Collin K. Berke, Ph.D.
  • Home
  • About
  • Now
  • Blog
  • Today I Learned

Now

Here you’ll find what I’m currently up to.

Modified

March 13, 2022

A now page, why?

Projects I’m working on

Project Conduit

Currently developing and maintaining a data pipeline project built using R and Python. Technology utilized includes Google Cloud resources, Docker, Apache Airflow, Google BigQuery, Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, and Shiny. The goal is to centralize and automate data processing, storage, and reporting.

R for Data Science Online Learning Community book club facilitator

Recently started facilitating an R for Data Science Online Learning Community online book club (check it out by joining the Slack workspace). This group is currently reading through Hadley Wickham’s Advanced R book. The group meets weekly online over Zoom. Meetings are open to anyone who is a part of the Slack group (Join the #book_club-advr channel to keep up with the book club). Check out the playlist of past meeting recordings here. I would love for more to join and be a part of this group.

Experimenting with Neovim

I’ve been experimenting more and more with Neovim for my development work. I’m becoming more comfortable with the different modes, movements, actions, and various tools for editing text and code. Still struggling through the configuration and plugin ecosystem to set up workflows that are the most productive. Going through this process has been a challenge, but has me really reflecting on how I approach my work, evaluating what is needed, not needed, and focusing on the bad habits I need to break.

Books I’m reading

Advanced R by Hadley Wickham

I’m reading this book as part of the R for Data Science Online Learning Community book club. See the ‘Projects I’m working on’ section for some more detail.

Mastering Shiny by Hadley Wickham

Doing another read through of this book, as I’m leading my work team through the material. Our aim is to start developing more Shiny applications to communicate our work and analyses. As such, we are focusing on learning the basics of Shiny app development.

Regression and other stories by Andrew Gelman, Jennifer Hill, and Aki Vehtari

Slowly reading through this book. It’s been some time since I’ve focused on developing my modelling skills, so I was wanting to spend some more time developing in this area.

Nemesis Games (The Expanse book 5)

Paths to new worlds have opened for the human race. With these new paths comes the greatest land rush in human history. However, ships are mysteriously disappearing, a dangerous alien weapon has been stolen, and terrorist attacks are bringing the inner planets to their knees. I blasted through book 4, and I am interested in how the plot of this sci-fi series is going to pan out.

A list of books I’ve read (ever since I’ve started keeping track)

Professional development reads

R Packages by Hadley Wickham and Jenny Bryan. Check out past book club meeting recordings here.

Vim help files maintained by Carlo Teubner

Mastering Ubuntu by Jay LaCroix

Google BigQuery: The Definitive Guide by Valliappa Lakshmanan and Jordan Tigani

Mastering Shiny by Hadley Wickham. Check out the past book club meeting recordings here.

R for Data Science by Hadley Wickham and Garrett Grolemund. Check out the past book club meeting recordings here.

Docker Deep Dive by Nigel Poulton

Personal reads

Cibola Burn (The Expanse book 4) by James S.A. Corey

Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse book 3) by James S.A. Corey

Caliban’s War (The Expanse book 2) by James S.A. Corey

Leviathon Wakes (The Expanse book 1) by James S.A. Corey

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within: A Novel (Wayfarers 4) by Becky Chambers

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers 3) by Becky Chambers

A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers 2) by Becky Chambers

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers 1) by Becky Chambers

Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Dune by Frank Herbert

The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir