Statistics 567
Analysis of Lifetime Data
Fall 2008

Course Syllabus

Instructor: Ramón V. León

  • Office: Room 337, Stokely Management Center
  • Office Phone: (865) 974-1636
  • Cell Phone: (865) 773-2245. This is my main phone. In fact calls to my office phone will be automatically forwarded to my cell phone. You are encouraged calling me at any time between 1 to 10 p.m. including weekends. The idea is that if you have trouble understanding a concept frequently a 5-15 minute call to me will clear it up saving you much time. On homework questions please try your TA, Dan Zhang (see below). On calling me the rules are as follows: Most of time I will be able to answer your questions right away but if I can’t I will call you back. You can leave messages on my voice mail but sometimes I forget to check it for a couple of days so if I don’t return your call in a timely fashion just call me again. If to answer your question I need to show you how to use the software or write something we will simply continue the call at the Centra homework room.
  • Office Fax: (865) 974-2490
  • Home Fax: (865) 691-5622
  • E-mail Address: rleon@utk.edu
  • Personal Home Page: http://web.utk.edu/~leon/
  • Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:25 p.m. in the Centra homework room for our class. If you want to see me in person my live office hours are TTH at 2:30 p.m. in room 337 in Stokely Management Center.
  • TA: Dan Zhang (dzhang10@utk.edu) You are encouraged to call Dan at 865-974-7564 with homework or other questions 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays except Mondays. Homework review session will be conducted online on the Centra homework room on Wednesday, 4 to 5 p.m.
  • Meeting Place and Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:05-6:20 p.m. in the Centra classroom for distance students or for on campus students in room 113 in the Plant Biotechnology Building (PBB 113) in the Ag campus. See this map for directions
  • Course Home Page: http://web.utk.edu/~leon/rel/

Textbook: Statistical Methods for Reliability Data by William Q. Meeker and Luis A. Escobar, Wiley, 1998.

Software: JMP 7 (or JMP 8 Beta if I can make it available to students) and SPlus 8 with the SPLIDA add-on. Students can download one-year licenses of JMP 7 and SPlus 8 using their NetID and password at https://web.dii.utk.edu/softwaredistribution/. You also need to download the SPLIDA SPlus add-on and install it following my instructions. Please also download the SPLIDA manual also following these instructions.

Catalog Description: 567 Analysis of Lifetime Data (3) Statistical analysis of lifetime data. Methods of analysis for complete and censored data. Lifetime data regression. Planning and analysis of life tests. Prereq: Statistics 563, Mathematics 425 or Statistics 570 or consent of the instructor. F

Attendance: Strongly encouraged so that you can interact with me for students on campus. For distance students this means listening to the lectures in real time so that you can interact with me by asking me questions. In cases where it is impossible for you to attend, maybe because of a conflict, you must listen to the lecture recording available through Centra. I will deliberately cover some material that will be on the exams only during class that is not in the notes or textbook.

Homework: Homework will be collected and graded. It should be submitted via email as a Word file to the TA, Dan Zhang, at dzhang10@utk.edu.

Exams: There will be two midterm exams and a final exam (though if the class runs slow we may omit the second midterm). The midterm exams will be take-home. The final will be in our classroom or proctored for distance students. It will be closed-book but you can bring to up to fifteen pages of notes. I suggest that you prepare these as the semester proceeds. On campus we will meet in PBB 113, the location of our class, on Wednesday, December 10th from 5 to 7 p.m. The Distance Education (DE) office will provide students with the proctor form and guidelines.  It is the student's responsibility to locate a proctor and report this information to DE each semester.  Proctors should email the completed form to disteducation@utk.edu or fax to (865) 974-4684.  Exams will be sent directly to proctors and students will schedule an appointment with their proctor according to exam dates.  If you have questions about the proctoring process please contact Katie Fletcher at 1-800-670-8657 or kfletche@utk.edu.  

Project: You are to find a data set for you to analyze. You will submit a written proposal describing the data set and the analysis that you plan to do with it. Upon my approval of this proposal you are to analyze the data and write a report with your analysis.

Grade: Your final grade will be computed as:

  • 20% Test I
  • 20% Test II
  • 20% Final exam
  • 20% Homework
  • 5% Project proposal
  • 15% Project report

In case we don’t have time to for Test II then Test I will be worth 25% of the grade and the final 35%.

Grades will be computed on the usual 90,80,70... scale, unless the class average is low.

Disability: If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a documented disability or if you have emergency information to share, please contact the Office of Disability Services at 191 Hoskins Library at 974-6087. This will ensure that you are properly registered for services.