Course notes / topics
This page keeps track of course notes, material covered, homework schedule, and other relevant links. Unlike the static course homepage, this one is updated weekly.
- Most lectures use slides in the beginning, but I always also write on the board to supplement examples.
- It is impossible to follow the course only by reading these slides; students are expected to attend the lectures as well.
- All course communication, updates, announcements, logistics, and grading takes place on our Canvas course page.
Week 1 - invitation to algebraic statistics
Homework 1 assigned. due 1/27/2026
Week 2 - statistical models, independence, and notation
Week 3 - algebraic varieties (what polynomials define), and basic computations
Week 4 - Statistics primer intro to MLE
- lecture 7
- including related book readings here
- MLE for the model of independence of 2 random variables
- Student (Solomon) finishes the previous lecture by presenting the MLE for the independence model of 2 random variables.
notes
Homework 2 assigned. due 2/19/2026
Week 5
Week 6
What are ideals used for, actually? And examples to complete last week.
Week 7
Exact testing for discrete exponential families.
Appendix
What is this page?
Math 561 is a graduate-level course on algebraic and geometric methods in statistics. Course homepage is here, containing detailed info on the material, grading, etc.
Useful Info
Sample files: how to create your first .Rmd file! All of your HW can be submitted using markdown and html/pdf. Here are some templates I created for another course, just so you know what to expect:
Types of files
- html - course handouts.
- PDF - slides for short illustrations used within a live lecture
- Rmd - raw R Markdown code. This has two purposes:
1) for students to see how the basic output files are generated, and
2) to enable collaborators to make updates to the materials in future semesters.