MRC Biostatistics Unit
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.
Information about upcoming courses is given below.
An Introduction to ‘R’: free software for statistical analysis
Thursday 18th October 2018
One day course by:
Martin Law, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Sean Yiu, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Robson Machado, MRC Biostatistics Unit
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.
For further course details, please see: An Introduction to ‘R’
To register, click here
Introduction to Bayesian Statistics using BUGS
Tuesday 23rd – Wednesday 24th October 2018
Two day course by:
Robert Goudie, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Anne Presanis, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Chris Jackson, MRC Biostatistics Unit
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/JAGS.
Day 1 – Introduction to the use of Monte Carlo methods, Bayesian methods, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), regression models, and implementation in OpenBUGS/WinBUGS or JAGS/OpenBUGS/WinBUGS via R.
Day 2 – Generalised linear models, predictions, missing data, model criticism, model comparison and assessing sensitivity to prior distributions, introduction to hierarchical models.
For further course details, please see: Introduction to Bayesian Statistics using BUGS
To register, click here
Mendelian Randomization Course
Monday 19th – Tuesday 20th November 2018, with optional symposium on Wednesday 21st November 2018
Two day course by:
Stephen Burgess, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Jessica Rees, Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
Claudia Langenberg, MRC Epidemiology Unit
Verena Zuber, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Chris Foley, MRC Biostatistics Unit
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 21st November 2018 that is open to course attendees and non-course attendees. To find out more, click here
If the Registration form does not work, please email us your details via BSU Course Administrator.
For further information about the BSU Short Courses please contact the BSU Course Administrator:
Tel: 01223 330366
Email: courseadmin@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk