INDE599

SPECIAL TOPICS IN IE

Stochastic Processes

SPRING 2008

 

T Th 10:30-11:50 MEB 235

 

Instructor: Archis Ghate

Contact Information

Office: 141 D AERB

Office hours: Tuesdays 12:00-1:30

Email:archis@u.washington.edu

Phone: (206) 616-5968

Instructor’s webpage: http://web.mac.com/archis.ghate

Course webpage: http://courses.washington.edu/inde599s

 

Teaching Assistant : ChrisWang

Contact Information

Office: 106 MEB

Office hours: Tuesday, Thursday 4:00-5:30

Email:wangwei@u.washington.edu

  

Course Description:

 

A non-measure theoretic, yet rigorous introduction tostochasticprocesses for graduate students in engineering. Topics will includeconditionalexpectation, Poisson processes, renewal processes, Markov chains, Brownian motion etc.

 

Prerequisites:

 

An introductory course in probability covering named distributions, expected value etc and a course in calculus.

 

Textbook:

 

Stochastic Processes, by Sheldon M. Ross, Second Edition, WileySeriesin Probability and Mathematical Statistics, 1996.

 

Grading:

 

Homework 30%. We will have homework every week. One lowest homework grade will be dropped. Homework is due on Fridays no later than 5:00 pm.

Please put your homework in the TA mailbox assigned for this class on the ground floor of MEB.

 

Mid Term Exam 30%: The midterm will be a48hour take home exam roughly after 5 weeks of classes.

 

Final Exam 40%.: The final will be a 48 hour take home exam during finals week.

 

Approximate Course Outline

 

1.    Introductiontostochastic processes.

a.     Basicsofprobability.

b.    Momentgenerating,characteristic functions.

c.     Conditionalexpectation.

d.    Exponentialdistribution,lack of memory.

e.     Markovinequality,Chernoff bounds, limit theorems.

2.    Poisson Processes

a.     Definition

b.    Inter-arrival andwaitingtime distributions.

c.     Non-homogeneousandcompound Poisson processes.

3.    Renewal Theory

a.     Basic conceptsanddefinition

b.    Key renewal theorem,Blackwell’stheorem, Wald’s equation.

c.     Delayed andrewardrenewal processes.

4.    Markov chains

a.     Introduction,definitionand examples.

b.    State classification.

c.     Stationaryandlimiting distribution.

5.    Continuous time Markovchains.

a.     Introduction

6.    Martingales andBrownianmotion (if time permits)

 

Reference Books:

 

Essentials of Stochastic Processes by Rick Durrett, Springer.

Adventures in Stochastic Processes by SidneyResnick,Birkhauser.

 

Course Policies:

 

You are allowed, in fact, encouraged to discuss homework problems in groups. However, the homework solutions must be written independently. You may not seek or provide inappropriate assistance to your fellow students during exams. This class is run according to the student conduct code available at http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html

 

Class Notes: Classnoteswill be posted weekly. Note that a majority of the material in the class notes below is taken from the textbook. Please do not reuse or distribute these notes without appropriate permissions.

 

Notes1

Notes2

Notes3

Notes4

Notes5

Notes6

Notes7

Notes8

Notes9

Notes10 

 

Homework: all numbered problems are from the textbook.

 

HW1

1.1, 1.8, 1.15, 1.18, 1.19, 1.25.

 

Suppose all moments of a random variable X are well-defined. Derive a relationship between its n th moment and the n th derivative of its characteristic function evaluated at u=0.

HW1 Solutions

HW2

hw2

HW2 Solutions

HW3

2.7, 2.13, 2.26

HW3 Solutions

HW4

2.30, 2.32, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.7

HW4 Solutions 

HW5

3.9, 3.11, 3.17, 3.21

HW5 Solutions 

 

 

 

 HW6

4.10, 4.12, 4.16, 4.31

HW6

Solutions 

           HW7

 

hw7

HW7 Solutions