EP 219 Data Analysis and Interpretation (Autumn 2018-19)

Instructor: Prof. Vikram Rentala

Course Name: Data Analysis and Interpretation ( EP 219 )

Course Type: Theory (Core)

Credits: 6

Pre-requisites: Basic Calculus

Course Content: 

Probability axioms and Bayes' theorems
Probability distributions - Mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis, moments, characteristic function, contour plots
Correlation, Covariance and Independence
Transformation of variables
Multivariate probability distribution
A detailed discussion of  Bernoulli, Uniform, Poisson, Binomial and Multinomial, Chi-squared distributions
Central Limit Theorem
Multidimensional Gaussian random variables

Statistical and Systematic errors
Error propagation
Error ellipses 
Parameter Inference

Confidence Intervals
Hypothesis Testing
Likelihoods
Goodness of Fit Test
p-value.

Books:

Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis for Physicists - G. Bohm and G. Zech

Lectures:

No attendance. Blackboard teaching (exclusively). Good quality lectures, with a lot of material covered per lecture. Becomes tough to catch up if you lose track.

Assignments:

Tutorials were handed out, but not discussed or graded. Proved to be extremely important for the written exams.
5 programming assignments were to be done in groups of 4. Roles of web manager, coder, report writer and group leader switch between the 4 every week. Assignments are a bit time consuming, getting used to LATEX for the report takes a bit of time, coding to be done in Python and results to be uploaded on a website, typically made on google sites or wordpress. (Webpage, Latex and Python skills were to be learned on our own)

Exams and Grading:

Exams and grading were both on the easier side. Tutorials and any examples discussed in class were extremely crucial. Midsem - 30 marks, Assignments & Quizzes - 30 marks, Endsem - 40 marks 

Online Useful Material:
Zach and Bohm and lecture notes are sufficient.

Advanced Follow up Courses:

Pro-Tips:

Even if lectures seem boring, they are extremely relevant. As a physicist, sir regularly gives relevant examples and teaching is easy to follow. Maintaining a good grasp on the contents as the course progresses is key and often sufficient to getting a good grade. 

Personal Comments:
Course review is heavily dependent on the Prof. and may change considerably if the prof changes. 

Respondent: Ajinkya Werulkar