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Chapter 1.

Introduction
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Why Engineers Study Statistics?

The eld of statistics deals with the collection, presentation,
analysis, and use of data to make decisions, solve problems, and
design products and processes.
Because many aspects of engineering practice involve working with
data, obviously some knowledge of statistics is important to any
engineer.
Specically, statistical techniques can be a powerful aid in designing
new products and systems, improving existing designs, and
designing, developing, and improving production processes.
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Application of Statistics
• Important foundation, a vital tool!
– Research (discovery of knowledge), development, quality
control, production (reliability), optimization, quantitative
decision making, linguistics, psychology, healthcare, etc.
– Acquiring information from data
• Areas of concern for analysis
– How should we collect the data?
– How much data is needed?
– How should we summarize the data?
– What decisions or generalizations are possible based on
the observations from data?
• Statistical reasoning and methods can help you become
efficient at obtaining information and making useful
conclusions
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Acquiring Information from Data

• Four crucial steps in a typical collection process:
(1) Set clearly defined goals for the investigation
(2) Make a plan of what data to collect, how to collect it
(3) Apply appropriate statistical methods to extract
information from data
(4) Interpret the information and draw conclusions
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Modern Statistics
• Originally – description of data (Descriptive Statistics)
– What data to present – choice of graphs / table / chart,
information to include, format of display, etc.
– Must be comprehensive -- summarizes key observations
from data collection
– A numerical description
• Migrate towards generalization from data (Statistical Inference)
– Generalization based on a sample of data
– Observations are partial, conclusions must be general, e.g.
quality of product samples in prediction of overall product
quality
– Must proceed with caution – is the generalization logical,
reasonable, justifiable
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Learning from Data
• Evaluation of actual information is essential for acquiring
new knowledge, motivate the development of statistical
reasoning

Steps for learning from data:

• Define a clear statement of purpose
– Avoid fuzzy concepts like “soft”, “hard”, “some”, “fairly
large”, etc. – be precise in quantification
– E.g. Determine whether a particular amount of additive
can be found that will increase the tensile strength of
plastic parts by at least 10 pounds per square inch
– Determine the unit, population of units and the
characteristic of measurement
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• Collect relevant data

– Bear in mind you cannot collect the complete, exhaustive
set of data
– Carefully choose your experimental setup (there is
countless experiments to run but you have limited time)
– Work with partial information that helps you understand
the big picture
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Some Basic Denitions

Unit:

A single entity, usually an object or person, whose characteristics

are of interest.
Population of Units:

The complete collection of units about which information is sought.

Variable:

The characteristic of interest for each unit in the population is called

a variable if it can be expressed as a number.
Statistical Population:

A statistical population is the set of all measurements or record

of some quality trait corresponding to each unit in the entire
population of units about which information is sought.
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Examples of Populations, Units, and Variables:

Population Unit VariablesCharacteristics
All students student GPA, number of credits,
currently enrolled hours of work per week, major,
in school rightleft-handed
All printed board type of defects, number of defects,
circuit boards location of defects
manufactured
during a month
All campus fast restaurant number of employees,
food restaurants seating capacity, hiringnot hiring
All books in book frequency of checkout,
library replacement cost, repairs needed
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Sample:
A sample from a statistical population is the subset of measure-
ments that are actually collected in the course of an investigation.
Must be representative
Must be large enough
Must be relevant
 Selection of Samples:
Caution! Self-selected samples | a bad practice
May use randomization to avoid bias in sampling
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Sample Selection – Case Study

• Magazine featuring latest computer hardware/software

wants to investigate the popularity (ownership) of
specific new products
• Enclosed a questionnaire or postcard in recent issues
• Tabulate information from returned postcards and draw
conclusions such as:
– 40% of our readers have purchased software
package P
• Question: is this a good sample that is representative of
the readers?
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Remarks
The ideal world is at the population level and is theoretical in
nature. It is the world that we would like to see.
The world of reality is the sample world. This is the level at which
we really operate. We hope that the characteristics of our sample
reect well the characteristics of the population. That is, we treat
our sample as a microcosm that mirrors the population.
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Relation Between Probability and

Statistics
The mathematics on which statistical methods rest is called
probability theory.
For this reason, we begin the study of statistics by considering the
basic concepts of probability.