Faculty First Year Seminars 197ECE2 - Applying Chance & Risk to Life
Fall
2016
01
1.00
Hossein Pishro-Nik
M 1:25PM 2:15PM
UMass Amherst
81229
Randomness and uncertainty exist in our daily lives as well as in every scientific investigation. This course helps students better understand randomness and uncertainty and gives them tools to make more informed decisions under uncertain situations.
We will discuss that our intuition is often wrong when assessing uncertain situations, leading us to make wrong decisions. We will provide real life examples where even professionals have misjudged chances and probabilities.
We will then go on to learn tools that are useful when we are faced with uncertainty. In doing so, we will briefly cover some topics in probability, information theory, and decision theory. Without going into the details of these fascinating fields, our goal is to learn some key concepts and useful ideas that can be used broadly in uncertain situations. Along the way we will tackle examples from everyday decisions, personal finance and investing, economics, sports, big data, and gambling.
We will discuss that our intuition is often wrong when assessing uncertain situations, leading us to make wrong decisions. We will provide real life examples where even professionals have misjudged chances and probabilities.
We will then go on to learn tools that are useful when we are faced with uncertainty. In doing so, we will briefly cover some topics in probability, information theory, and decision theory. Without going into the details of these fascinating fields, our goal is to learn some key concepts and useful ideas that can be used broadly in uncertain situations. Along the way we will tackle examples from everyday decisions, personal finance and investing, economics, sports, big data, and gambling.
Freshmen Only