Statistics 8051 (Fall 2012) Course Information

• Instructor:

  
        Peihua Qiu 
  
  
  office room: 389 Ford Hall, phone: 625-5819 
  
  
  office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 3:00-3:50 p.m.
  
  
  E-mail: qiuxx008@umn.edu      
  

• Teaching Assistant:

  
        Feng Yi 
  
  
  office room: 350 Ford Hall 
  
  
  office hours: Tuesday 9:15-10:15 a.m., Wednesday 4:30-5:30 p.m. 
  
  
  E-mail: yixxx064@umn.edu      
  

• Course Homepage Address: http://users.stat.umn.edu/~qiuxx008/teaching/stat8051/fall12/
  

• Lectures: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 12:20-1:10 p.m., Ford Hall 115

• Textbook:
  • Weisberg, S. (2005), Applied Linear Regression, 3rd edition, New York: Wiley. The website for this book is http://www.stat.umn.edu/alr
  • J. Faraway (2006), Extending the Linear Model with R, Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall. The website for this book is http://www.maths.bath.ac.uk/~jjf23/ELM

• Course description:

  This is the first course of a sequence of four courses on applied statistical analysis for our Ph.D. students. We will cover three main topics: (i) statistical data analysis using R, (ii) linear regression models, and (iii) generalized linear models.

• Homework Assignments:

  There will be weekly written homework assignments to be collected and graded. Homework assignments are due Thursdays during your lab sessions. They are acceptable by 5:00 p.m. on the due day. In any case, please give your homework solutions to the TA, instead of to the instructor. Late homeworks are not accepted. Working together in groups on homework is permitted, but each student must do his or her own write-up of the solutions and fully understand them.

• Computing:

  We will be using the statistical software package R. R is similar to Splus, while Splus is commercial and R is free. If you have a computer, then you can simply download and install R on it, by following the instruction at http://www.stat.umn.edu/HELP/r.html, which is linked to the course web page under the link ``Computer Information'' and then the link ``Downloading and Using R''. If you do not have a personal computer, then you can use the computer labs across the campus. The locations and hours of these computer labs can be found from the web address
  http://www.oit.umn.edu/computer-labs/

• Examinations:
  • First midterm exam (in-class): Friday October 12 (tentative), covers homeworks and lectures for weeks 1-5.
  • Second midterm exam (take-home): Friday November 16 (tentative), covers homeworks and lectures for weeks 6-10.
  • Final exam (take-home): Wednesday December 12, covers the entire course.
  • University policy is that midterm and final exams can be made up for legitimate absences, such as verified illness, participation in other University-sponsored activities, jury duty, military service, religious observances. If you must miss an exam, please talk to the instructor to make arrangements in advance.
  • All work on examinations must be entirely your own. In case of violation, a grade of zero will be given on the examination, and the appropriate college office will be noticed.

• Grades:

  In computing the final grade, each midterm counts 20%, the final counts 40%, and all of the homework together counts 20%. If you registered S/N, you will need a C- or higher to get a grade of S.

• Incompletes

  Incompletes (I) are granted only when a student is forced to miss several weeks of class due to extraordinary circumstances such as a documented illness or family emergency. To receive an incomplete grade, students must obtain approval from the instructor before the last day of class. No incompletes will be given unless you have a prior written agreement with the instructor in the form of a CLA Agreement for the Completion of Incomplete Work.

• Tentative Class Schedule:

Week beginning	Monday	Wednesday	Friday
September 3		1.1-1.2	1.3-1.6
September 10	2.1-2.3	2.4-2.5	2.6-2.7
September 17	2.8	3.1-3.4	3.4-3.6
September 24	4.1-4.2	4.3-4.6	5.1
October 1	5.2-5.3	5.4-5.5	6.1
October 8	6.2-6.3	6.4-6.5	1st midterm
October 15	7.1	7.2-7.4	8.1-8.2
October 22	8.3	8.4	9.1
October 29	9.2-9.3	10.1	10.2-10.3
November 5	10.4	11.1-11.2	11.3-11.4
November 12	12.1	12.2	2nd midterm
November 19	12.3-12.4	H-chap1	holiday
November 26	H-Chap2	H-Chap2	H-Chap2
December 3	H-Chap3	H-Chap3	H-Chap4
December 10	H-Chap4	review