Motivation

Students encounter data-analysis problems in many areas of a typical engineering or natural science curriculum. Engineers and scientists in their professional lives often encounter situations requiring analysis of data arising from many areas of applications. Indeed, very often they have to plan the investigation that generates data (an activity euphemistically called the design of experiments), analyze the data obtained, and interpret the results. These problems and their investigation may pertain to the maintenance of quality of existing products or the development of new products, or it may be that an investigation of the underlying mechanisms governing a certain process and its outcomes is desired.

Knowing how to “design” a particular investigation to obtain reliable data must be coupled with knowledge of descriptive and inferential statistical tools properly to analyze and interpret such data. The intent of this textbook is to expose the uninitiated to statistical methods that deal with the generation of data for different (but frequently met) types of investigations, and to discuss how to analyze and interpret the generated data.