Non-SOT Event: Exposure Modeling Boot Camp: Traditional and Machine Learning Methods in Environmenta

This two-day workshop presented by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is focused on practical skills development in modeling environmental exposures using both traditional and machine learning methods. The workshop is led by Dr. Scott Weichenthal (Associate Professor, McGill University) who has extensive experience in the development and application of exposure models in environmental epidemiology. Morning sessions will include lectures discussing important concepts related to exposure science and exposure modeling in environmental epidemiology and afternoon sessions will focus on hands-on laboratory exercises applying both traditional (e.g., linear regression, generalized additive models) and machine learning methods (e.g., random forest, neural networks) in modeling environmental exposures using real data sets. Participants will learn practical skills in working with environmental exposure data and will gain knowledge in the application of multiple approaches to modeling environmental exposures known to impact human health.

Investigators at all career stages are welcome to attend but we particularly encourage trainees and early-stage investigators to participate. There are a few requirements to attend this training:

1. Each participant should have an introductory background in statistics (i.e., linear and logistic regression).
2. Each participant should be familiar with R/RStudio. All code examples used in the laboratory exercises will be annotated in detail but students will benefit from previous experience using R.
3. Familiarity with Python is an asset but is not required. We will use Python code in training convolutional neural networks but examples will be annotated in detail so students will understand what is happening without having to reproduce code on their own.
4. Each participant is required to have a personal laptop and a free, basic Posit Cloud (formerly RStudio Cloud) account. All lab sessions on the first day will be done using Posit Cloud (formerly RStudio Cloud).
5. Some lab sessions will use Google CoLab, so each participant is required to have a Google CoLab account (you will need a Google account to access Google CoLab).

Capacity is limited. Paid registration is required to attend.