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Claudio, why is data
visualization such a hot topic these days?
Because, data, computing power and open-source software has never
been so readily available as today.
Nowadays, one of the most requested skills in an actuarial job ad
is programming - mostly in R or Python, which almost always
includes effective visualizations.
This is understandable, since actuaries need to be able to clearly
explain complex technical information.
Even the general public is now exposed to state-of-the-art
visuals, partly driven by the pandemic.
We have all seen Covid-19 heat-maps, trajectory charts and
interactive plots.
Although, it is a must have skill for any actuary - it is hardly
ever covered during a University degree or included in the Syllabus
of most (if not all) Actuarial Professional Bodies.
Who is the target audience and what can they expect from this web
session?
The web session is mainly aimed at beginners, some very basic
familiarity with R is required but I assume no prior knowledge of
ggplot2.
The session serves two main goals:
- How to prepare data and produce charts with ggplot2
- Share basic principles of effective visualizations
It is a hand-on training with real life examples and
exercises.
All scripts will be provided and are fully reproducible so that
participants can recreate all plots and study the code even the
after session.
I will also share my favorite free online resources so that
participants can continue to develop their skills.
Why should actuaries learn ggplot2 when most already produce
charts with Excel?
Because R is capable of much more than Excel:
- R handles much more data, even if you use Excel's Data
Model
- It is much faster
- R is designed to be fully reproducible
- Statistical/ML routines can generate plots with minimum
effort
- And R has access to a wide variety of libraries
For example, the plot below (which will be part of the web session)
is fully interactive.
It is designed with ggplot2 and wrapped with the function
ggplotly() (from the plotly library), which converts, with a couple
of lines, any ggplot into an interactive chart. |
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