Elisabeth Smela, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland

SYLLABUS, ENME 392
Statistical Methods for Product and Processes Development
Spring 2008

Course Description

This course will cover the fundamentals of probability and statistics. This will be done through lectures, homework assignments, and a project.

Lecturer

Dr. Elisabeth Smela
office: 2176 Glenn L. Martin Hall
phone: x55265
email: smela@umd.edu
office hours: tentatively 4-5 Mondays and 11-12 pm Tuesdays, or by appointment

Teaching Assistant

Chao Hu
office: 4452 A.V. Williams
phone: 240-491-7219
email: huchaostu@gmail.com
office hours: tentatively 11-12 Wednesdays and 2-3 pm Thursdays, or by appointment

Textbook

Walpole, Myers, Myers, and Ye “Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists”, 8th edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2007. ISBN 0-13-187711-9

Class Web Site

Communication between instructor and students outside the classroom will be primarily through Blackboard (https://bb.eng.umd.edu).

Classroom Material

The book for the course is very good. I will therefore use classroom time to supplement the material in the book and answer any questions you have about the reading.

Schedule

The class schedule is posted online. It is subject to update and change as we proceed through the semester.

Assessment

The course grade will be calculated as follows. Point breakdowns for each of these major components will be posted online. Grading will not be on a curve.

Quizzes	7%
Homework	15%
Exam 1	15%
Exam 2	15%
Project	18%
Final Exam	30%
TOTAL	100%

Assignments

Reading
Students are expected to have done the assigned reading for each lecture and should be prepared to discuss it in class. A quiz will be given on every reading assignment during the first few minutes of class.

Homework
Homework assignments and problem solutions will be posted online. Students should view homeworks as learning experiences. You may work together on homework, but should work through the problems on your own (i.e., no copying). The purpose is not just to hand something in, but to use the exercises to understand and gain familiarity with the material.

Projects
There will be a project that you will be working on throughout the semester. You may work in teams of up to three. There will be intermediate due dates on components of the project throughout the semester. Students will hand in a final report on their projects and give a presentation to the class on their findings.

Exams

There will be two in-class exams and a final. Exams will be comprehensive. In grading, I will look closely at the reasoning that you use to solve the problems.

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