Abstract:
As before, the primary guidelines governing the development of the fourth edition of this
textbook have been to extend the strengths of the previous editions that have resulted in its
adoption worldwide for teaching probability and statistics at both undergraduate and graduate
levels. The cornerstone of the success of this textbook has been that it is full of real examples,
which I believe is the best way to teach and capture the interests of students. It is clearly
important to include examples that are relevant to engineering. However, it is just as important
to incorporate examples that are interesting to both the instructor and the students. In the
fourth edition new examples have been included relating to internet use together with green
and sustainable practices.
This textbook has been built around three main pedagogical tenets: (1) talk to students with
a language and vocabulary that students find familiar from their other science and engineering
courses, (2) provide clear explanations and expositions of the statistical concepts that students
need for their work and research, and (3) provide a firm reinforcement of the theoretical
concepts in interesting examples to which the students can relate. Moreover, the foundation
underlying all my teaching activities is my conviction that teaching is a valuable and noble
enterprise and that it is worthwhile to devote time and energy toward doing it as well as possible.
The education of the following generations is an important way for us to pay back something in
response to the many advantages and opportunities that we have been afforded in our own lives.
This book has been adopted for undergraduate sequences providing an introduction to
data analysis from probability theory through basic statistical techniques and leading to more
advanced statistical inference methods. The book has also been used for graduate-level service
courses, and it provides a useful handbook for researchers in engineering and the sciences. It
is intended for students with reasonable quantitative abilities, although it is designed mainly
to provide an applied rather than a theoretical exposition.
