MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYDepartment of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science6.041 PROBABILISTIC SYSTEMS ANALYSIS6.431 APPLIED PROBABILITYFall 2010http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/6/fa10/6.041/Included in this opening day handout:1. General Information (please digest it before next lecture.)2. Syllabus with lecture subjects and quiz dates.3. Statement on Collaboration, Honesty, etc.4. Recitation and tutorial schedule form. Please complete it now. We knowthat you may have to make changes later. We need forms returned now,in order to have initial recitation assignments available by the morning ofThursday, September 9th.1GENERAL INFORMATIONWELCOME to 6.041/6.431! This fundamental subject is concerned with the nature, for-mulation, and analysis of probabilistic situations. No previous experience with probabilityis assumed. This course is fun, but also demanding.6.041 and 6.431: Students intending to take the undergraduate version of the course needto sign up for 6.041, while those intending to take the graduate version should sign up for6.431, which includes full participation in 6.041, together with some additional homeworkproblems, additional topics, and possibly different quiz and exam questions.6.041/6.431 has three types of class sessions: lectures, recitations, and tutorials. The lecturesand recitations each meet twice a week. In addition, there will be a tutorial once a week,which is not mandatory, but is highly recommended.LECTURES serve to introduce new concepts. They have an overview character, but alsoinclude some derivations and motivating applications. You are expected to attend. Lec-tures are at 12-1PM on Mondays and Wednesdays in Room 34-101. The first lecture is onWednesday 9/8.RECITATIONS meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and attendance is mandatory. In recita-tion, your instructor elaborates on the theory, works through new examples with your par-ticipation, and answers your questions about them. The recitation assignments will bemade based on the recitation and tutorial schedule forms you complete and turn in im-mediately at the end of the first lecture. The recitation assignments will be available by8AM. Thursday 9/9. The recitation assignments will be posted on the course web page(http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/6/fa10/6.041/) for the entire semester.TUTORIALS for 6.041 and 6.431 meet on Thursday afternoons and Fridays, and will beassigned in response to the recitation and tutorial schedule form, within a few days. Intutorial, you discuss and solve new examples with a little help from your classmates andyour instructor. Tutorials are active sessions to help you develop confidence in thinkingabout probabilistic situations in real time. Tutorials are not mandatory, but are highlyrecommended. Past students have found them to be very helpful. The TA who leads thetutorial you are assigned to, will be your first point of contact for questions onthe problem sets. Tutorial assignments will be posted on the course web page with therecitation assignments.ADVANCED SECTIONS. There may be a possibility for 6.041 students to be assignedto 6.431 recitation sections. If you are interested in slightly faster paced or more advancedrecitations and tutorials (while remaining responsible only for 6.041 assignments), pleaseindicate so on the signup sheet.RECITATION AND TUTORIAL REASSIGNMENT. We try to give everyone theirfirst or second choice in all assignments. Unfortunately with such a large class this is notalways possible. If you have a class conflict with your recitation or tutorial assignment youmust submit your full class schedule so we can find an assignment which fits your schedule.Recitation and Tutorial assignments are paired, thus a reassignment in one will often require2a reassignment in the other. Please submit any reassignment requests by email to the HeadTA, Shashank Shekhar Dwivedi ([email protected]). To avoid bouncing emails all day, pleaseinclude your full and complete schedule with any reassignment request.RECITATION ASSIGNMENTS PROVIDED BY THE REGISTRAR will not befollowed. Please disregard them.FIRST WEEK. There will be no tutorials during the first week of classes, but recitationswill be held on Thursday September 9. Your updated recitation assignment will be postedby Thursday 8AM at http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/6/fa10/6.041/.INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS WITH YOUR RECITATION INSTRUCTOR ANDTA are encouraged. We want to help! They will both give you their office hours at the firstrecitation or tutorial meeting. If you have already made a reasonable effort, your instructoror TA will be glad to help you with homework problems, before or after they are due.However, do not expect either of them to work with you if you have not yet carefully readthe relevant material in both the lecture handouts and the text.ADDITIONAL HELP FROM STAFF MEMBERS. Your tutorial TA and your recita-tion instructor will both have office hours every week. Optional quiz reviews are presenteduniformly for the entire class, not for individual sections. Similarly, any supplementaryhandouts will be identical for all sections.SPECIAL PERSONAL SITUATIONS. Unforeseen events happen to many of us duringthe semester. If any are likely to affect your performance, please keep your TA, recitationinstructor and/or the Head TA and the lecturers aware of your situation.ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS. Recitation and tutorial assignments will be handledby the Head TA, Shashank Shekhar Dwivedi ([email protected]). Copies of all materialdistributed can be found on the course’s web site and outside the TA office in 24-312. Gradedproblem sets will be returned to you in your assigned tutorial. All unclaimed problem setswill be placed outside 24-312 on the metal shelves.PREREQUISITES. The prerequisite for 6.041 and 6.431 is 18.02, or a year of college levelcalculus for those with undergraduate degrees from other universities. Students who havenot completed the prerequisite with a grade of A, B, C or P may not enroll.TEXT. The text for this course is Introduction to Probability (second edition) by Bertsekasand Tsitsiklis. It is available at the MIT Coop. Solutions to end-of-chapter problems areavailable at http://athenasc.com/prob-solved_2ndedition.pdf. We recommend thatyou print out these solutions. A few of these problems will be covered in recitation andtutorial. The remaining ones can be used for self-study (for best results, always try to solvea problem on your own, before reading the solution).Additionally, the
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