Data science is a polyglot discipline, and requires you to master a wide range of tools. In this hands-on and fun workshop we'll cover:

• Analyzing data with R: The R language is the go-to tool for statistical computation and has a wide range of packages ready to use. You'll learn some R and use it to analyze social network data

• Accessing data with F# and type providers: No matter whether your data is in a database, exposed via a REST service or in a local CSV, XML or JSON file, type providers make it super easy to read it and get it ready for analysis

• Visualizing data with D3: To present the results, we're going to build elegant HTML5 visualizations using the D3 library. This is the leading library used for building interactive web-based visualizations.

In the workshop you'll learn important data science skills that apply to a wide range of areas from analysis of customer behavior, to advertising on social networks.

Did we say fun? Indeed, one of the main datasets will come from a social network of characters from the latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. We'll identify who is the most important person according to different measures, and who talks to the largest number of people. Do the light and dark sides form separate communities? And who connects them?

This will be a hands-on workshop, so be sure to come with a laptop with everything installed!

Follow the instructions on fsharp.org for Mac, Windows or Linux. On Mac, we recommend Xamarin Studio or Ionide; on Windows, we recommend Visual Studio.

1. Xamarin (Mac/Windows). Download MonoDevelop (Xamarin Studio). Follow the instructions, you'll need to install mono which includes F#, then install the Xamarin Studio.
2. or Atom with Ionide (Mac/Windows). Follow the installation instructions in "Getting started" on Ionide page. You'll need to install mono (Mac and Linux) or F# (Windows) and Atom. Then install the ionide-installer package.
3. or Visual Studio (Windows). You can get the free Visual Studio Community edition. This is a big download, so make sure to get it before the workshop!

For the second part, we will be using R. You need to download R itself and we recommend getting RStudio, which is a nice editor for using R.

1. R project. Get the latest version of R from www.r-project.org. Pick any mirror on the download page.
2. and R Studio. Download R Studio Desktop. You can use the free open-source edition for the workshop.