MAS3301, Bayesian Statistics



Semester 2, 2008-9

MAS3301 students should "Bookmark" this page!

Timetable

Times and locations of classes are as follows.
===================================================================================
Day       Time      Room    Class             Weeks
===================================================================================
Tuesday   10-11      TR4   Lecture          Every week   
Wednesday 11-12      TR4   Lecture          Every week 
Thursday   3-4       TR4   Problems Class   Odd weeks 
Thursday   3-4       TR4   Drop in          Weeks 2, 6, 10, 12 
Thursday   3-4      Loch   Practical        Week 4 (Feb 19th) and Week 8 (Mar 19th)
===================================================================================

An attendance register will be taken at each problem or practical class. Please note that a good attendence record will be taken into account when deciding whether to pass students with borderline assignment/exam marks.

Lecture notes

[Get Acrobat Reader] Lecture notes will be posted below, together with solutions to problems. Extra lectures will be added to the notes as they are written. They are in pdf format and you will need Acrobat Reader to view them - click on the link to download your own (free) copy.

Assessment

The assessment of the module consists of a 90 minute examination at the end of Semester 2 (80%), 5 sets of assessed problems (10%) and a project (10%). Obviously I can't show you this year's exam but you can get a copy of last year's exam paper from the university's
exam site or from here. The solution to B7 is here. This module was MAS354 until 2006 so you can look at earlier MAS354 papers as well.

I plan to give five pieces of assessed coursework (in addition to the project). These will be equally weighted, so each counts for 2% of the module mark. The dates will be as follows. Work must be handed in by 4.00 pm on the dates given below, in the homework letterbox at the Mathematics and Statistics General Office, 3rd floor, Herschel Building.

Assignment      Hand out      Hand in 
---------------------------------------------------------
    1            Week 1       Week 3 (Monday February 9) 
    2            Week 3       Week 5 (Monday February 23) 
    3            Week 5       Week 7 (Monday March 9) 
    4            Week 7       Week 9 (Monday April 20) 
    5            Week 9       Week 11 (TUESDAY May 5)
The Project is to be submitted by 4.00pm on Thursday 30th April (Week 10). It must be submitted to the General Office and you will need to sign a sheet when you submit it. I will give you the project by the end of Week 3. Please note that in Weeks 9, 10, 11 you will have three pieces of work to submit, two assignments and the project, so try to make a start on the project well before the hand-in date. You will have 7 weeks of term and 4 weeks of the Easter vacation to work on the project. That should be more than enough.

The project instruction may be obtained here.
Here is the outline solution to this year's project.

Data

Information on R


An Introduction to R can be downloaded
here.

Other resources

Please report to me any errors or suggested improvements to these notes.