Schedule

Following is a tentative course schedule, which is subject to change as the course progresses. Links to all tutorials will be posted when available.


Weekly activities

Lab
Section 1: Tuesdays, 1:00-4:00 pm, 200 Broad
Section 2: Tuesdays, 7:00-10:00 pm, 200 Broad
Lecture
Wednesdays, 9:00-9:50 am, 100 Broad
TA sessions
Recitation: Thursdays, 7:00-8:30 pm, 200 Broad
Homework help: Thursdays, 8:30-10:00 pm, 200 Broad; dial 626-395-5947 if you need to be let in the building.
Instructor office hours

Fridays, 2:30-4:00 pm, 200 Broad

Homework due dates

HW 1
due 5 pm, Jan. 13
HW 2
due 5 pm, Jan. 20
HW 3
due 5 pm, Jan. 27
HW 4
due 5 pm, Feb. 3
HW 5
due 5 pm, Feb. 10
HW 6
due 5 pm, Feb. 17
HW 7
due 5 pm, Feb. 24
HW 8
due 5 pm, March 2
HW 9
due 5 pm, March 9
HW 10
due 5 pm, March 16 (with free extension up to March 23)
HW 11
due 5 pm, March 18 (with free extension up to March 25)

Lab and lecture schedule

Lab 1
(before Tu 01/07) Setting up your computer
Lecture 1
(W 01/08) Probability and scientific logic
Lab 2
(Tu 01/14) Analytical approaches to parameter estimation
Lecture 2
(W 01/15) Constructing generative models with probability distributions
Lab 3
(Tu 01/21) Parameter estimation by numerical optimization
Lecture 3
(W 01/22) Markov chain Monte Carlo
Lab 4
(Tu 01/28) Introduction to Stan
Lecture 4
(W 01/29) Display of MCMC results
Lab 5
(Tu 02/04) Prior and posterior predictive checks
Lecture 5
(W 02/05) Collector's box of distributions
Lab 6
(Tu 02/11) MCMC diagnostics
Lecture 6
(W 02/11) Model comparison
Lab 7
(Tu 02/18) Model comparison
Lecture 7
(W 02/19) Hierarchical models
Lab 8
(Tu 02/25) Sampling hierarchical models and noncentered distributions
Lecture 8
(W 02/26) Principled workflows
Lab 9
(Tu 03/03) Simulation based calibration
Lecture 9
(W 03/04) Gaussian processes
Lab 10
(Tu 03/10) Variational inference
Lecture 10
(W 03/11) Course wrap-up

Recitation lessons

Rec 1
(Th 01/09) Review of MLE (CA)
Rec 2
(Th 01/16) Probability review (SW)
Rec 3
(Th 01/23) Review of priors (CA)
Rec 4
(Th 01/30) AWS/Stan help (JW)
Rec 5
(Th 02/06) Modeling start to finish (JW)
Rec 5
(Th 02/13) Practice modeling (CA)
Rec 7
(Th 02/20) Background on HMC (MM)
Rec 8
(Th 02/27) Discussion of project proposals (MM and JW)
Rec 9
(Th 03/05) Sampling discrete parameters (JW)