Welcome to STAT 218!

Sinem Demirci, PhD

January 10^th, 2024

Hello!

Instructor

Dr. Sinem Demirci (she/they)

025-213

sdemirci@calpoly.edu

Instructor’s office hours:
Tue: 08:30 – 09:20 am (In-Office)
Wed: 10:40 – 11:30 am (Zoom)
Thu: 09:30 – 11:10 am (In-Office)

Grader

Kristina Mee Benbrooks (she/her)

kbenbroo@calpoly.edu

Today’s Menu

In this lecture, I will be briefly talking about

1. Course Website and Syllabus
2. What is Life Science?
3. What is Statistics?
4. Statistics and Life Science
5. Sustainable Development Goals
6. To-do list for this week

Course Website and Syllabus

Course Website: We will use our course website as the main hub for accessing essential resources throughout the duration of the course.

Canvas: We will use Canvas as a supplementary platform for uploading assignments, delivering announcements, and facilitating collaborative discussions.

Syllabus: - I’ve created three versions for our syllabus
- Canvas version
- PDF version
- Course Website

What is Life Science?

What is Life Science?

What is Life Science?

What is Life Science?

What is Life Science?

• Remember, scientists don’t always have to be in a lab conducting experiments. They can work from anywhere, at any time, and may come from all walks of life.

What is Statistics?

How Does Cal Poly Statistics Define Statistics?

• Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, analyzing and interpreting data using visualizations and models to help others make informed decisions. Statisticians find meaning in the data by looking at representative samples in order to make inferences about the whole. Statistics provides the foundation for data science and is important in many fields as different as retail sales, insurance and scientific research.

Another Perspective for Statistics

Uncertainty Venn Diagram

Statistics and Life Science

From The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820 - 1900

• “Only through their successful application to the refractory but rich problems of the social and biological sciences did the probabilistic techniques of error analysis grow into the powerful and flexible method of analysis that we know as mathematical statistics.” (Porter, 2020, p.4)

• “The further development of statistical mathematics was, until the end of the nineteenth century, largely the result of work in other natural and social scientific disciplines.” (p.7)

Sustainable Development Goals

Create Your Groups!

• We will have 8 lab sessions, each followed by a corresponding lab assignment.

  • Lab sessions will be conducted in groups, and the lab assignments will also be group projects.
    
  • This means that you will submit your lab assignments as a group.
    
  • Each group is composed of 3-5 students to work and complete the labs together both in the class and after the class.
    • Once the groups are determined, NO CHANGES ARE ALLOWED without prior notification to the instructor.

• The due dates will be determined based on the day of the lab sessions, and I will provide advance notice of these deadlines.

• Important: Please refrain from including the names of group members who did not participate. In the event of absent students, they must either complete the lab assignment individually or coordinate with their group members to complete it together as a group project.

Don’t Forget to Upload Your 1^st Week Assignment

• Please write a short paragraph on the life science and statistics.
  • And please do not use any reference or AI tools, I just want to see your description.
  • Yes, it will be graded.
• You will have other assignments too. Check the course website!

References

1. Visuals were taken from Wikimedia Common. By clicking the visuals, you can access the original versions!

2. Porter, T. M. (2020). The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820–1900. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvxcrz1v