To improve students' professional knowledge and understanding of the performance of software applications, there were many biostatistics-related trainings and lectures during all of fall semester at IU. My advisor, Dr. Bidulescu, advised me to take two trainings that might help me in the future, that is Clinical Trials Training and R Programming respectively.

    The first training that I attended in the fall semester was the Clinical Trials Training, which was hosted by the Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) company. PPD is a global contract research organization providing comprehensive, integrated drug development, and laboratory and lifecycle management services. We learned the history and ethics of clinical research, the key steps in the drug development process, information about the essential documents, the responsibilities of the principal investigator, and strategies for effective study and site management. Since I had already participated in several clinical trials as a statistician, I just focused on sample size calculation, randomization, statistical analysis, etc. After completing this training, I gained more knowledge and better understanding of the clinical trial.

    The second training that was recommended to me was R programming, which was led by two professors in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. R is a programming language and free software environment for statistical computing and graphics supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing. The training included data wrangling, scientific programming, data visualization, modeling, and project management. The training focused on the R package ggplot2, which can be used to create elegant and complex plots. Though some aspects of the program confused me, but I learned a lot from the training and now know more about the beauty of R.

    In addition to these training sessions, I attended many lectures that related to Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health. All of these training and lectures have helped me to update my skills, improve my understanding of biostatistics, and have a better grasp of public health issues.

By  Wang Haiping/ Lin Juanzhen

Edited by Office of International Cooperation and Communication