Stat 407/507 - Experimental Design

Instructor: Chris Williams, Room 414 Brink Hall Phone: 885-2802 or 885-6742

Meeting times: MWF 12:30-1:20 TLC 223

Prerequisites: Stat 431 or equivalent coursework.

Office Hours: MWF 1:30-2:20 or by appointment.

email: chrisw@uidaho.edu

Texts: A First Course in Design and Analysis of Experiments - Gary W. Oehlert from the University of Minnesota. This book is freely available under a Creative Commons License.

Webpage: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~chrisw/stat507live/


The webpage will contain announcements, summaries of lectures, lists of assignments, and other information.

Objectives: Define quantitatively the most efficient ways to obtain knowledge from experiments with differing constraints for plot size, number of treatments, classes of experimental objectives and blocking procedures in terms of the general linear model. Develop a quantitative, defensible strategy for experimentation.

Lecture Outline - We will cover most of the material in the text, to be detailed in the lecture schedule.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Be able to distinguish between common experimental designs such as Completely Randomized, Randomized Block, Completely Randomized Factorial, Latin Square, Confounded Block Designs, Fractional Factorial Designs, Repeated Measures Designs, Split-Plot and related designs, and Analysis of Covariance Designs.
2. Understand the issues involved in choosing between common experimental designs.
3. Be able to analyze data arising from common experimental designs.
4. Understand the use of response surface methods to identify important factors and settings for those factors to yield optimal responses.

We will use both the SAS and R computer packages, code will be available for both on the lecture schedule. Either choice will work fine for the course. We will use Blackboard discussions as an additional way to give comments and ask questions. Code examples for both SAS and R are listed on the lecture page. Other code examples are available on last year's lecture page: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~chrisw/stat507live/lecture507y17.htm , and further SAS and R examples, with a few Python examples are available on my lecture page for Stat 431: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~chrisw/stat431/lect431su18.htm .

Grading: Exams are 90% of the grade, the project is 10% of the grade. There will be five exams. Three of them (second, fourth, and fifth) have both take-home and in-class parts, while the other two (first and third) are take-home only. The final (fifth) exam is on Tuesday, December 12 at 12:30 pm. The value of each exam is 13%, 24%, 14%, 24%, and 15%, respectively, toward the 90% total exam weight. Each exam will be preceded by a review session based on previously assigned homework problems.
Students in the Stat 407 course can drop one exam in calculating the course grade.

Academic Honesty: You should be aware policies of the University of Idaho concerning academic honesty (see Article II of the Student Code of Conduct). Breaches of academic honesty will not be tolerated and will result in an F for the course and referral to the Dean of Students for further disciplinary action.

Disability Support Services Reasonable Accommodations Statement: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documented temporary or permanent disabilities. All accommodations must be approved through Disability Support Services located in the Idaho Commons Building, Room 306 in order to notify your instructor(s) as soon as possible regarding accommodation(s) needed for the course. Phone: 885-6307, email at dss@uidaho.edu , website at www.uidaho.edu/dss .

University of Idaho Classroom Learning Civility Clause: In any environment in which people gather to learn, it is essential that all members feel as free and safe as possible in their participation. To this end, it is expected that everyone in this course will be treated with mutual respect and civility, with an understanding that all of us (students, instructors, professors, guests, and teaching assistants) will be respectful and civil to one another in discussion, in action, in teaching, and in learning.
Should you feel our classroom interactions do not reflect an environment of civility and respect, you are encouraged to meet with your instructor during office hours to discuss your concern. Additional resources for expression of concern or requesting support include the Dean of Students office and staff (885-6757), the UI Counseling & Testing Center’s confidential services (885-6716), or the UI Office of Human Rights, Access, & Inclusion (885-4285).