Statistical Data Analysis

COURSE OBJECTIVE
This course acquaints the students with the theory and application of several widely used statistical analysis techniques. After completing this course the student knows the theory behind the different techniques and is able to verify which techniques are applicable to a given data set. Using the learned statistical tools, the student is able to summarize and analyze real data sets using the statistical software package R.

COURSE CONTENT
This is an advanced level statistical data analysis course that builds on an introductory course on statistics, e.g. Algemene Statistiek. The course introduces the students to several widely used statistical models and methods, and the students are taught how to apply these tools to real data with the use of the statistical software package R.

The following subjects are covered:

• summarizing data
• investigating the distribution of data
• robust methods
• non-parametric methods
• bootstrap
• two-sample problems
• contingency tables
• multiple linear regression.

The course is a combination of theory (in the lectures) and practice (in the computer classes). Since the solutions of the computer assignments are discussed during the lectures, the theory is explicitly linked to the practice of statistical data analysis.

TEACHING METHODS
Lectures, computer classes.

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT
Weekly homework assignments in R and written exam.

RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
Students should have basic knowledge on statistics