Abstract: 

Bayesian statistical methods are becoming more common and more important, but there are not many resources to help beginners get started. People who know Python can use their programming skills to get a head start. I will present simple programs that demonstrate the concepts of Bayesian statistics, and apply them to a range of example problems. Participants will work hands-on with example code and practice on example problems. Attendees should have at least basic level Python and basic statistics. If you learned about Bayes’s theorem and probability distributions at some time, that’s enough, even if you don’t remember it! Attendees should bring a laptop with Python and matplotlib. You can work in any environment; you just need to be able to download a Python program and run it. I will provide code to help attendees get set up ahead of time.

Bio: 

Allen Downey is a Professor of Computer Science at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA. He is the author of several books related to computer science and data science, including Think Python, Think Stats, Think Bayes, and Think Complexity. Prof Downey has taught at Colby College and Wellesley College, and in 2009 he was a Visiting Scientist at Google. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley, and M.S. and B.S. degrees from MIT.