Archived-Announcements-2013

From most recent to earliest

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• 06 Mar: please take a look at the software tutorial to help you use integer variables in your linear model.
• 04 Mar: Dr. Thompson is looking to fill a summer position in acoustic emissions testing. He would like to get a person with MATLAB skills and a more process control or stats focus. The project is about detecting a specific failure mode in plastics with acoustic monitoring so that we can catch the problem faster. But the focus will be on handling data. At 5 MHz, we collect A LOT of data very fast and we need to related a change in the acoustic spectrum to the formation of a microcrack. A process control oriented person or person comfortable with PCA would be most desirable.
  • I will be helping Dr. Thompson with the supervision and the data analysis part.
  • Please reply to Dr. Thompson (maybe CC me) to express your interest in this project.
• 04 Mar: solutions to assignment 4 are posted.
• 03 Mar: there is a description of the course project posted. Please read through it, and start thinking about some ideas. We will also talk about it in class later this week.
• 03 Mar: The next weekly test is posted, due by Tuesday, 5 March, around noon time. Very short, only on least squares.
• 28 Feb: assignment 5 is posted. It is due on 08 March 2013.
• 01 Mar: a guest lecture by Emily Nichols, on designed experiments is coming up on 08 March. Please aim to be at class for this interesting talk and discussion afterwards.
  • New: The slides for the guest lecture on Friday.
• 01 Mar: assignment 5 has an interesting extra question 4 added to it now.
• 28 Feb: grades for assignments 1, 2 and 3 are posted in Avenue for 400-level students. Please bring any discrepancy to my attention right away.
• 26 Feb: the slides for the Designed Experiments part of the course are posted. Don't print them yet. They are more for you to get an idea of the coming section, so you can see some context regarding the course project.
• 24 Feb: there is a new Quest test available. You should have received an automated email about it earlier today.
• 17 Feb: assignment 4 is posted; due on 27 February.
  • Please note that Q4 was updated, there are now 5 parts to the question.
  • Also take a look at the software tutorial for sample R code that will help you with this assignment; particularly sections 15 and 16.
  • Do not use R libraries, like qcc to do the work for you on building monitoring charts. The purpose of the assignment is to show that you can do the necessary calculations (you'll need to show that anyway in the final exam).
• 15 Feb: an important class on least squares was held today. Please review the video if you missed it. We will resume from slide 44 onwards, after the midterm break. Enjoy the time off.
• 14 Feb: the software tutorial for R has been updated with new sections 16 to 22, on building and using least squares models in R.
• 12 Feb: the notes for the least-squares section are posted.
• 12 Feb: weekly test 5 deadline extended to 12:15 today. A few people haven't got around to completing it.
• 10 Feb: assignment 4 will be posted this week, but the due date changed to after reading week. This is as a result of the bump in dates from the snow day.
• 08 Feb: Snow day: class for Friday is cancelled, and assignment 3 is now due on Tuesday, 12 Feb, paper or electronic, at class. No late hand-ins, we will post solutions on 12 February.
• 07 Feb: Important note: A large number of students are submitting assignments electronically, which we encourage and find easier to grade. However, you must follow the electronic submission instructions in order for us to grade your work. If you prefer not to follow these instructions, please submit in paper form instead.
• 06 Feb: quite a few emails asking if enough information is provided in assignment 3, etc. General rule: if information isn't provided, and you think it should have been, use an assumed value, but clearly justify why you've assumed the value, and why you picked the value you did.
• 06 Feb: regarding question 2 and 3 in assignment 3: the problem is sufficiently specified, it is just not obvious what you need to do. That's typical ... an industrial statistics problem doesn't present itself to you in the form: "Calculate a confidence interval ...."; you have figure out what you want to determine (the aim), and then what you need to calculate. It is an important skill to learn how to translate an industrial requirement into a statistical calculation.
• 06 Feb: the weekly tests are going well so far, so the midterm for 4C3 is cancelled.
  • Expect the grading part of the website to be ready during reading week.
  • Expect a slightly longer than normal weekly test at the end of reading week, going into the next week. That test will cover all the course material.
• 05 Feb: solutions to assignment 2 are posted (PDF).
• 03 Feb: the next weekly test is posted. You must complete it by 11:30AM on Tuesday, 5 Feb.
• 01 Feb: assignment 3 is posted; due on 08 February.
• 30 Jan: another visually interesting analysis of data by Hans Rosling.
• 30 Jan: Please print the revised slide 20 from the process monitoring section. Also try the example on that slide before the next class.
• 28 Jan: the weekly test has been emailed to you; please complete it before 16:30 on Tuesday, 29 Jan.
  • The problem with questions randomly being reordered has been fixed. Thanks for reporting that.
  • Background/interest: an interesting publication that demonstrates the effectiveness of spaced testing.
• 27 Jan: some delays with the weekly test and the server ... expect it on Monday (28 Jan).
• 25 Jan: I forgot to add in class today that if you'd like the R code for any drawing in the course textbook or slides, just send me an email with the page or slide number.
• 25 Jan: please note that class on Friday, 01 February, will be cancelled to accommodate the 4W4 students going on the XRCC plant tour (and I will be joining you).
• 25 Jan: the R code demonstrated in today's class is available
• 24 Jan: the assignment 1 solutions are posted.
• 21 Jan: the second assignment is posted; due on 30 January.
• 21 Jan: Another great R tutorial video, this one is on plotting data in R. He doesn't use RStudio, but the plotting commands are the same.
• 20 Jan, 21:30: the weekly test is posted. You should receive an automatic email. If not, please request a link at http://quest.mcmaster.ca
  • The automatic grading part of the software isn't written yet. But the website does display full solutions after the testing period is over. You can use this to estimate your grade for now.
• A good overview of understanding plotting in R is given in this YouTube video.
• 17 Jan: 6C3 students: please email me with your full name and student number. I do not get your registration information from the university. It is your responsibility to get this information to me, so that I can set you up for the weekly tests.
• 17 Jan: Please follow these instructions to submit an assignment electronically. Whether you choose paper (in class) or electronic, assignments are due at 12:30 pm on Friday.
• A tutorial for the course software is now available. It shows how to download and install the software and steps to get started. You'll need this for assignment 1.
• A copy of the tables for the normal and \(t\)-distribution can be downloaded and printed. Bring to the next 2 or 3 classes.
• If you want to receive these announcements on your cell, but don't have a Twitter account, text: follow stats4eng to this number 21212 and you'll get a text message instead of a tweet.
• Solutions for the first test are now available: sign in http://quest.mcmaster.ca/ to compare your answers. In a week or two the system will also automatically grade you (where possible); that feature isn't developed yet.
• Another interesting seminar on campus: John Bianchini, CEO of Hatch, will be talking at the free Chemical Engineering seminar on Thursday, 17 January, 10:30 to 11:20, JHE326H: moved to 28 March.
• Assignment 1 is posted; due 18 January, in class on paper, or electronically. Please do not use the Chem Eng dropbox for assignment submissions.
• The weekly test closes at 6AM on Tuesday morning, 15 January; a few students were under the mistaken impression that they can do the test during the day on Tuesday.
• The weekly test has been emailed to your McMaster email address. Please follow the link and instruction to complete the test. Let me know if you experience any technical difficulties.
  • If you didn't receive the automated email, you can re-request it from http://quest.mcmaster.ca/
  • There was a technical issue that sent a second sign-in email around 11:07 on Monday morning; please ignore that email.
  • If you get the message "Sorry - you are not registered to use the Quest website", then you are not on my official class list. Please email me your full name, student number and McMaster email address.
• Notes for the next section, univariate data analysis, are available.
• Notes for the first section of the course are available: Visualizing process data
• You should probably wait until after the first class before printing the course textbook. I have some advice on what to print.
• The first class is on Tuesday, 08 January, in T13 room 127 at 12:30.
• The course outline is available.