This is the course webpage for MATH 170A at the University of California Los Angeles for Winter 2025, an introductory course in probability theory following approximately Chapters 1-8 of the book Probability: an introduction (2e) by Grimmett and Welsh. The textbook is available for free on the internet if you know where to look. The syllabus is available here.
Lecture takes place 9:00-9:50 am in Geology Building room 4645. Office hours will be 11-12 on Monday, or by appointment, in my office, Room 6617-F in the Mathematical Sciences Building.
The homeworks are available below:
Homework 1 Due: Monday, January 13 20, 23:59 Pacific Time
Homework 2 Due: Monday, January 27, 23:59 Pacific Time
Homework 3 Due: Monday, February 10, 23:59 Pacific Time
Homework 4 Due: Monday, February 24, 23:59 Pacific Time
Homework 5 Due: Tuesday, March 18, 23:59 Pacific Time
This course is given as a blend of traditional lecture and active learning style:
Traditional lecture: The definitions, statements of results, and outlines of examples are given in the slides (linked below after each class), while the proofs of results, and details of examples are done at the chalk board.
Active learning: After each group of new concepts is introduced, a set of discussion questions are posted. Students are given 5-10 minutes to work on the problems and discuss with eachother, and then I'll discuss the solutions at the chalk board; this portion of the class follows the usual 'think-pair-share' paradigm of active learning.
Warning: The slides below represent only a small subset of the information dispersed in class. I recommend attending every lecture and engaging during the active learning periods to maximize your learning.
Slides:
Week 1 Class 1 Class 2 Cancelled due to fires
Week 2 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6
Week 3 Holiday Class 8 Class 9
Week 4 Class 10 Class 11 MIDTERM 1
Week 5 Class 13 Class 14 Class 15Â
Week 6 Class 16 Class 17 Class 18
Week 7 Holiday Class 20 Class 21
Week 8 Class 22 Class 23 MIDTERM 2
Week 9 Guest lectures by N. Gladkov / W. Adkisson
Week 10 Class 28 Class 29 Final review
Week 11 THURSDAY MARCH 20 FINAL EXAM
Demonstration in python for the central limit theorem available here.