Data mining is used to discover patterns and relationships in data. Emphasis is on large complex data sets such as those in very large databases or through web mining. Topics: decision trees, association rules, clustering, case based methods, and data visualization.

Overview of supervised learning, with a focus on regression and classification methods. Syllabus includes: linear and polynomial regression, logistic regression and linear discriminant analysis; cross-validation and the bootstrap, model selection and regularization methods (ridge and lasso); nonlinear models, splines and generalized additive models; tree-based methods, random forests and boosting; support-vector machines; Some unsupervised learning: principal components and clustering (k-means and hierarchical). Computing is done in R, through tutorial sessions and homework assignments. This math-light course is offered remotely only via video segments (MOOC style). TAs will host remote weekly office hours using an online platform such as Zoom. There are four homework assignments, a midterm, and a final exam, all of which are administered remotely.

Discrete and continuous time Markov chains, poisson processes, random walks, branching processes, first passage times, recurrence and transience, stationary distributions.

Techniques for organizing data, computing, and interpreting measures of central tendency, variability, and association. Estimation, confidence intervals, tests of hypotheses, t-tests, correlation, and regression. Possible topics: analysis of variance and chi-square tests, computer statistical packages.