• Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE)

Managing Big Data with R and Hadoop

Learn how to manage and analyse big data using the R programming language and Hadoop programming framework.

14,343 enrolled on this course

Management of Massive Data Managing Big Data with R and Hadoop
  • Duration

    5 weeks
  • Weekly study

    4 hours

This online course will introduce you to various high performance computing (HPC) facilities for big data analysis. This includes:

  • R – a programming language renowned for its simplicity, elegance and community support, enriched with packages to work with Hadoop. For preparing and running R scripts RStudio IDE will be used;
  • Hadoop – an open source, Java-based programming framework for large data sets.

For better understanding of Hadoop basic knowledge of bash and awk are needed so we also introduce them briefly.

You will learn via different materials, including hands-on exercises, how to use these tools, avoiding common pitfalls and saving you time and money.

What topics will you cover?

  • First steps in R and RStudio
  • Working with Apache Hadoop 1 – Fundamentals
  • Working with Apache Hadoop 2 – RHadoop
  • Statistical learning using RHadoop

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you will:

  • Understand how the performance of modern supercomputing is achieved
  • be able to perform basic functionalities within the Bash terminal window;
  • be able to use AWK for basic text processing tasks;
  • Understand the basic functionality of Apache Hadoop for scalable, distributed computing;
  • be able to perform data operations of medium difficulty using R and RHadoop;
  • Understand the basic problems of supervised and unsupervised learning
  • be able to perform clustering, regression and classification methods using RHadoop.
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Skip to 0 minutes and 25 seconds Nearly every historical period may be said to have had sources of data that were considered big for that time. Books, documents, drawings, maps and paintings are examples of such data. Yet it is only today that we have to deal with really big data. Luckily, more and more data is digital, but expressed in different formats. Large-scale scientific instruments, social network platforms, cloud solutions, digital cultural heritage are only a few examples of sources of huge amount of text, photo, video and audio materials which are considered big data.

Skip to 0 minutes and 55 seconds But questions related to data have not changed much: how to store and maintain it, how to understand and how to learn from the data for an improved response in the future. These issues necessarily involve the use of high performance computers. Distributed storage and parallel computing need be considered to avoid loss of data and to make computations efficient.

Skip to 1 minute and 16 seconds Join us and cope with big data using R and RHadoop.

What topics will you cover?

  • Welcome to BIG DATA
  • Working with Hadoop
  • First steps in R and RHadoop
  • Statistical learning with RHadoop: clustering
  • Statistical learning with RHadoop: regression and classification

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Explore basic functionality of Apache Hadoop and of RHadoop
  • Experiment how to achieve performance of modern supercomputing
  • Experiment regression and classification with RHadoop;
  • Demonstrate basic clustering, regression and classification with RHadoop;
  • Investigate basic functionality of Bash terminal window

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for people interested in data science, computational statistics and machine learning. It will also be useful for advanced undergraduate students and first year PhD students in data analysis, statistics or bioinformatics, who wish to understand HPC.

We expect that the followers of the course have basic experiences with linux, bash and R and are capable to download and run virtual machine.

What software or tools do you need?

All software needed to actively participate the course is provided within the virtual machine that the followers are supposed to download and run on the local machine. No extra software is needed. You will need a modest local machine with 15GB free disk space and 2GB RAM.

Who will you learn with?

I am an active researcher in mathematical optimization, which has many applications in data science and where HPC is an inevitable tool.

Biljsna Mileva Boshkoska is an assistant professor in computer science. Her interests include decision support systems, data mining and working with big data.

Leon Kos is a 25+ years
veteran of using Linux desktop on a daily basis to build digital
relationships for research, teaching, and getting the job done by programming.

Who developed the course?

Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE)

The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) is an international non-profit association with its seat in Brussels.

Learning on FutureLearn

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  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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