New R User Group in Thailand is Building Awareness of R

Dr. Nathakhun Wiroonsri and the RxTH User Group are aiming to make R more accessible and appealing across industries, especially among the younger generation.
Author

R Consortium

Published

January 29, 2025

Dr. Nathakhun Wiroonsri is an academic at the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand. With a strong foundation in applied mathematics, Dr. Wiroonsri’s expertise lies in theoretical probability, machine learning, and statistical analysis. His research aims to bridge these areas to develop innovative methodologies for solving real-world problems, particularly in clustering and healthcare applications.

Beyond his academic pursuits, Dr. Wiroonsri is deeply involved in promoting the use of R in Thailand. He founded R x TH, Thailand’s R user group supported by the R Consortium, to foster collaboration and build a vibrant community for R enthusiasts. His efforts include organizing workshops for beginners, experienced users, and professionals, aiming to make R more accessible and appealing across industries, especially among the younger generation.

Please share your background and involvement with R x TH.

I’d like to share a bit about my personal background and my journey with R. I completed my PhD in applied mathematics at USC, focusing on theoretical probability. During that time, I didn’t use R extensively, but I was familiar with it and occasionally relied on it for simple simulations to validate my research results.

After graduating, I taught a statistical consulting course at USC, assisting my advisor, who used R in his teaching. That experience provided me with additional exposure to the language.

When I returned to Thailand, I was assigned to teach a statistics and data science program, which marked the beginning of my regular use of R. I also began conducting research in machine learning, where R became an integral tool in my work.

This year, I had the opportunity to attend the useR! conference in Salzburg, which was a fantastic experience.

Inspired by that event and recognizing a gap in Thailand, my students and I decided to establish R x TH, a user group for R enthusiasts in Thailand. At the time, there weren’t any Thai groups officially supported by the R Consortium, so we started this initiative to organize workshops for both beginners and experienced users. We also aim to foster research collaboration within the group.

To clarify, I’m based in Bangkok and work at the King Mongkut’s University of Technology under a government contract, which initially sent me to study in the U.S.

Can you share what the R community is like in Bangkok and more broadly in Thailand?

I’d say R isn’t very popular in Thailand, especially compared to Python, which dominates industry environments. However, there are some R users, particularly in sectors like insurance and also healthcare.

Before starting the R x TH user group, there were already a few R communities in Thailand, but they were mostly small and centered within universities. Many R users here work in academia, using it in traditional ways—primarily for teaching and data analysis in their fields.

A funny story: I recently met an old friend who graduated from UC San Diego and works in pure mathematics. He had never coded before and started learning Python to assist his new research. When I mentioned R, he thought it was some kind of instant software where you just input data, click a few times, and get results! I explained what R is, and he was intrigued, so I invited him to one of our workshops. Stories like this highlight how much awareness we still need to build around R.

Your group recently held its very first event. How did it go? Can you share more about the topics covered?

Our first event focused on providing a solid introduction to R. We covered foundational topics such as basic syntax, coding practices, and essential packages like ggplot2. The session was hands-on, starting with how to install R and the key packages, so participants could follow along easily.

The event was a success, thanks in large part to my master’s students: Onthada and Noppanon, who played a key role in organizing and leading the workshop. It even sparked interest among younger students—several approached me afterward, eager to take my data science course next semester, even though it’s typically designed for junior students.

As for the course itself, I initiated it about four years ago as a special topic, and after receiving positive feedback, it became a core part of the program. For the workshop, we prepared tutorial materials that participants could follow step by step. Right now, those materials are only shared within the group, but we may consider making them public in the future.

Which ISC project(s) have you used? If none, which one(s) look like something you might look into (and why)?

To be honest, I only recently realized that the R Consortium funds ISE projects after you sent me the question. I looked into them briefly, and they all seem quite interesting. One that caught my attention is autotest.

As someone with experience publishing R packages, I know how challenging it is to catch every error. Despite double- and triple-checking for issues, once a package is released and used by real users, unexpected errors often surface. A tool like autotest, which helps identify potential issues before publishing, would be incredibly helpful. Being able to ensure the package is as close to error-free as possible before release would make a big difference. I’m definitely planning to use autotest in the future.

How do I Build an R User Group?

R Consortium’s R User Group and Small Conference Support Program (RUGS) provides grants to help R groups organize, share information, and support each other worldwide. We have given grants over the past four years, encompassing over 76,000 members in over 90 user groups in 39 countries. We would like to include you! Cash grants and meetup.com accounts are awarded based on the intended use of the funds and the amount of money available to distribute

https://r-consortium.org/all-projects/rugsprogram.html