Course Websites

CS 361 - Prob & Stat for Computer Sci

Last offered Fall 2026

Official Description

Introduction to probability theory and statistics with applications to computer science. Topics include: visualizing datasets, summarizing data, basic descriptive statistics, conditional probability, independence, Bayes theorem, random variables, joint and conditional distributions, expectation, variance and covariance, central limit theorem. Markov inequality, Chebyshev inequality, law of large numbers, Markov chains, simulation, the PageRank algorithm, populations and sampling, sample mean, standard error, maximum likelihood estimation, Bayes estimation, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, linear regression, principal component analysis, classification, and decision trees. Course Information: Credit is not given toward graduation for: Credit is not given for both CS 361 and ECE 313. Prerequisite: MATH 220 or MATH 221. Credit or concurrent registration in one of MATH 225, MATH 227, MATH 257, MATH 415, MATH 416, ASRM 406 or BIOE 210.

Related Faculty

Course Director

Text(s)

Forsyth, D. A. "Probability and Statistics for Computer Science," Springer (2018)

Learning Goals

Visualize and summarize data and reason about outliers and relationships (1), (3)

Apply the principles of probability to analyze and simulate random events (1)

Use inference to fit statistical models to data and evaluate how good the fit is (1), (3)

Apply machine learning tools to dimensionality reduction, classification, clustering, regression and hidden Markov model problems (1), (2), (6)

Topic List

visualizing datasets, summarizing data, basic descriptive statistics, conditional probability, independence, Bayes theorem, random variables, joint and conditional distributions, expectation, variance and covariance, central limit theorem. Markov inequality, Chebyshev inequality, law of large numbers, Markov chains, simulation, the PageRank algorithm, populations and sampling, sample mean, standard error, maximum likelihood estimation, Bayes estimation, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, linear regression, principal component analysis, classification, decision trees, clustering and Markov chains

TitleSectionCRNTypeHoursTimesDaysLocationInstructor
Prob & Stat for Computer SciADB66306DIS01000 - 1050 M  0218 Siebel Center for Comp Sci 
Prob & Stat for Computer SciADC66307DIS01100 - 1150 M  0218 Siebel Center for Comp Sci 
Prob & Stat for Computer SciADD66303DIS01200 - 1250 M  0218 Siebel Center for Comp Sci 
Prob & Stat for Computer SciADE66304DIS01300 - 1350 M  0218 Siebel Center for Comp Sci 
Prob & Stat for Computer SciADF66305DIS01400 - 1450 M  0218 Siebel Center for Comp Sci 
Prob & Stat for Computer SciAL166298LEC31230 - 1345 T R  100 Materials Science & Eng Bld Hongye Liu
Prob & Stat for Computer SciCSP76056PKG3 -  ARR Illini Center Hongye Liu
Prob & Stat for Computer SciCSP76056PKG3 -    Hongye Liu
Prob & Stat for Computer SciCSP76056PKG31000 - 1050 M    Hongye Liu