Welcome to CSI 973 / IT 973

Mathematical Statistics II

Spring, 2004

Tuesday, 7:20-10:00pm, Innovation Hall, room 137

Instructor: James Gentle

If you send email to the instructor, please put "CSI 973" in the subject line.

This course is part of a two-course sequence. The general description of the two courses is available at www.scs.gmu.edu/~jgentle/csi9723/


This course resumes where CSI 972 ends (which in Fall, 2003, was at the end of Section 4.3 in Shao).

The course begins with a brief review of the general theory of statistical estimation, and estimation in parametric models. It then continues with maximum likelihood estimation and asymptotic properties of estimators in parametric models. Next, estimation in nonparametric models is covered. Hypothesis tests and confidence intervals are then covered.


The text is Jun Shao (2003), Mathematical Statistics, second edition, Springer.


Student work in the course (and the relative weighting of this work in the overall grade) will consist of

  • a number of small assignments, problems, etc. (25)
  • a midterm consisting of an in-class component and a take-home component (30)
  • a final exam consisting of an in-class component and a take-home component (45)

    An approximate schedule is shown below. As the semester progresses, more details will be provided on the topics to be covered, and there may be some slight adjustments. Occasionally, I will post some ``follow-up lecture notes''.



    Exam May 11, 7:30