CMPSCI 240 Reasoning About Uncrtainty

CMPSCI 240: Reasoning About Uncertainty Fall 2013

Instructor: Benjamin M. Marlin
Lectures: MWF 2:30-3:20pm (Check Spire for updates)
Course Dates: Sept 3rd to Dec 6th
Course Text: Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis. Introduction to Probability, 2nd Edition
Course Website: The course website will be hosted on the UMass Moodle portal. Registered students will be able to access it here.
Course Syllabus: Download PDF
Course Description: Development of mathematical reasoning skills for problems that involve uncertainty. Each concept will be illustrated by real-world examples and demonstrated though in-class and homework exercises, some of which will involve Java programming. Counting and probability -- basic counting problems, probability definitions, mean, variance, binomial distribution, Markov and Chebyshev bounds. Probabilistic reasoning -- conditional probability and odds, Bayes' Law, Naive Bayes classifiers, Monte Carlo simulation. Markov chains, Markov decision processes, classical game theory, introduction to information theory. This is a core course for the new CMPSCI curriculum and may be used as a math elective for the old curriculum. Prerequisites: CMPSCI 187 (or ECE 242) and MATH 132 or consent of instructor. 4 credits.