology leader. He emphasized the importance of effective communication between IT and business, as well as the need for a strong enterprise data architecture. Matthew discussed the challenges of productionalizing data models and the significance of community support in adopting new tools like R. If you'd like to attend a Data Science Hangout, we'd love you to join us. We meet (almost) every Thursday at 12PM ET, and you can register at pos.it/dsh. Everyone is welcome! It doesn't matter what your background, years of experience, or preferred tools are

Data 911: how Posit can support decision-makers in times of environmental crisis (Marcus Beck)

Data 911: how Posit can support decision-makers in times of environmental crisis Speaker(s): Marcus Beck Abstract: Over 200 million gallons of mining wastewater was released into Tampa Bay in March of 2021. Concerns about the environmental impacts prompted a multi-agency response to monitor water quality changes in the bay, producing thousands of sample points in need of synthesis and communication to a concerned public. This talk will describe how the Tampa Bay Estuary Program leveraged Posit products to create a data synthesis workflow and Shiny dashboard to inform decision-makers on how, where, and when water quality was affected by this pollution. Our experience navigating this event in real time will be shared with the broader community as a successful example of how Posit products can address environmental crises. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Championing modern science workflows to benefit dairy farmers (Mark Neal, DairyNZ)

Championing modern science workflows to benefit dairy farmers Speaker(s): Mark Neal Abstract: Dairy research faces data volume and variability challenges. DairyNZ's Modern Science Workflows project addressed this via infrastructure, capability, and business disciplines. Infrastructure: Snowflake cloud data warehouse and Posit Workbench for R. Capability: R data science courses (Uni of Waikato & internal). Business: Meetings, documented code, best practices, and moving towards open science with GitHub at organisational level. Results: We have enabled large dataset projects utilising machine learning which would not have been possible before (e.g., animal sensor data analysis). Training has been well-received. Modern workflows enable reproducibility, and data science skills should become standard scientific training. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

ChalkTalk: Globalizing Data Science Education with AI-generated Videos (Kene David Nwosu)

ChalkTalk: Globalizing Data Science Education with AI-generated Videos Speaker(s): Kene David Nwosu Abstract: We present ChalkTalk, an open-source tool that converts Quarto documents into engaging educational videos with AI-powered voices and avatars. By adding simple text-to-speech (TTS) and text-to-video (TTV) attributes to markdown files, educators can automatically generate multilingual video content while maintaining the reproducibility benefits of Quarto. At The GRAPH Courses, where we've trained over 3,000 learners globally, we are testing out this tool to scale our video content creation. We'll demonstrate its integration with Quarto and present preliminary findings from our A/B testing with students. GitHub - https://github.com/the-graph-courses/chalktalk_studio Slides - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/flsb81eznl8ypuwpxi53t/Posit-Conf-Prezi-Chalktalk-Kene-David-Nwosu.pptx?rlkey=hxmeyb9vijp0ucgpjqmod5qwt&e=4&dl=0 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Can I trust that package? (Colin S Gillespie, Jumping Rivers) | posit::conf(2025)

Can I trust that package? Speaker(s): Colin S Gillespie Abstract: We often forget, surrounded by hex stickers and bad R package puns, that not everyone is as trustworthy as us. This, I suppose, means that when IT asks, “Is this package valid, secure, and trustworthy?” it’s not that unreasonable a question. But this throws up multiple issues. There are thousands of R packages on CRAN, and that doesn’t include the R-universe, Bioconductor, and GitHub. Packages are updated all the time, so how do we keep up? More to the point what does valid, secure and trustworthy even mean? In this talk, I’ll discuss the litmusverse. A suite of packages for assessing a package risk. Importantly, it’s not one size fits all. Instead, it’s about defining your risk appetite and acting accordingly. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Building Web Apps and APIs in R with Ambiorix (Kennedy Mwavu & John Coene) | posit::conf(2025)

Building Web Apps and APIs in R with Ambiorix Speaker(s): Kennedy Mwavu & John Coene Abstract: Ambiorix reimagines web development in R, offering a flexible, autonomy-driven alternative. It gives developers full control over the request-response cycle, while providing essential web features like routing and middleware out of the box—ideal for developing large web applications and APIs. This talk will cover what sets Ambiorix apart, its key advantages for developers, and how it streamlines building web products & services in R. Whether you're an R developer looking to build web apps with more flexibility, or exploring new tools for APIs, this session will show you why Ambiorix is worth considering. GitHub - https://github.com/ambiorix-web/ambiorix Website - https://ambiorix.dev/ Talk Repo - https://github.com/ambiorix-web/positconf2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Building Multilingual Data Science Teams (Michael Thomas, Ketchbrook Analytics) | posit::conf(2025)

Building Multilingual Data Science Teams Speaker(s): Michael Thomas Abstract: For much of my career, I have seen data science teams make the critical decision of deciding whether they are going to be an “R shop” or a “Python shop”. Doing both seemed impossible. I argue that this has changed drastically, as we have built out an effective multilingual data science team at Ketchbrook, thanks to polars/dplyr, gt/great-tables, ggplot2/plotnine, arrow, duckdb, Quarto, etc. I would like to provide a walk through of our journey to developing a multilingual data science team, lessons learned, and best practices. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Building Governable ML Models with R (Tom Shafer, Elder Research) | posit::conf(2025)

Building Governable ML Models with R Speaker(s): Tom Shafer Abstract: For a model to provide value in production, it must be fit for purpose, deployable, and maintainable over time. We know that R provides a host of tools and packages for building good models, but the language and ecosystem also provide tools to help us build these kinds of maintainable production systems. This talk will present techniques, adapted from software engineering, that provide a stable foundation for building models and writing all the accompanying code that's often needed to train, test, and update models over time. Those attending this talk will learn how, by centering model development on packages, writing tests, creating intuitive S3 methods, and more, we can build modularized, testable code that makes our models easier to monitor and update over time. Materials - https://elderresearch.github.io/posit-conf-2025/index.html Blog Post - https://tshafer.com/blog/2025/11/recap-post-conf-2025 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Building Agentic AI applications with Positron and AWS Strands Agents (Greg Headley & Shun Mao, AWS)

In this video, Greg Headley and Shun Mao introduce developers to AWS tools designed to support the creation of agentic AI applications. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Building a Real-Time COVID-19 Surveillance System with R (Hugo Fitipaldi, Lund University)

Building a Real-Time COVID-19 Surveillance System with R: Lessons from the COVID Symptom Study Sweden Speaker(s): Hugo Fitipaldi Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID Symptom Study Sweden collected over 20 million daily health reports from more than 200K participants. This talk demonstrates how R served as the backbone for transforming this massive dataset into actionable public health insights. I'll showcase our analytics pipeline built entirely in R, from processing raw data to developing an interactive Shiny dashboard for real-time COVID-19 surveillance. The presentation covers predictive modeling for prevalence and hospital admissions estimates and the creation of our 'covidsymptom' R package. Through practical examples, I'll share key learnings about handling large-scale health data and creating data products with R during a public health emergency. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Brand YML and Dark Mode in Quarto (Gordon Woodhull, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Brand YML and Dark Mode in Quarto Speaker(s): Gordon Woodhull Abstract: Brand YML is a specification to provide consistent color themes, typography, and logos across all applications and packages that support it. Quarto currently implements Brand YML for its HTML and Typst formats. This talk will introduce Brand YML and get into a few of the interesting technical details about how we implemented Brand YML in Quarto. Specifically, I'll talk about the layering of SCSS styles in our HTML format, and the Typst CSS layer which translates CSS properties into Typst properties. Time and progress permitting, I'll also talk about applying Dark Mode to your documents by specifying both light and dark brands. Materials - https://gordonwoodhull.github.io/brand-yml-lightning-talk/#/title-slide posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Gordon Woodhull

Bold indicates negative? (Luis D. Verde Arregoitia, Instituto De Ecología, A.c.) | posit::conf(2025)

Bold indicates negative? Speaker(s): Luis D. Verde Arregoitia Abstract: Over one billion people worldwide use spreadsheets to manage and analyse data, often styling cells and their contents to highlight or distinguish values. This formatting is often used to encode additional data (for example, indicating groups with colors) but most data science tools are unaware of data expressed as formatting. This talk summarizes my progress addressing the gap between formatted spreadsheets and the modern data stack. First, by championing data organization best practices, then by bringing spreadsheet contents and their formatting together into R for further analyses (unheadr package), and finally how translating format to data helped me develop tools (forgts package) for converting formatted spreadsheets to gt objects. Slides - https://liomys.mx/posit25.html posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Birthing the pregnancy package (Ella Kaye, University of Warwick) | posit::conf(2025)

Birthing the pregnancy package Speaker(s): Ella Kaye Abstract: When I was pregnant, I wrote a personal, private package for date and medication calculations, hard-coded with my data. I thought it would be easy to adapt for general use, but no! I wanted the user experience to be excellent, but how to avoid them repeatedly entering the same due date and meds? How to print useful, nicely formatted, grammatically correct information to the console? How to test a package that relies on the current date? Using the pregnancy package as a case study, I'll show how to take advantage of base R features such as global options and %||%, how the cli and rlang packages came to the rescue for messages and how testthat's new mocking features saved the day (literally!) to create a package that's a pleasure to use. Slides: https://github.com/EllaKaye/pregnancy-lightning-talk posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Automating for Consistency (Kristin Mussar, Pfizer) | posit::conf(2025)

Automating for Consistency Speaker(s): Kristin Mussar Abstract: In pharma, our data can be limited, inconsistent or incomplete, and data cleaning can be time-consuming. In addition, the industry is highly regulated, and data transformations must be transparent. At Pfizer, we developed a custom R package that enables us to automatically quality control our clinical biomarker data. Our package allows for flexible data structures and external input by non-coders, producing consistent reports and clear documentation. In this session I will share some features of our package, as well as how automating our process has been a powerful tool enabling us to achieve consistency, with the hope that this helps others automate their own pipelines. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Automating Event Scheduling with Python in Positron (Becky Hodge, ProCogia) | posit::conf(2025)

Automating Event Scheduling with Python in Positron Speaker(s): Becky Hodge Abstract: For years, scheduling for the Atlanta Writers Conference—where 200+ writers meet literary agents and editors—was a manual, time-consuming process using Excel and individual emails. For the May 2025 conference, we automated scheduling with Python in Positron, vastly reducing the amount of time spent preparing for this conference in such a way that these massive time-savings will carry forward to future conferences too. This talk will cover our transition, lessons learned, and how we’re planning to integrate MailerLite, Cvent, and TablesReady APIs next for the November 2025 conference to further streamline the process. Attendees will gain insights into using Python for event management automation and optimizing logistical workflows. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

AskRADS: An AI Recommendation Agent for Maximizing ROI of Data Science Collaborations (Regis James)

AskRADS: An AI Recommendation Agent for Maximizing the ROI of Data Science Collaborations Speaker(s): Regis A. James Abstract: Blockers to crucial data-driven decisions can often be a challenge. To address this, we established RADS, the Regeneron Analysts and Data Scientists, as a Community of Practice for exchanging strategies on eliminating these obstacles. RADS has grown to nearly 500 members, creating a new challenge: avoiding redundancy and helping non-RADS colleagues find the right experts. To solve this, we developed AskRADS, an AI agent on Posit Connect that provides recommendations based on discussions, experts, and relevant resources. It uses R, Shiny for Python, FastAPI, LangGraph, Neo4j GraphRAG, and MySQL. This talk will cover its architecture, AI search solutions, and optimization techniques. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Approaching Positron from RStudio (Mauro Lepore, Recast) | posit::conf(2025)

Approaching Positron from RStudio Speaker(s): Mauro Lepore Abstract: Many data science teams that traditionally worked with R and RStudio are now attracting developers with experience in Python and VS Code. Positron is a polyglot IDE supporting both R and Python and incorporating tools from both RStudio and VS Code. However, jumping straight from one familiar IDE to an unfamiliar one can be intimidating, slow down productivity, and impair adoption. In this talk, I’ll show some tools and techniques you can use in RStudio and VS Code to start your transition to Positron today—with minimal friction—while staying productive in your preferred IDE. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Air - A blazingly fast R code formatter (Davis Vaughn & Lionel Henry, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Air - A blazingly fast R code formatter Speaker(s): Davis Vaughan; Lionel Henry Abstract: In Python, Rust, Go, and many other languages, code formatters are widely loved. They run on every save, on every pull request, and in git pre-commit hooks to ensure code consistently looks its best at all times. In this talk, you'll learn about Air, a new R code formatter. Air is extremely fast, capable of formatting individual files so fast that you'll question if its even running, and of formatting entire projects in under a second. Air integrates directly with your favorite IDEs, like Positron, RStudio, and VS Code, and is available on the command line, making it easy to standardize on one tool even for teams using various IDEs. Once you start using Air, you'll never worry about code style ever again! posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Davis Vaughan, Lionel Henry

AI-Powered Data Science in Positron (Ryan Johnson, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)

Ryan Johnson introduces Positron, an AI-ready multilingual IDE designed specifically for data science. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

AI missteps as stepping stones (Ryan Timpe, The LEGO Group) | posit::conf(2025)

AI missteps as stepping stones: Opportunities gained when your LLM coding assistant gets it wrong Speaker(s): Ryan Timpe Abstract: LLM coding assistants have become a valuable companion for learning and productivity in data science. (Hey Siri! Import this csv!) While their ability to generate code and explanations is impressive, I have found more value and personal growth from the mistakes they make. This talk focuses on embracing coding assistants as imperfect companions and succeeding when they fail. I'll share insights from using these assistants to facilitate my transition to Python, highlighting the pitfalls of accepting their recommendations without question. Through real examples where LLMs fell short, I'll demonstrate how these challenges provided frameworks for problem-solving and led to a deeper understanding of data science tools and methodologies. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

AI Coding Assistants: Hype, Help, or Hindrance? (Rebecca Barter, Arine) | posit::conf(2025)

AI Coding Assistants: Hype, Help, or Hindrance? Speaker(s): Rebecca Barter Abstract: AI coding assistants like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Codeium promise to revolutionize our coding workflows—but how useful are they in practice? Are they our new overlords here to take our jobs? Or just a passing gimmick? I think the reality lies somewhere in between, and that understanding these tools is key to staying relevant in today’s rapidly evolving data science ecosystem. In this talk, I'll show how I’ve used these AI tools in RStudio, Positron, and VS Code to speed up both my advanced R workflows as well as my learning experience as an intermediate Python programmer, providing examples, pitfalls, and best practices. Materials - https://rlbarter.github.io/posit-conf-2025/#0 posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Advancing Epigenetic Predictors with Scalable Machine Learning (Varun Dwaraka) | posit::conf(2025)

Advancing Epigenetic Predictors with Scalable Machine Learning: A Biologist’s Perspective on Efficient Model Development Speaker(s): Varun Dwaraka Abstract: TruDiagnostic develops precision health tools using DNA methylation-based diagnostics. We integrate bioinformatics (R) and machine learning (Python) with Posit’s ecosystem in AWS to enable high-throughput model development. Posit enhances workflows by streamlining preprocessing, feature selection, and deep learning with PyTorch. Leveraging Posit with AWS parallelization and sharding accelerates model training, reducing computation from weeks to hours. This talk highlights how Posit is vital for advancing research in health predictors, driving innovation in precision medicine and revolutionizing healthcare. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

A tale of one organization: learning how to swim in the ocean of open source (Katerina Gapanenko)

A tale of one organization: learning how to swim in the ocean of open source Speaker(s): Katerina Gapanenko Abstract: The Canadian Institute for Health Information is diving into open source, transitioning our 300+ analysts and all our analytics code from proprietary software to R and Python. We started 3 years ago, and over that time we have migrated 700,000+ lines of code, navigating waves of change while adapting to new IT environments and workflows. Challenges like technical barriers, workload balancing, and resistance to change were tackled through training, mentorship, and executive support. More than tools, this shift transforms our culture—turning siloed developers into fearless swimmers. Success requires training, teamwork, and courage. Organizations making a similar leap should start small, invest in training, and stay adaptable to stay afloat. posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

10 Years of Data Science Tools...and What Happens Next (Jonathan McPherson) | posit::conf(2025)

10 Years of Data Science Tools... and What Happens Next Speaker(s): Jonathan McPherson Abstract: In this talk, I'll reflect on a decade of work on RStudio and the principles of tool-building that have led it to become the standard data science environment for R. We'll talk about how those same principles have guided the development of Positron, a new data science environment from Posit, and how you can apply them to your own tool-building work. Slides - https://github.com/rstudio/rstudio-conf/blob/main/2025/jonathanmcpherson/10%20Years%20of%20Data%20Science%20Tools.key posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/

Retooling for a smaller data era

I had the pleasure of interviewing Wes McKinney, Creator of Pandas, a name well-known in the data world through his work on the Pandas Project and his book, Python for Data Analysis. Wes is now at Posit PBC, and during our conversation at Small Data SF, we covered several key topics around the evolving data landscape! Wes shared his thoughts on the significance of Small Data, why it’s a compelling topic right now, and what “Retooling for a Smaller Data Era” means for the industry. We also dove into the challenges and potential benefits of shifting from Big Data to Small Data, and discussed whether this trend represents the next big movement in data. Curious about Apache Arrow and what's next for Wes? Check out our interview where Wes gives some great insights into the future of data tooling. #data #ai #smalldatasf2024 #theravitshow