/HW-1

2011 Houston Flight Data

Homework 1

You are currently in the GitHub repo for HW-1. Please refer to the HW Submission Exercise from HW-0 on how to

  • Download all the necessary files for this HW via a GitHub fork and creating an RStudio project.
  • Submit your assignment via a GitHub commit/push and then a pull request.

This homework will cover the following topics:

  • Data manipulation using dplyr
  • Basic data visualization using ggplot2
  • Reproducible research using R Markdown
  • The importance of Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)

The data we'll be looking at is:

  • flights [227,496 x 14]: Every domestic flight departing Houston in 2011.
  • weather [8,723 x 14]: Hourly weather data.
  • planes [2,853 x 9]: Plane metadata.
  • airports [3,376 x 7]: Airport metadata.
  • states [48 x 3]: (Lower 48) state data.

Administrative Notes

  1. Please commit/push (submit) only a compiling (working) HW-1.Rmd file. If a part of your code is not working, comment it out.
  2. Please acknowledge all collaborators, how much time you spent, etc, in the Administrative section of HW-1.Rmd
  3. Important dates:
    • (Optional) Feedback request due: Wed March 2nd 11:15am
    • HW due: Wed March 9th 11:15am
    • Revision due: Wed March 16th 11:15am. Lecture will be held in the Wilson Media Lab (1st floor of David Library).
  4. We will have a discussion on R Markdown (.Rmd files) on Monday 2/29. If you are not familiar with R Markdown, do your work on a separate .R script file for now (File -> New File -> R Script).

Tips

  1. It's best to do your initial work in a new .R script file and after you're done, start copying things over to the HW-1.Rmd file.
  2. While doing your initial work, set the working directory to be the root directory of your project:
    • Navigate to the folder HW-1 in the File panel
    • Click More -> Set As Working Directory
  3. Work in groups. Many people learn to code better in groups.
  4. One skill you'll be developing is having good programming practices. For example, Google has their own R Style Guide. Give it a look, but don't worry about getting it all right the first time, I'll be giving feedback as the semester progresses.
  5. Google is a programmer's best friend! http://xkcd.com/627/
  6. Do not spin your wheels: Don’t be stuck for more than 20 minutes. This takes self-awareness and mindfulness. After 20 minutes of frustration, take a break and/or seek help.