Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers VIII (June 4-8, 2012)

Penn State is continuing its annual Summer Schools in Statistics designed for graduate students and researchers in astronomy. The eighth summer school is an intensive week covering basic statistical inference, several fields of applied statistics, and the R computing environment.

A repertoire of well-established techniques applicable to observational astronomy and physics are developed. Classroom instruction is interspersed with hands-on analysis of astronomical data using the open-source R software package. The course is taught by a team of statistics and astronomy professors with opportunity for discussion of methodological issues. The topics covered include:

Exploratory data analysis
Hypothesis testing and parameter estimation
Regression
Bootstrap resampling
Model selection & goodness-of-fit
Maximum likelihood methods & Bayes' Theorem
Non-parametric methods
Monte Carlo methods
Poisson processes
Time series

The 2012 Summer School will be modeled on the last six Penn State Summer Schools and the three Indian Institute of Astrophysics-Penn State Summer Schools; see 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 lecture notes for the Penn State Summer Schools. The summer schools are partially supported by the National Science Foundation.

Summer School Registration is closed as the enrollment limit has been reached. There is no waiting list.

Local information:
The 2012 summer school will be held on the Pennsylvania State University's University Park Campus located in State College, Pennsylvania, USA. The town of State College and the university campus combine to offer a relaxed, college town atmosphere with many shops, restaurants and points of interest. Recreational opportunities abound including fine golf courses, tennis courts, gymnasiums and swimming facilities. For maps and tourism information visit the Central Pennsylvania Convention & Visitors Bureau online.