Department of Mathematics

Probability and Statistics for Science

Fall 2015 - 2016
Catalog Description

This is a statistics course for computer engineering students.

Contents include random variables, laws of probability,
probability distributions, expectation and variance, moment
generating functions, joint distribution, independence,
probability models, Chi-square test, Students T and F
distributions, estimation, confidence limits, significance tests,
and regression.

Credits

3 hours

Textbook

Walpole, R., Myers, R., Myers, S. Probability and Statistics

for Engineers and Scientists, 8th ed., Prentice Hall Inc., 1998.

References/
Supportive Material

Lecture notes and handouts

Course Objectives

This course introduces the students to basic concepts of

probability and statistics including sample spaces, random
variables, conditional probability, discrete distributions,
continuous distributions, and functions of random variables.
The course moreover emphasizes the uses of the above
concepts in the Computer Science and Computer and
Communications Engineering fields.

Course Outcomes

Upon the completion of this course, students will acquire

competencies in the following skills:
1. Summarize and present data
2. Calculate probabilities of different events given certain
sample spaces.
3. Describe probability distributions
4. Compute probabilities from given density functions.
5. Calculate expected values and variances
6. Test for the independence of variables

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7. Recognize the uses of the techniques learnt in this course

in the Computer Science and Computer and Communications
Engineering applications, design, and decision making.
Academic Honesty

Submitting someone elses work as your own is not tolerated.

The assignments are scaled to be small enough in size that
they may be completed by the individual student. The
instructor realizes that homework is frequently a collaborative
task, and understands that some students may require some
help. Students who collaborate with others are expected to
submit their homework online by themselves. Students are
not expected to collaborate on online quizzes or examinations
(class quizzes, exams and final). If the instructor determines
that academic dishonesty has occurred, the student(s)
involved will normally be given an immediate grade of F
and dropped from the course.

Class Policies

Class participation is expected and will form a part of the

final grade. Students are expected to attend all class sessions
and to be on time. Roll will be called each class meeting.
Classes missed for legitimate reasons, such as illness or
temporary duty assignments are excusable. The student is
expected to make up the missed work by making
arrangements with the instructor. The student is responsible
for providing the instructor with justification for an excused
absence either prior to or immediately after the absence.
During the semester, each unjustified absence will result in a
deduction of 5 grades. Three unexcused absences will result in
a first warning, six unexcused absences will result in a final
warning and seven or more unexcused absences are ground
for an involuntary withdrawal from the course. Students who
come late to class will not be allowed to attend the session
unless they get written permission from the office of the dean
of students.

Course Topics (approximate number of lecture hours)

Course program:
Hours
3
5

Material
Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis
Probability
o Sample space, events

Chapters
1
2

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o Computing sample points

o Probability of an event
o Additive rules
o Conditional probability
Random Variables and Probability Distributions
o Concept of a random variable
o Discrete probability distribution
o Continuous probability distributions
o Empirical distributions
o Joint probability distributions
Mathematical Expectation
o Mean of a random variable
o Variance and covariance
o Means and variance of linear combinations of
random variables
o Chebyshevs theorem
Discrete Probability Distributions
o Discrete uniform distribution
o Binomial and multinomial distributions
o Hypergeometric distribution
o Negative and geometric distributions
o Poisson distribution and the Poisson process
Continuous Probability Distributions
o Introduction
o Normal distribution
o Areas under the normal curve
o Application of the normal distribution
o Normal approximation to binomial
o Gamma and exponential distribution
o Chi-squared distribution
Fundamental Sampling Distributions and
Data Descriptions
o Random sampling
o Some important statistics
o Data displays and graphical methods
o Sampling distributions
o Sampling distribution of means
o Sampling distribution of S2
o t-Distribution
o F-Distribution

Grading Policy
Attendance (ATT)
Class Participation (CP)
Homework (HW)
Class Quizzes (CQZ)

5%
5%
10%
10%

Class Exams: (45% -the highest 3 of the 4 are counted):

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Exam I (EX I)
Exam II (EX II)
Exam III (EX III)
Exam IV (EX IV)
Final Exam (FIN)

15%
15%
15%
15%
25%

A grade of zero will be assigned for any missed exam unless a valid excuse is
submitted. There will be no make up exams.
Exams
There will be four exams offered over the course of the
semester; your lowest grade of the four will be dropped. The
tests will be worth 45% of your final grade. Make-up exams
will not be given under any circumstances. If a student were
to miss an exam for an unforeseen emergency, the student
would not need to worry because that exam will be dropped.
However, ideally students should take all four exams in order
to drop the lowest of the four.
Contribution of Course to Meeting the Professional Component
Mathematical skills:
Business topics:

60%
40%

Examination Dates
Exam I: Monday, October 19, 2015
Exam II: Monday, November 9, 2015
Exam III: Monday, November 30, 2015
Exam IV: Monday, December 21, 2015
Final Exam: January 18 to January 26
Homework Format

Chapters 1&2
Chapters 3 & 4
Chapters 4& 5
Chapter 6
Chapters All

All homework should be submitted on the due date.

Homework will be graded and returned by the next week for
the appropriate solution. Late homework will be penalized
50% per class period. No homework or projects will be
accepted after the last day of classes. Your homework should
be written on clean A4 sheets (notebook sheets are not
accepted). The sheets should be stapled. Each homework
problem should be clearly written before presenting the
solution. Dirty and unordered homework will be rejected.

Expanded Description, Content and Form

September 28: Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis
Reading: Chapter 1
October 5

Probability
Reading: Chapter 2
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Homework #1 (Due October 12)

Problems: 2.2, page 38 #1, 3, 5, 9, 15 & 2.3, page47 # 22, 28, 31, 38,
44, 46, 48 & 2.5 page 55#51-53, 55, 59 & 2.7 page 65 #78,
79, 80, 85, 87, 89, 91, 95, 97
October 12:

Probability & Random Variables and Probability Distributions

Reading: Chapter 2 and Chapter 3
Homework #2 (Due October 19)
Problems: 2.8 page 72 #102, 105, 106, 107.

October 19:

Random Variables and Probability Distributions

Reading: Chapter 3
Homework #3 (Due October 26)
Problems: 3.3 page 88 #1, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 21

October 26:

Random Variables and Probability Distributions

Reading: Chapter 3
Homework #4 (Due November 2)
Problems: 3.4page 101 #38, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 53, 55, 58,
60,62

November 2: Mathematical Expectation

Reading: Chapter 4
Homework #5 (Due November 9)
Problems: p. 113, 4.1 #2, 4, 6, 13, 15, 17-19, 22, 23,26 &4.2 p.122
#34, 35, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44.
November 9: Mathematical Expectation & Discrete Probability Distributions
Reading: Chapter 4 & Chapter 5
Homework #6 (Due November 16)
Problems: p.134, 4.4 #51,53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 67, 68
November 16: Discrete Probability Distributions
Reading: Chapter 5
Homework #7 (Due November 23)
Problems: p.150 5.3 #1, 3, 4, 10, 13, 15, 21, 23 & p.157, 5.4 #32, 33,
36, 37, 39, 43, 45.

November 23: Discrete Probability Distributions

Reading: Chapter 5
Homework #8 (Due November 30)
Problems: 5.6 p.156 #51, 55, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63, 65, 68, 71, 73.
November 30: Discrete Probability Distributions & Continuous Probability Distributions
Reading: Chapter 5 and Chapter 6
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Homework #9 (Due December 7)

Problems: p.167, review #81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 94
December 7: Continuous Probability Distributions
Reading: Chapter 6
Homework #10 (Due December 14)
Problems: 6.4p.185 #3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 17
December 14: Continuous Probability Distributions
Reading: Chapter 6
Homework #11 (Due December 21)
Problems: 6.5 p. 193 #23, 27, 30, 32
December 21: Continuous Probability Distributions & Linear Regression and Correlation
Reading: Chapter 6 and 8
Homework #12 (Due January 4)
Problems: 6.10 p.205 #39, 40, 43, 44, 46, 49, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57
January 4:

Fundamental Sampling Distributions and Data Descriptions

Reading: Chapter 8
Homework #13 (Due January 11)
Problems: 8.5 p.251 #20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 31

January 11:

Fundamental Sampling Distributions and Data Descriptions

Reading: Chapter 8
Problems: p.265 8.8 #43, 44, 50, 52, 54, 55.

January 14:

Revision

January18 to January 26: Final week.

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