Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF: Enhancing Usability of Mixtools and Tolerance for the Biomedical Community (EOSS3)

DRAFT ABSTRACT This project is focused on providing significant modernization and enhanced usability of the R packages mixtools and tolerance – both over a decade old and going strong – for improved engagement with the biomedical and health research communities. The programming and visualization tools available in R have advanced substantially in the years since mixtools and tolerance were first launched. This project will seek to harness the power of those advancements to make mixtools and tolerance consistent with the gold standard of an R package. It will focus on advancing capabilities for methodological responses to complex biomedical and health data challenges, improving efficiency in computational routines, and utilizing state-of-the-art visualizations, all of which are aimed at improving knowledge and decision-making for biomedical and health researchers. Outreach will also be a significant component of this proposal. One international presentation is already scheduled to give updates on new methods for the tolerance package. Other domestic conferences are expected, including a proposed training session for researchers in the biomedical and health communities on the modernized frameworks of both packages. Finally, while the code to both packages is freely available on CRAN, this project will also move all code to a GitHub repository and establish a more accessible environment for the user community. This will be an improvement over the current method of email communications and is expected to dramatically increase engagement with biomedical and health researchers ranging from the citizen scientist to the top-level researchers at world-renowned institutions.