Episode 15: Maya Gans

By The Shiny Dev Series Team

October 22, 2020

We have another fun installment of the Shiny Developer Series in episode 15! Our guest is statistical programmer and data scientist Maya Gans, and she tells us about her unique journey to R, her experience as a summer intern at RStudio, and the ways she has wielded some magical integrations of Shiny and javascript to create powerful applications in life sciences. Plus you will not want to miss the inside story behind the shinykeyboard widget!

Resources mentioned in the episode

TidyBlocks (A block-based tool for teaching basic data science): https://tidyblocks.tech/
shinyBody A custom Shiny input widget built with HTML and CSS that lets you select a body part and will return that body part’s name.You can also color limbs based on data by specifying high and low color values: https://github.com/MayaGans/shinyBody
JavaScript for Data Science: https://js4ds.org/
TidyCDISC application demonstration at the R/Medicine 2020 Virtual Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeHSjw-vU3U
Interactive web-based data visualization with R, plotly, and Shiny: https://plotly-r.com/
timevis R package for creating timeline visualizations: https://daattali.com/shiny/timevis-demo/
ggkeyboard: https://github.com/sharlagelfand/ggkeyboard
shinykeyboard R package to create an on-screen keyboard as a custom R Shiny input binding: https://github.com/willdebras/shinykeyboard
dreamRs Shiny gallery: http://shinyapps.dreamrs.fr/

Episode Timestamps

0:00 Episode introduction

4:30 TidyBlocks tidyblocks.tech. A block-based tool for teaching basic data science.

7:00 Garrick Aden-Buie, https://www.garrickadenbuie.com

7:45 shinyBody. Everyone asks, “What are good ways to level up on R and Shiny?”, the shinyBody Shiny app is a relatively simple, focused Shiny app that helps you get JavaScript started talking to R.

14:20 David Granjon’s Outstanding User Interfaces

14:35 R + Shiny for JS Visualizations. JavaScript for Data Science, website. Find it on Google Books, amazon

15:25 tidyCDISC Shiny App. tidyCDISC CDISC is a file format for clinical trials. This app helps you explore your CDISC data, following common patterns and at least as a first pass, helping you produce standard tables and figures the FDA will want to see.

17:18 golem, not just a nice tool for Shiny app development , but also for multi-developer, collaborative Shiny app development. “golem: If you’re working with a team of people, I highly recommend it, for easier collaboration.”

19:00 CDISC table generator.

25:20 plot.ly in shiny apps. Carson’s Book on ploy.ly with R.

27:15 shiny timevis by Dean Attali. On github.

29:15 Extending Sharla Gelfand’s ggkeyboard into shinykeyboard made with Will Bonnell. A visual keyboard, a tool for added accessibility with R.

33:50 “What advice do you have for Shiny developers in our audience who want to take their skills to the next level?”

36:20 Episode conclusion