Quantitative Analysis Center

QAC Courses

Applied Data Analysis (QAC201)

Crosslistings: SOC 257, GOVT 201, PSYC 280, NS&B 280
Certificates: The Study of Education

Description: In this project-based course, you will have the opportunity to answer questions that you feel passionately about through independent research based on existing data. Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in generating testable hypotheses, conducting a literature review, preparing data for analysis, conducting descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, and presenting research findings. The course offers unlimited one-on-one support, ample opportunities to work with other students, and training in the skills required to complete a project of your own design. These skills will prepare you to work in many different research labs across the University that collect empirical data. It is also an opportunity to fulfill an important requirement in several different majors.

Introduction to Modeling: From Molecules to Markets (QAC 221)

Crosslisting: PHYS 221

Description: The development of models to describe physical or social phenomena has a long history in several disciplines, including physics, chemistry, economics, and sociology. With the emergence of ubiquitous computing resources, model building is becoming increasingly important across all disciplines. This course will examine how to apply modeling and computational thinking skills to a range of problems. Using examples drawn from physics, biology, economics, and social networks, we will discuss how to create models for complex systems that are both descriptive and predictive. The course will include significant computational work. No previous programming experience is required, but a willingness to learn simple programming methods is essential.

Introduction to Statistical Consulting (QAC 380)

Crosslisting: PSYC 395

Description: In this course, students will be exposed to realistic statistical and scientific problems that appear in typical interactions between statisticians and researchers. The goal is for students to apply what they have learned in their basic statistics and data analysis courses to gain greater experience in the areas of research collaboration, data management and analysis, and writing and presenting reports on the results of the analyses. An important objective of the course is to help develop communication skills, both written and verbal, as well as the professional standards and the interpersonal skills necessary for effective statistical consulting.

Special Topics in Computer Science ("Big" Data Analysis) (QAC 260/360)

Crosslisting: COMP 260/360

Description: These two sections of COMP 260 and 360 will meet at the same time. In this class, Computer Science students will team up with students in other disciplines to work on a research problem that requires signi cant computation-intensive data analysis. All students will learn the fundamental techniques of such analysis. The speci c techniques to be learned will be determined by the research problems; some that we might cover are clustering, component analysis, Bayesian analysis, and time-series analysis. The Computer Sciene students will be responsible for developing a well-written software platform that can be used for the project-spei c analysis. Ideally the platform will be reusable in other projects. Along the way, they will learn appropriate langauges for data analysis and core software development principles. The students from other disciplines will fully develop their research proposal and produce an appopriate research paper describing the project and its results.

  • Enrollment is POI only and the course is limited to 19 students.
  • MATH 122 is a prerequisite for all students, and more mathematics and/or statistics background will be helpful.
  • COMP 360 is open to Computer Science students only and has COMP 212 prerequisite. To submit a POI request for COMP 360, the student must submit a brief statement indicating relevant background from other courses, employment, or independent projects. We encourage CS students to indicate what kinds of problems or data anlysis techniques they are interested in, so as to help us choose an appropriate mix of students.
  • COMP 260 is open to students from other disciplines; there are no COMP prerequisites for this section, though programming background will certainly be helpful. To submit a POI request for COMP 260, the student must submit a one-half to full-page proposal of the research project. The proposal must give a sense of the question to be answered and the kind of data to be colelcted and analyzed. We encourage proposals that have some faculty backing such as proposals that will contribute to an honors thesis or are part fo an independent research course. Students should also indicate relevant Computer Science, Mathematics, or statistics courses taken.
  • We encourage joint proposals from computing and non-computing students. However, students are not required to make joint proposals; we will match students as well as possible given project needs and student interests. Statements and proposals may be combined into a single document for joint proposals.

Statements (for COMP 360) and proposals (for COMP 260) must be in PDF format (no other formats are acceptable) and should be e-mailed to ndanner@wesleyan.edu by 08 May 2013.  The submission must also include e-mail contact information.

Individual Tutorials

The QAC has also begun to provide individual tutorials for undergraduates interested in applied statistical training in support of independent projects. This semester, Gabrielle Jehle, a senior Earth and Environmental Studies major, completed a project that examined the relationshop between daily river discharge in the Mattabessett River and the richness and abundance of the local fish population. Through weekly meetings with an instructor as well as on-line materials and peer tutoring made available through the QAC, students across the disciplines are now able to more easily engage in independent quantitative work.