Merge pull request #181 from pdxrconf/2025_dev

Add lightning talk bios

Author: kdillmcfarland

content/pages/agenda.md

@@ -65,7 +65,6 @@ border-color:black;
 #### 10:55-11:20 Lightning Talks! Automation Edition
 
 * [Megan Holtorf](/2025/lightning/megan_holtorf): Taking Action While You Sleep: Using GitHub Actions to Schedule Email Updates
-* [Zak Kindl](/2025/lightning/zak_kindl): Automating Sports Science Reporting with R
 * [Lindsay Dickey](/2025/lightning/lindsay_dickey): Simplify repetitive report creation
 * [Frank Aragona](/2025/lightning/frank_aragona): Language Translation at Scale: Automating Bulk Document Translation with R and Quarto
 

content/speakers/speaker_info_2025/lightning/faycal_ounacer/index.md

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+---
+title: "Faycal Ounacer"
+url: "2025/lightning/faycal_ounacer"
+---
+
+### Assessing the Impact of Coastal Upwelling on Fisheries: Insights from the California Current System
+Lighting Talk, 2:30 - 2:55 PM
+
+The EBUSs are among the most biologically productive ocean ecosystems in the world and provide more than 20% of the world catch of fish on <1% of the ocean surface. They include the California, Humboldt, Canary, and Benguela Current systems and provide critical ecosystem, economic, and recreational services for over 80 million people who either live along their coasts or near those coasts. This study deals with the analysis of relationships between the California Current System, coastal climatology, and fishing activity by adopting a climato-oceano-economic approach along the California coast. The study points out the phenomenon of upwelling within the California system, which have repercussions on peculiarities along the coast that impact marine resources and, hence, have implications for inhabitants of the coastal areas as well as for local economies. Data are from NOAA, chlorophyll, and sea surface temperature, while fisheries data were obtained from official reports. The analysis is then controlled using R and Python programming languages. In this work, one looks for evidence of relevance of the upwelling phenomenon for fisheries production but also forms strategies in the use of marine resources in a sustainable way. 
+
+<br><br>
+
+<table>
+  <tr><td><img width="300px" style="float: left; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;" 
+           src="../../../../img/logo/logo_2025/faycal_ounacer.jpg" alt="Faycal Ounacer headshot"></td>
+  <td>
+      <h5>Pronouns: </h5>
+      <h5>Corvallis, OR, USA</h5>
+      Bio coming soon!
+      </td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+

content/speakers/speaker_info_2025/lightning/frank_aragona/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+---
+title: "Frank Aragona"
+url: "2025/lightning/frank_aragona"
+---
+
+### Language Translation at Scale: Automating Bulk Document Translation with R and Quarto
+Lighting Talk, 10:55 - 11:20 AM
+
+Background:  
+Publishing software like RMarkdown or Quarto allow a user to automate and dynamically render all aspects of a document. For example, we can automatically re-render a file when there is new data available, and the figures and text will update to account for the new data. I expanded on these automated publishing capabilities and wrote a script that can translate the language of the document’s text. The script allows publishers to spend less time translating documents, while making reports available in more languages.
+
+Methods:  
+The translation script uses R packages to parse text from a markdown file, apply a user-selected language model for translation, and then Quarto to convert the document back into a readable form. I used the lightparser R package to parse the text out of the markdown file, and a Hugging Face Transformers Helsinki language model to translate it into Spanish. Note that a user could import their own language model(s). The lightparser package was then used again to convert the translated text back into markdown, allowing Quarto to render the new document.
+
+Results:  
+The script was tested using a Quarto markdown file containing code blocks and English text as the source.    The lightparser package successfully parsed the text from the document, distinguishing code blocks from the English text. The script then applied the Helsinki language model to the text, translating it into Spanish while leaving the code blocks in English.     This ensures that the code blocks remain executable, as they are not translated into a new language. Finally, Quarto successfully rendered the translated markdown file into HTML, PDF, and DOCX formats. The script can be adapted to ingest a source markdown file for translation and output it in multiple languages as specified by the user. Additionally, the entire process can be integrated into a job scheduler for fully automated processing.
+
+Conclusion:  
+This script offers an automated solution for translating the content of Quarto or RMarkdown documents. The workflow can be adapted for bulk document translation, allowing users to seamlessly translate reports into multiple languages, formats, and parameters. This could significantly expand outreach to non-English-speaking communities, providing them with better access to information in their native language.
+
+<br><br>
+
+<table>
+  <tr><td><img width="300px" style="float: left; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;" 
+           src="../../../../img/speakers/speakers_2025/frank_aragona.jpeg" alt="Frank Aragona headshot"></td>
+  <td>
+      <h5>Pronouns: </h5>
+      <h5>Portland, OR, USA</h5>
+      Bio coming soon!
+      </td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+

content/speakers/speaker_info_2025/lightning/light_template/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+---
+title: "Lindsay Dickey"
+url: "2025/lightning/lindsay_dickey"
+---
+
+### Simplify repetitive report creation
+Lighting Talk, 10:55 - 11:20 AM
+
+Slice a dataset and create individualized reports with efficiency.  In this example, survey data collected from several organizations is analyzed, and results prepared overall and by organization. Using markdown and through parameters, a report with individual organization and overall results is created for each organization. 
+<br><br>
+
+<table>
+  <tr><td><img width="300px" style="float: left; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;" 
+           src="../../../../img/speakers/speakers_2025/lindsay_dickey.png" alt="Lindsay Dickey headshot"></td>
+  <td>
+      <h5>Pronouns: </h5>
+      <h5>Portland, OR, USA</h5>
+      Bio coming soon!
+      </td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+

content/speakers/speaker_info_2025/lightning/lindsay_dickey/index.md

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+---
+title: "L. K. Borland"
+url: "2025/lightning/lk_borland"
+---
+
+### Decoding R needs: Bridging the gap with university library workshops  
+Lighting Talk, 2:30 - 2:55 PM
+
+Many university students and faculty members are expected to know R for their advanced courses or research, but access to formal teaching can be patchy at best, even in those programs that expect a certain level of knowledge and skill. Transfer students, nontraditional students, and faculty can slip through the cracks in relation to learning R or coding languages overall. 
+
+The university library has the framework and capacity to provide shorter workshops on technical topics, and can be a great resource for these learners looking to get more structured instruction. However, developing a curriculum that addresses the needs of all disciplines on campus and all levels of experience with coding languages can be challenging. 
+
+We investigated the audience that were interested in or attended our workshops on R through the library, and used what we learned to tailor the workshops to the broad range of students and faculty needs. Here, we discuss the challenges of meeting the needs we identified, including varying backgrounds, specialties, and learning styles, and how we are creating solutions to scaffold learning to meet learners where they are at. 
+
+Our approach includes teaching two different types of introductory workshops, varying in pace, format, and topics covered. By incorporating our assessment of the target audience and the availability of other resources on campus, we aim to bridge the gap in R education at the university level and enhance learning opportunities for our community. 
+
+<br><br>
+
+<table>
+  <tr><td><img width="300px" style="float: left; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;" 
+           src="../../../../img/logo/logo_2025/logo_2025.png" alt="SPEAKER NAME HERE"></td>
+  <td>
+      <h5>Pronouns: </h5>
+      <h5>Corvallis, OR, USA</h5>
+      Bio coming soon!
+      </td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+

content/speakers/speaker_info_2025/lightning/lk_borland/index.md

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+---
+title: "Megan Holtorf"
+url: "2025/lightning/megan_holtorf"
+---
+
+### Taking Action While You Sleep: Using GitHub Actions to Schedule Email Updates
+Lighting Talk, 10:55 - 11:20 AM
+
+Keeping your audience informed shouldn’t be a manual chore. When Megan set out to streamline email updates for her local running group, she realized that manually checking for new events and sending emails was time consuming and tedious. Automating the process with a local script was an option—but keeping her computer on 24/7? Not ideal. Instead, she turned to GitHub Actions, a cloud-based automation tool, to handle everything while she slept.
+
+In this lightning talk, Megan will demonstrate how to automate a workflow using R and GitHub Actions. She’ll walk through fetching events from Google Calendar with {ical}, formatting email content with {quarto}, sending emails via {blastula}, and scheduling it all seamlessly in GitHub Actions.
+
+By the end of this talk, attendees will see how GitHub Actions can take repetitive tasks off their plate, whether for email updates, report generation, or other automated workflows—even while they sleep.
+
+<br><br>
+
+<table>
+  <tr><td><img width="300px" style="float: left; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;" 
+           src="../../../../img/speakers/speakers_2025/megan_holtorf.jpg" alt="Megan Holtorf headshot"></td>
+  <td>
+      <h5>Pronouns: </h5>
+      <h5>Renton, WA, USA</h5>
+      Bio coming soon!
+      </td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+

content/speakers/speaker_info_2025/lightning/megan_holtorf/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+---
+title: "Mohsen Soltanifar"
+url: "2025/lightning/mohsen_soltanifar"
+---
+
+### CMHSU: An R Statistical Software Package to Detect Mental Health Status Substance Use Status and Their Concurrent Status in the North American Healthcare Administrative Databases
+Lighting Talk, 2:30 - 2:55 PM
+
+The concept of concurrent mental health and substance use (MHSU) and its detection in patients has garnered growing interest among psychiatrists and healthcare policymakers over the past two decades. Researchers have proposed various diagnostic methods, including the Data-Driven Diagnostic Method (DDDM), for the identification of MHSU. However, the absence of a standalone statistical software package to facilitate DDDM for large healthcare administrative databases has remained a significant gap. This paper introduces the R statistical software package CMHSU, available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN), for the diagnosis of mental health (MH), substance use (SU), and their concurrent status (MHSU). The package implements DDDM using hospital and medical service physician visit counts along with maximum time span parameters for MH, SU, and MHSU diagnoses. A working example with a simulated real-world dataset is presented to explore three critical dimensions of MHSU detection based on the DDDM. Additionally, the limitations of the CMHSU package and potential directions for its future extension are discussed.
+
+<br><br>
+
+<table>
+  <tr><td><img width="300px" style="float: left; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;" 
+           src="../../../../img/speakers/speakers_2025/mohsen_soltanifar.png" alt="Mohsen Soltanifar headshot"></td>
+  <td>
+      <h5>Pronouns: </h5>
+      <h5>Vancouver, BC, Canada</h5>
+      Bio coming soon!
+      </td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+

content/speakers/speaker_info_2025/lightning/mohsen_soltanifar/index.md

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+---
+title: "Samer Hijjazi"
+url: "2025/lightning/samer_hijjazi"
+---
+
+### Navigating the BLS API with R: A Step-by-Step Guide
+Lighting Talk, 2:30 - 2:55 PM
+
+This talk will demonstrate how to leverage the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) API in R to access the many different datasets provided by BLS. The BLS site offers lots of data pertaining to employment and consumer price indexes, all of which are connected to its API.
+
+Throughout the session, best practices for working with the BLS API will be emphasized. Attendees will learn how to request the API key, how to use the httr package to access the data, and learn about the series ID format used by BLS as a way of labeling the different datasets.
+
+This session is aimed at all levels of R users. You do not have to be an expert in R, nor in APIs to benefit from this session.
+
+<br><br>
+
+<table>
+  <tr><td><img width="300px" style="float: left; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;" 
+           src="../../../../img/speakers/speakers_2025/samer_hijjazi.jpg" alt="Samer Hijjazi headshot"></td>
+  <td>
+      <h5>Pronouns: </h5>
+      <h5>Location</h5>
+      Bio coming soon!
+      </td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+