STAT 418: Computational Methods in Data Science
Spring 2026 Course Schedule — Tuesday/Thursday 1:30–2:45 PM
CH 1 Chapter (click to open)
📘 HW Homework
🎯 CAP Capstone Milestone
📝 EXAM Midterm
🎤 PRES Presentations
Week Date Tuesday Thursday Due
1 01/12
📚 Course IntroductionCh 1Foundations of Probability & InferenceInterpretations of ProbabilityStatistical Inference Paradigms
Ch 1Python EchoSystem, Distribution Review, and Relationships
2 01/19
Ch 2Monte Carlo Fundamentals & Uniform Random Variates
Ch 2Inverse CDF + Transformation methods for Normal Distribution
3 01/26
Ch 2Rejection Sampling
Ch 2Variance Reduction Methods
📘 Homework 1⏰ Due 1/30
4 02/02
Ch 3Exponential Familes and Maximum Likelihood Theory
Ch 3Statistical EstimatorsSampling VariabilityDelta Method
5 02/09
Ch 3Least Squares Estimation; Assumptions; and Diagnostics
Ch 3Least Squares Estimation; Assumptions; and DiagnosticsStart Continued Generalized Linear Models (GLMs)
📘 Homework 2⏰ Due 2/13
6 02/16
Ch 3Continued Generalized Linear Models (GLMs)
Ch 4Sampling Distribution Proble; ECDF and Plug In Principle
7 02/23
Ch 4Nonparametric Bootstrap
Ch 4Nonparametric BootstrapStart Parametric Bootstrap
📘 Homework 3⏰ Due 2/27
8 03/02
Ch 4Parametric Bootstrap
Ch 4Jackknife Fundamentals (Leave-one-out resampling)
9 03/09
Ch 4Bootstrap Confidence Intervals; Bias Correction
Ch 4Cross Validation for Model Selection; Predictive Performance Estmation
10 03/16
📝 MIDTERM I In Class
Ch 5Bayesian foundations; Prior specification
📘 Homework 4⏰ Due 3/20
11 03/23
Ch 5Conjugate priors; Analytical posteriors
Ch 5Credible intervals
12 03/30
Ch 5Markov chain foundations
Ch 5MCMC, Metropolis-Hastings; Gibbs sampling
📘 Homework 5⏰ Due 4/3
13 04/06
Ch 5Convergence diagnostics; Model comparison
Ch 5Posterior predictive checks; Hierarchical models
14 04/13
Ch 6Integration and workflows
Ch 6Text preprocessing; Feature extraction with embeddings
📘 Homework 6⏰ Due 4/17
15 04/20
📝 MIDTERM II In Class
Ch 6Pre-trained models for analysis and annotation; RAG systems
📘 Homework 7
(tentative)⏰ Due 4/24
16 (Queit Week) 04/27
Ch 6Responsible AI; Privacy; Prompt engineering
Ch 6Additional LLM topics
17 (Finals Week) 05/04 🎤 CAPSTONE PRESENTATIONS Date TBA