Introduction to Big Data Analytics: Multi-site Retrospective Epidemiological Studies

Time Commitment
Participants will do 3 online training sessions, 1 hour lecture and 1 tutorial per session and additional 4 hours a month for further reading. The training will conclude via a face to face workshop in Cape Town from June 10th to June 14th

Eligibility
• Basics of Big Data analytics • Minimum qualification - MSc in Public Health, Biomedical Sciences, Computer Science, Biostatistics • Good grasp of at least one programming language such as Python and R • Access to a high performance computing center (we can assist with this). • Basic understanding or interest in Sickle Cell Disease • Participants will have to obtain an average of 50% on online quizzes • Optional - interest in Next Generations Sequences (NGS).

What you will learn - Online Session
Day 1: March 29th
Day 1 – Online Session 1: Welcome (Prof Ambroise Wonkam) (30mins)
Day 1 – Online Session 2: Introduction to Big Data in Epidemiological Studies (Gaston Mazandu) (30mins)
Day 1 – Tutorial Session for Assignment (Linux data manipulation) (Jack Morrice)
Day 2: April 26th
Day 2 – Session 1 (Getting data ready for statistical analyses & Descriptive Stats) (Arthemon Nguweneza)
Day 2 – Session 2 (Statistical methods for BIG Data) (Gaston Mazandu)
Day 2 – Tutorial session 3 (Introduction to R - Jack Morrice & Gaston Mazandu): JAMOVI
Day 3: May 31st
Day 3 - Online Session 1 (Searching, Summarizing, Assessing Epi Publications) (Jack Morrice)
Day 3 – Online Session 2 (Description of existing data - Multi-study/site studies) (Mario Jonas)
Day 3 – Tutorial Session (Power Calculation) (Gaston Mazandu)

Face to Face Workshop (June 10 - 14)
Hands-on sessions

Trainers/Speakers: 
Gaston Mazandu; Arthemon Nguweneza; Raphael Sangeda; Jack Morrice; Victoria Nembaware; Ambroise Wonkam; Andre Pascal
Event Theme/Subject Category: 
Bioinformatics
Biological data resources
Epidemiology
Genetics
Genomics
Coordinator's name: 
Jack Morrice
Coordinator's email address : 
jack.morrice_at_uct.ac.za
Name of Venue, Institute: 
Online (GoToMeeting); Face to Face (University of Cape Town)
City of Venue: 
Cape Town
Country of Venue: 
South Africa
Organisers/Organizing Body: 
SADaCC, SPARCo Hub
Sponsors/Funders: 
NIH
Dates of Event: 
Friday, March 29, 2019 - 14:30 to Friday, June 14, 2019 - 14:30
Eligibility & Application Instructions: 
Nominated by Principal Investigators
Targeted Learning Outcomes: 
By the end of the course, participants will be able to: • Describe the basics of Big Data analytics and tools• Draft a proposal for ethics clearance for a multi-site retrospective study• Apply basic epidemiological methods• Design a multi-site retrospective epidemiological study• Deal with missing data• Process epidemiological data from multi-site observational studies• Attend the November meeting (SCDO) and to provide study design support
SickleInAfrica Project/PI/Working Group: 
SADaCC