R Development Center
R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. Its functionality grows rapidly by the release of new packages. We use R for research and teaching and we are contributing own packages. E. Pebesma is the main developer of the gstat package for geostatistical modelling.
Teaching
- we use R in teaching regular geoinformatics courses (Introduction to geostatistics, modelling spatio-temporal processes, several master level courses)
- we teach courses dedicated to R programming
Research
- we use R in many research projects, for instance in the externally funded FP7 projects INTAMAP, DETECT, UncertWeb, and subcontracting for the EEA ETC/ACM, but also in research projects carried out in the context of the DFG International Graduate School (IRTG) on semantic integration of geospatial information.
Software Development
current development projects include:
- we developed the R CRAN packages: sp, spacetime, sos4R, intamap, and gstat
- we contributed to the R CRAN packages: rgdal, rgeos, maptools, plotKML, and vardiag
- we developed the R-forge packages: spcopula and gpusim
- we developed an R - WPS interface, found here.
- we plan to develop or improve existing interfaces between ArcGIS? and R (this also takes place in the context of being an ESRI development center)
- we join up with the geostatistics community of the 52°North open source initiative
- we try to support the larger R community by developing an RPackageBuilderService?
About R Development Centers
As R is an open source project, we believe that institutes, departments or companies should decide themselves whether they consider themselves as an R development center, or not. If they do, and advertise this, I believe it will benefit both the R project as well as advertise the center itself. We encourage other parties who would like to do the same thing to explain somewhere and in some detail which activities they believe render them as an R development center (e.g., what exactly they develop and/or teach).
About the Logo
The R Development Center logo was designed by Sami Kauppinen. Below you'll find small and large versions, and versions with "center" and "centre". The logos can be freely re-used.