Several DEEP group members are affiliated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), which aims to ‘undertake research that will safeguard our national heritage, transform research culture, connect with communities and inform policy.’ Last week, these members hosted a series of short-courses and workshops at the University of Tasmania, as a part of CABAH’s Irinjili Research Training Program. The week-long program aimed to inspire individuals and contribute to the Centre’s vision and success. It was an ideal opportunity for our members to connect and share their knowledge with local and interstate students from CABAH.
To commence the week, Post-doctoral fellow Matthew McDowell, ran a short course on vertebrate faunal analysis. This included a visit to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) archives in Rosny. The senior curator of vertebrate zoology at TMAG, Kathryn Medlock, toured the group through the archives and Roland Eberhard from DPIPWE’s Natural and Cultural Heritage Division gave a talk on the rediscovery of the Tasmanian Emu archive in Tasmanian museums.
Four DEEP members assisted in running a short course on time-series modelling, including DEEP founder Barry Brook, Research Director, Jessie Buettel and Post-doctoral fellows, Luke Yates and Bec Wheatley. The course covered multiple aspects of time-series modelling, including the Fourier transformation, change-point analysis and use of machine learning to analyse datasets.
Finally, a workshop on data visualisation, run by Barry Brook, Luke Yates, Bec Wheatley and Research Assistant, Tessa Smith, covered some basic design principles that can be applied to plots, posters and presentations. A general outline of the ggplot2 package for data visualisation in R was also provided.
Thank you to both DEEP Research Assistant, Tessa Smith, and CABAH Teaching and Learning Coordinator, Sandra Humphrey, for organising the successful event.