Welcome!

Opening the Black Box

uRos2026

Thelma Panaïotis

2026-11-18

Thelma Panaïotis

PhD in numerical ecology ( plankton)

Machine learning and data science

Passion for explaining abstract ideas

One philosophy: learning by doing

Founder of Pyranhia: training and consulting in data science and machine learning with R

Why this tutorial?

Since my PhD
variable importance, PDP

SHAP values
too scary, I kept away

Befriended!
not that scary after all

The tutorial I wish I had followed a few years ago

What we will do together

1. Understand the idea behind SHAP values, and why we need them
2. Practice: explain one prediction, then the whole model, in R
3. Think: what SHAP can and cannot tell you

Intuition first, zero equations!

Short coding sessions all along, a Shiny app and interactive widgets to play with.

Questions welcome!

Let’s chat over coffee

Come and find me for a chat, over a coffee (or tea, no judgement).

• Work: R, data science, ML, multivariate stats, Quarto, Shiny
• Not work: cycling, triathlon

P(good conversation) = 0.87

SHAP approved

Before we start

Locally

git clone https://github.com/pyranhia/uros2026-shap-workshop.git

Open the project, then renv::restore(). You can run the demo app yourself (app/shiny_demo/app.R, Run App).

RStudio Server

rstudio.pyranhia.eu: logins handed out now

Do not run the app here: use the dedicated instance, shiny-uros2026.pyranhia.eu

Getting set up

Tutorial home page

Slides