Short Courses

Short Courses in Statistics

The MRC Biostatistics Unit run a number of successful courses in statistics on a range of topics at different levels, for statistical, clinical and other audiences. These courses take place in Cambridge at the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, and are mostly either 1 day or 2 days.

Limited spaces are available, so be sure to register in order to secure a place. Participants will be asked to bring their own laptops to the practicals.

An Introduction to ‘R’: free software for statistical analysis

Thursday 12th October 2017

One day course by:
Dr Dan Jackson, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Martin Law, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Dr Kirsty Rhodes, MRC Biostatistics Unit

Course aims: R is a free, popular language and environment that allows powerful and fast manipulation of data, offering many statistical and graphical options.

This course aims to introduce R as a tool for statistics and graphics, with the main aim being to become comfortable with the R environment. It will focus on entering and manipulating data in R and producing simple graphs. A few functions for basic statistics will be briefly introduced, but statistical functions will not be covered in detail.

At the end of the course, you are welcome to bring in your own data and problems for an ‘advisory’ session on analysis.

For further course details, please see: An Introduction to ‘R’: free software for statistical analysis

To register, click here

An Introduction to Statistical Concepts and Reasoning

Thursday 19th October 2017

One day course by:
Dr Dan Jackson, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Martin Law, MRC Biostatistics Unit

Course aims: This course will introduce fundamental statistical concepts such as hypothesis testing and confidence intervals and cover principles of common statistical methods in medical research. The aim is to help medical researchers understand the concepts underlying the statistical methodology used in published medical research*. We do not intend to teach the theories and applications of specific statistical tests and methods, but rather to give an overview of the underlying structure of statistical thinking. By the end of the course, participants should have increased confidence when interpreting the statistical portion of a medical paper, and when interacting with statisticians.

For further course details, please see: An Introduction to Statistical Concepts and Reasoning

To register, click here

Introduction to Bayesian statistics using BUGS

Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th October 2017

Two day course by:
Dr Chris Jackson, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Dr Robert Goudie, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Dr Anne Presanis, MRC Biostatistics Unit

Course aims: This course is intended to provide an introduction to Bayesian analysis and MCMC methods, and a fairly detailed tutorial on the use of OpenBUGS/WinBUGS. The emphasis throughout will be on practical examples: software and code to carry out all the analyses will be provided (see software download). Participants are encouraged to bring their own Windows laptops for the practical.

For further course details, please see: Introduction to Bayesian statistics using BUGS

To register, click here

Mendelian Randomization Course

Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th November 2017,
with optional symposium Wednesday 15th November

Two day course by:
Dr Stephen Burgess, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Dr Jack Bowden, University of Bristol
Dr Robert Scott, GSK, formerly MRC Epidemiology Unit
Ms Jessica Rees, Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge

Course aims: Studies based on Mendelian randomization are increasingly being used to distinguish causal relationships from observational associations in epidemiology and to prioritize potential targets for pharmaceutical intervention. This course intends to explain both simple and more complex statistical methods for causal inference in Mendelian randomization studies, and the instrumental variable assumptions on which they are based. The course includes computing practicals (R and Stata will be supported).

For further course details, please see: Mendelian Randomization Course

To register, click here

A Research Symposium on Mendelian Randomization Methodology will be taking place on the morning of Wednesday 15th November that is open to course attendees and non-course attendees. To find out more, click here

If you are unable to get the Registration form to work, please email us the information via BSU Course Administrator.

For further information about the BSU Short Courses please contact the BSU Course Administrator