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Contact
FYS |
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300
Steele Building
CB# 3504
UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
27599-3504
email: fys@unc.edu
phone: (919)843-7773 |
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STOR 052 [006P]: "Decisions!,
Decisions!!, Decisions!!!"
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Math Requirement]
Jon Tolle
Every day each of us makes hundreds of simple personal decisions
that impact us in minor ways; we choose what type of meals
we eat, what route we take to school or work, and what clothes
to pack for a trip, etc. At a more significant level, we make
personal decisions that may have a profound effect on our
lives: we decide what kind of car to buy, which college to
attend, and where to buy a house. Decisions are also made
daily in business and industry that affect their customers
and their companies: the purchaser for a clothing store chooses
the lines of clothing she will stock for the coming season,
a district supervisor for the power company decides on the
order in which downed power lines will be repaired, and the
doctor chooses the type of drug to prescribe for a patient
with pneumonia. Finally, public policy makers routinely make
decisions that affect large numbers of people in critical
ways: school board members draw school boundary lines, a board
of medical professionals determine who should be inoculated
against smallpox; and the President and Congress decide whether
or not we should go to war. These decisions, while differing
in their criticality, have much in common. They require choosing
a "best" option from among many choices. The options
are restricted by "constraints" and the decision
depends upon the interpretation of experimental, experiential,
or factual data. In this course, we will investigate the structure
of these decision problems, show how they can be solved (at
least in principle), and solve some simple problems.
STOR 053 [006P]: Networks: Degrees of Separation and
Other Phenomena Relating to Connected Systems
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Math Requirement]
Jon Tolle
Networks, mathematical structures that are composed
of nodes and a set of lines joining the nodes, are used to
model a wide variety of familiar systems: distribution networks
such as electric power grids, anatomical networks such as
neural systems, communication networks such as the world-wide
web, and social networks representing relationships between
cultural groups. These networks have distinct properties that
help answer questions about the underlying system: how susceptible
is a power grid to breakdown? how fast can a computer virus
spread? how connected are the members of different corporate
boards? Questions of this type, some suggested by class members,
will be posed and modeled by networks.
STOR 056 [006D]: The Art and Science
of Decision Making in War and Peace
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Natural Science -
no lab, physical]
Sandy Stidham
This seminar will use recently assembled historical material
to tell the exciting story of the origins and development
of operations research during and after World War II. Operations
Research (sometimes called Management Science or Decision
Science) is concerned with the process of decision-making
for the purpose of optimal resource allocation. Operations
Research proceeds by modeling a decision-making problem and
using a computer package to analyze the model and suggest
an optimal solution. The course will combine readings on the
contribution of operations research to war/post-war efforts,
with specific case studies exemplifying the kinds of
problems--in civilian as well as military sectors--that have
been and are being solved by the use of operations research.
This will include a brief (non-mathematical) presentation
of some of the basic models and solution techniques, together
with experiments with computer software to demonstrate how
some of these problems are solved. Particular use will be
made of the IDEAS database developed by the department here
at UNC, which presumes no knowledge of Operations Research
or computer languages. Each participant also will do a term
project on a particular Operations Research application from
a historical perspective.
STOR 062: Probability & Paradoxes
Quantitative Intensive (QI)
Douglas Kelly
Did you know the following? Among 40 randomly chosen people, it is very likely that two of them will have the same birthday. A test for a certain disease may be 99% accurate, and yet if you test positive, your chance of having the disease may be only 10%. It is possible for baseball player A to have a higher batting average than player B for the first half of the season, and also for the second half of the season, but for player B to have a higher average for the season. In mathematics there are either true statements that can never be proved, or false statements that can be proved true (or both). There are competitive situations in which it is in everyone’s advantage to be selfish, but everyone does better if all act altruistically. Mathematics and logic, and in particular the theory of probability, are powerful tools for understanding the world around us, but they lead, as indicated by the examples cited, to some surprising conclusions. Understanding these surprises adds to our understanding of randomness, logic, and behavior. In this seminar, we will look at these and other seeming paradoxes, and learn how we can explain them. Each one will lead us to one or more of the basic ideas of logic or probability. No previous knowledge of mathematics beyond basic algebra is required.
STOR 064: A Random Walk Down Wall Street
Quantitative Intensive (QI)
Chuanshu Ji
The ups and downs of many stocks, bonds, and mutual funds in the past few years have made a significant impact on our society. Accordingly, a good understanding of financial markets becomes a necessary part of our education. This course is intended to provide students with a multimedia platform on which they can learn some basic concepts in finance and economics, useful tools for collecting and summarizing financial data, and simple probability models for quantification of the market uncertainty. Students will actively participate in the seminar’s organization. A number of small projects will be assigned to students, supervised by the instructor. The projects include data analysis using Excel, experimentation of simple investment strategies and portfolios through “virtual trading,” discussions on the performance of those portfolios and related probability calculation. Students will present what they conduct in the assigned projects. The course grades will be based on the results of the students’ presentations.
STOR 072 [006D]: Unlocking
the Genetic Code
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Natural Science -
no lab, life]
J. Scott Provan
This seminar introduces students to the world of genetics
and DNA, and in particular, the use of computers and operations
research to organize and make use of the complex combinatorial,
probabilistic, and statistical systems associated with understanding
the structure and dynamics of DNA and heredity. The students
will discuss the importance that knowledge of the structure
of DNA can have on improving human life, the complexity of
the related problems associated with understanding and using
this information, and hands-on use of the computer to model
and solve some of these complex problems. Grades will be based
on class discussion, exams, and problem-solving assignments.
No previous computer skills or mathematics beyond basic algebra
are required.
STOR 060 [006D]: Statistical
Decision-making Concepts
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Natural Science - no lab,
physical]
Edward
Carlstein
We often have to make decisions- predict the future,
guess the values of unknown numbers, or uncover relationships
between variables-based on incomplete information. This leads
to various types of errors, which cause us to incur losses
of time, money, health, or other kinds of loss. We will study
some basic statistical decision-making procedures and the
errors and losses they lead to. We will analyze the effects
of randomness on decision making using computer experimentation
and physical experiments with real random mechanisms like
dice, cards, and so on.
STOR 061 [006D]: Statistics for Environmental Change
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Natural Science - no lab]
Richard L.
Smith
(no description available)
STOR 062 [006D]: Probability
and Paradoxes
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Natural Science - no lab,
physical]
Douglas G.
Kelly
Did you know the following? Among 40 randomly chosen people,
it is very likely that two of them will have the same birthday.
A test for a certain disease may be 99 percent accurate, and
yet if you test positive, your chance of having the disease
may be only 10 percent. There is a simple gambling system
that guarantees you will win 90 percent of the time. But if
you gamble repeatedly with this system, you will surely lose
all your money. It is possible for baseball player A to have
a higher batting average than player B for the first half
of the season, and also for the second half of the season,
but for player B to have a higher average for the season.
The theory of probability offers one approach to the uncertainty
and chance that exist in the world. It leads, as you see above,
to some surprising conclusions, and understanding these surprises
adds to our understanding of how randomness works. In this
seminar we will look at these and other seeming paradoxes,
and learn how we can explain them. Each one will lead us to
one or more of the basic concepts of probability theory. We
will study these paradoxes using simple chance experiments
with objects like dice and cards, or by computer spreadsheet
calculations.
TOR 063 [006D]: Statistics, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics:
An introduction to the Ongoing Evolution
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Natural Science - no lab,
life]
P.K. Sen
This FYS Course is designed to emphasize the motivation,
philosophy and cultivation of statistical reasoning in the
interdisciplinary areas of statistical science and bioinformatics.
An important component of the course will be the students'
experimentation with planning (design) of experimental studies
in biometry, biomedicine, environmetry, toxicology, and bioinformatics,
as well as molecular biology. Such experimentation would also
lead to the art of data collection, analysis and evaluation
of interdisciplinary experimental studies. Student would be
inspired to acquire the basic motivation for designing, collecting
and analysing interdisciplinary studies. To stimulate an analytical
mode of thinking in this perspective,
there will be several experimental projects in which all statistical
aspects would be emphasized without emphasizing the mathematical
complications. This would include model sampling experiments,
data plotting, graphical representations, leading to an overview
of statistical data collection, modeling and interpretations.
STOR 064 [006P]: A Random Walk
Down Wall Street
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Math Requirement]
Chuanshu Ji
The ups and downs of many stocks, bonds, and mutual funds
in the past few years have made a significant impact on our
society. Accordingly, a good understanding of financial markets
becomes a necessary part of our education. This course is
intended to provide students with a multimedia platform on
which they can learn some basic concepts in finance and economics,
useful tools for collecting and summarizing financial data,
and simple probability models for quantification of the market
uncertainty. Students will actively participate in the course
organization. A number of small projects will be assigned
to students, supervised by the instructor. The projects include
data analysis using Excel, experimentation of simple investment
strategies and portfolios through "virtual trading,"
discussions on the performance of those portfolios and related
probability calculation. Students will present what they conduct
in the assigned projects. The course grades will be based
on the results of the students' presentations.
STOR 066 [006D]: Visualizing Data
Quantitative Intensive (QI) [GC Natural Science -
no lab]
J.S. Marron
The news is full of data: numbers, graphs, and so on. Learning
to think clearly about data is an important part of a citizen's
education. Data are often complex, and to analyze them we
must find a way to view them effectively. We will study a
variety of ways in which modern computational tools allow
easy and informative viewing of data. We will also look at
effective and ineffective ways to view data, and study the
kinds of choices that have to be made in data presentation
and viewing.
STOR 072: Unlocking the Genetic Code
Quantitative Intensive (QI)
J. Scott Provan
This seminar introduces students to the world of genetics and DNA, and in particular, the use of computers and operations research to organize and make use of the complex combinatorial, probabilistic, and statistical systems associated with understanding the structure and dynamics of DNA and heredity. The students will discuss the importance that knowledge of the structure of DNA can have on improving human life, the complexity of the related problems associated with understanding and using this information, and hands-on use of the computer to model and solve some of these complex problems. Grades will be based on class discussion, exams, and problem-solving assignments. No previous computer skills or mathematics beyond basic algebra are required.
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Courses
