INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

ENGR 0020: Probability & Statistics for Engineers 1 (Spring 2009)

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Jayant Rajgopal
1039 Benedum Hall
Industrial Engineering
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Tel. +1 412 624 9840
Fax +1 412 624 9831


rajgopal@pitt.edu

Please check this page on a regular basis for updated announcements relating to the course. 

Date: April 20, 2009

I have posted solutions to HW Assignment 10.


PRIOR ANNOUNCEMENTS
01-06-2009 02-03-2009 03-05-2009 04-07-2009
01-08-2009 02-10-2009 03-17-2009 04-16-2009
01-15-2009 02-19-2009 03-26-2009
01-22-2009 03-03-2009 03-31-2009


Date: April 16, 2009
  • I have posted solutions to HW Assignment 9 as well as HW Assignment 10 on control charts. You need not hand in HW10 but do try to work on the questions - it will help you prepare for the test.  I will post solutions early next week.
  • The final exam will be at 12 noon on Thursday, April 23 in our regular classroom.  Format will be similar to the previous test: closed book/notes but I will allow you one hand-written "crib sheet" - one side of an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of paper - which you will hand in with your test. 
  • You are responsible for all material covered in class.  The primary focus will be on Chapters 7, 8 and 9 and the test will cover the following sections of the text: 
    • Chapter 7: Everything except the "bootstrap" stuff on page 261, the last two subsections of 7.3 (on pages 275-276), and Section 7.4.
    • Chapter 8: Everything except for Sections 8.3 and 8.5.  You may also skip all the formulas derived for b (Type II error probability) and sample size (n) determination - however, you should be clear on what b represents and how it is generally defined and derived, as discussed in the first section of the chapter.
    • Chapter 9: Sections 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3 only - again, you may skip any formulas derived for b and sample size (n).
    • Chapter 16: Sections 16.1, 16.2, the S-chart (pages 637-638) in 16.3, and the p-chart and c-chart in 16.4. 
  • Good luck on all your final exams and have a great summer!
Date: April 07, 2009
I have posted HW9 on inferences with two samples (due next Tuesday), along with solutions to HW8 that were handed in today.
Date: March 31, 2009
  • I have posted HW8 on tests of hypotheses; this is due April 7.
  • Please make sure you hand back both of your previous exams to me (if you have not already done so).
Date: March 26, 2009
  • I have posted solutions to HW7 that you handed in today.
  • Here are solutions to Exam 2 that I handed back in class this morning.  Please go over the solutions and compare them with your answers to make sure you understand them.  If there are questions come and see me.  Also, please remember to hand them back to me once you're done looking the tests.
Date: March 17, 2009
  • Hope you all had a wonderful spring break, and return refreshed, rejuvenated and raring to go!
  • I have posted solutions to HW6 that you handed in today.
  • A reminder that the second test is on Thursday, March 19.  Please see my earlier announcement from March 05 for details.
  • I have posted HW7 on Confidence Intervals; this is due a week from Thursday on March 26. Please note that the MINITAB question requires you to use some updated data from the Clark Candy case page - this page has been updated, so please go and view the new information before you start on this question. 
  • I just got back HW5 from my grader; they're in an envelope in the folder outside my door if you want to pick them up.  Also, older homework papers that were not picked up in class are in another envelope; please pick these up if you haven't done so yet.
  • I still need to get back Exam 1 from several of you.  Please make sure to hand them back to me if you have not done so yet.
Date: March 05, 2009
  • I have posted solutions to HW5.
  • The second test is on Thursday, March 19.  It will be similar in format to the first test:  you are allowed a crib-sheet (ONE hand-written side of an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of paper) on which you can put down any stuff that you think you might not be able to remember.  Tables will be provided.
  • Test 2 will cover ontinuous distributions including Uniform, Normal (important) and Exponential distributions, joint distributions and covariance, sums and averages of Normal variables, the Central Limit Theorem (important) and simple point estimation.  As always, you are responsible for everything in the text that I covered in class and not responsible for anything that I did not:
    • Chapter 4: Only the following material:
      • Sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, pages 157-159 of Section 4.4 (exponential distribution), pages 170-175 of Section 4.6 (Normal probability plots)
    • Chapter 5: Only the following material:
      • Section 5.1 (excluding the stuff on more than two random variables and on conditional distributions on pages 191-193),
      • Section 5.2,
      • Section 5.3: from page 202 to the middle of page 205 (i.e., until the section on Random Samples),
      • Sections 5.4 and 5.5.
    • Chapter 6: Only Section 6.1 (and you can also skip the last part of this section on bootstrapping).
Date: March 03, 2009
  • I have posted HW6, this will be due in class on Tuesday, March 17.
  • An early reminder that the second mid-term is scheduled for Thursday, March 19.  This test will cover material seen after Exam1(i.e., Chapters 4, 5 and 6).  I will post a detailed list of topics on Thursday. 
Date: February 20, 2009
I have posted the second half of the class notes in the Web Documents section of this site.  Please download and print these since you will need them starting Tuesday (or perhaps Thursday....).
Date: February 19, 2009
I have posted  solutions to HW #4 as well as the next assignment, which is due two weeks from today on March 05.  Please begin early - for some of the later questions you will have to wait until next week, but for the first several questions you can get started right away.
Date: February 10, 2009
  1. Here are solutions to Exam 1.  Please download and print these out so that you can compare the answers with your own when I hand the tests back in class. 
  2. I have posted HW #4 on continuous probability distributions; this is due in class a week from Thursday (on Feb 19).
Date: February 03, 2009
  1. I have posted solutions to HW #3 that you handed in today. 
  2. The first exam is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 05 and will cover Chapters 1,2 and 3.  You may omit Section 3.5 on the Hypergeometric and Negative Binomial distributions.
  3. The exam will be closed-book/notes; you are allowed a hand-written formula sheet (one side of an 8.5 by 11 inch paper) on which you can put down whatever you want, and that you will hand in with the test.

  4. Please be sure to collect past assignments/quizzes that were not picked up in class - they're in the folder outside my office door.
Date: January 22, 2009
  1. I have made a few changes in the schedule; mainly the dates for the first two exams. Please make a note.

  2. I have posted solutions to Assignment 2 that you handed in today, and I have also posted Assignment 3; this is due only on Tuesday, Feb 3 but I would suggest starting early...
Date: January 15, 2009
  1. MINITAB (the statistics software we will use in this class) is available in all the CSSD labs via the university's software network.  If you wish to purchase a personal license through Software Licensing Services at Pitt you can do so at virtually no cost (I think it's $5).
  2. Assignment 2 (due Jan 22) has been posted. Please start early because it's a slightly longer one, and will take you more time than the first assignment. 
  3. Starting with this assignment, I will be using a real-world data set as a case study throughout the course for illustrating various concepts, and also for you to analyze using MINITAB.  A description of this data set may be found in the Clark data set web page - please familiarize yourself with the contents of this page.  The actual data file may be downloaded from there, either as an Excel file or as a MINITAB file.
  4. Solutions to Assignment 1 have also been posted. 
Date: January 8, 2009
  • I have posted HW Assignment 1 on descriptive statistics.  This is due in class a week from today (1/15).
  • I forgot to mention this, but please also bring your textbook to class since I will often work out example problems from the end of the chapter/section.
Date: January 6, 2009
  1. I will update this page any time I have an announcement that I would like to make or when I have a document for you to download off the web - typically, these will be homework assignments and their solutions which can be obtained from the Homework Assignments page.
  2. All documents will be made available as Adobe Acrobat files (with a .pdf extension).  In some instances, documents might also be posted as MS-Excel files (when there are spreadsheets) or MINITAB data files. In order to download a document to your machine, you may simply click on the filename. You may then print the document, save it or do whatever else you wish with it. Acrobat Reader is installed on all machines at Pitt - if your machine does not have this, you may download it free by clicking on the button at the end of this paragraph.  
  3. To try this out here is a document that contains the course outline and description - the downloadable version of this is contained in course.pdf.
  4. I have collated copies of most of the overhead transparencies that I use for this class and put them together into the Web Documents page.  Please browse through these on a regular basis.  Also, before coming to class, please print out the pages that relate to the next lecture (the schedule should tell you what we will be covering next in class) and bring these copies with you to class. That way, you can listen to the lecture and take down any notes directly on the copies of the overheads that you have (rather than frantically trying to copy everything you see on the overhead...).