| Semester | AY2015/2016 Semester 2 |
| Program | Master of Science (Industrial & Systems Engineering) |
| Module Code | IE5002 |
| Module Title | Applied Engineering Statistics |
| Modular Credit | 4 MCs |
| Teaching Staff | Prof Goh Thong Ngee |
This is one of the four foundation modules for the master's program, and it's kinda known as the killer module because who knows applied statistics can be so scary and hard core.
If Prof Goh is still the lecturer for this module when you're reading it, good luck. His notes comprise of a pretty generic collection of statistical analysis, and a lot of self-exploratory work may be expected, like reading up some of the books recommended in this module.
In the first lecture, it was outlined by Prof Goh that statistical analysis branches into:
- Descriptive statistics
- Inferential statistics
- Mathematical statistics
Student's t-test
Hypothesis testing, something that was rather new to me, was introduced, and by hand, we were taught how to perform Student's t-test (one-sample, two-sample, paired etc) at the start. Just remember the null hypothesis H0 always states that one mean equals another mean or a value.Analysis of Variance
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) to me it's like t-test with more than two treatments, and to test if significant difference prevails across treatments. You'll need to understand how to read and analyze an ANOVA table (this part is not difficult).Design of Experiments
Design of experiments (DOE), wow, what should I say, this is probably the hardest topic in the module. You need to be able to estimate the factor effect, perform statistical testing, and analyze the residual etc. 2k factorial design and alias structure of the design are something you need to familiarize yourself with before you call yourself prepared for the exam.Study Tips
Go through all the tutorial/assignment questions and understand how he arrives at the solutions. Of course statistical software like Minitab is able to compute the results quickly and conveniently but the down-to-earth way of computing should be comprehended.And since the exam is open-book, writing down the steps of arriving at each solution will be beneficial not only when you need to refer during the exam, but also when you need to get yourself familiarized with the concepts.
Exam
Open-book exam, but that doesn't mean that you should study less.Guess what was the very first question I got during my semester of study, it goes like this:
You are teaching applied engineering statistics to a class at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, which book would you use to teach? Indicate the year, author and publisher etc of the book.
Epic right, never have I come across such stun.
I got an A- for this module.
