Richie Yu Yong Poh, organizer of the Malaysia R User Group, recently spoke with the R Consortium about building a national R community centered around its annual conference. He shared that the group has evolved from a small network into a robust platform that connects students, researchers, and industry practitioners through workshops, seminars, and a flagship two-day event. Richie discussed the logistics of the annual conference, the design of hands-on workshops, and R’s role in bridging the gap between academia and industry through real-world applications.
Please share about your background and involvement with the RUGS group.
My career spans both industry and academia. I first adopted R while working as a university researcher; I was seeking a powerful, open-source alternative to MATLAB that could deliver equivalent functionality without the licensing costs.
Over time, our team explored both R and Python, noting that they complement each other effectively, as many users are proficient in both. After my tenure at the university, I introduced R to my current institution and continued to champion its use when I transitioned to the industry. As a lead for data science and AI teams, I encouraged a multi-language approach, leveraging the unique strengths of both Python and R to solve complex problems.
Please provide an update on the R user group. How have you all been doing, and what kind of events have you been hosting?
The group was founded by my colleague, Dr Poo Kuan Hoong, who introduced me to the community. Given my academic background and familiarity with R, I was eager to contribute. Since those early days, the group has grown significantly. We now officially co-organize the Annual R Conference in partnership with my university, supplemented by periodic seminars and workshops. We also utilize social media and digital platforms to share resources, fostering a collaborative environment where members regularly exchange insights and experiences.
Let’s discuss the R conference held in November. Can you provide details on the speakers, topics covered, and audience response?
The R Conference in Malaysia has become a premier annual event, attracting participants from academia and industry, both locally and internationally. This year’s event was co-organized with Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT) in Kuala Lumpur.
The two-day format featured one day of intensive workshops followed by a day of professional talks. Due to overwhelming interest—particularly for the hands-on sessions—we moved to a larger venue to accommodate the high volume of attendees bringing their own equipment.
We offered two primary workshops:
Text Analytics: Led by a medical professional with extensive experience applying R to healthcare data.
Introduction to R: Conducted by myself, this session guided participants from fundamental concepts to advanced applications using RStudio, Google Colab, and the Tidyverse, culminating in building Shiny applications and statistical modeling.
The Sunday sessions featured industry professionals and medical researchers—who make up a core part of our committee and support base—sharing how they apply R in their respective fields. This builds on the success of our previous event at the USM Health Campus, which focused on biomedical applications.
Could you share some insights about the topics covered in your events? Which topics are currently resonating most with the group members?
Our workshops are particularly popular among students and young professionals, while our technical talks attract established industry practitioners. We have found that the most resonant content is application-specific rather than purely theoretical. Instead of teaching just the basics, we provide frameworks for real-world scenarios, such as analyzing IoT data in manufacturing to drive business outcomes.
How do you use R in your work?
In our current R&D and consultancy work, we maintain a dual-language environment. R is especially valuable for collaborators from non-IT backgrounds, such as those in business or biomedicine, because it provides a more intuitive entry point to advanced analytics.
We utilize R in two primary ways:
Industry Solutions: As a university center with strong industry ties, we act as consultants, using R to develop tailored R&D solutions for our partners.
Education: We integrate R into our Data Science and Statistics curriculum. By teaching students to work with practical datasets and conduct rigorous statistical tests (e.g., the KS test), we ensure they are prepared for real-world data processing challenges.