This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Calendar

The calendar below provides information on the course's lecture (L) and recitation (R) sessions.

SES # TOPICS KEY DATES
L1 Introduction

Probability Spaces
 
R1 Background Material from Analysis Problem set 1 out
L2 Probability Measure, Lebesgue Measure  
L3 Conditioning, Bayes Rule, Independence, Borel-Cantelli-Lemmas  
R2 Measurability

Borel-Cantelli
Problem set 1 due
L4 Counting Problem set 2 out
R3 Counting Exercises  
L5 Measurable Functions, Random Variables, Cumulative Distribution Functions  
L6 Discrete Random Variables, Expectation Problem set 2 due
R4 Inclusion-exclusion Principle

Pointwise Limit of Functions

Random Variables
Problem set 3 out
L7 Covariance and Correlation

Inclusion-exclusion Principle
 
L8 Continuous Random Variables, Expectation  
R5 Independence of RVs

Continuous RV Sampling
Problem set 3 due
L9 Continuous Random Variables, Joint Distributions, Bayes Rule  
R6

Expectation

Order Statistics

Bayes Rule

Conjugate Distributions

Problem set 4 out
L10 Derived Distributions  
L11 Abstract Integration  
R7 Midterm Review Problem set 4 due
L12 Monotone and Dominated Convergence

Fatou's Lemma
 
  Midterm Exam  
L13 Product Measure, Fubini Theorem

Abstract Definition of Conditional Expectation
Problem set 5 out
R8 Fubini's Theorem  
L14 Transforms: Moment Generating and Characteristic Functions Problem set 5 due
L15 Multivariate Normal  
R9 Continuity of the Characteristic Function

Variance of Random Sum of Random Variables

Sum of a Geometric Number of Exponential Random Variables

Gaussian Random Vector

Bayes Rule
 
L16 Multivariate Normal (cont.) Problem set 6 out
L17 Weak Law of Large Numbers

Central Limit Theorem
Problem set 6 due

Problem set 7 out
L18 Bernoulli and Poisson Processes  
L19 Poisson Process (cont.) Problem set 8 out
R10 Finite-state Markov Chains

Convergence of Random Variables
Problem set 7 due
L20 Finite-state Markov Chains  
L21 Finite-state Markov Chains (cont.) Problem set 8 due

Problem set 9 out
L22 Finite-state Markov Chains (cont.)  
L23 Convergence of Random Variables (cont.)  
R11 Bernoulli and Poisson Processes Problem set 9 due

Problem set 10 out
L24 Strong Law of Large Numbers  
L25 L2 Theory of Random Variables

Construction of Conditional Expectations
 
L26 Miscellaneous Theoretical Topics Problem set 10 due
L27 Large Deviations (Guest Lecture)  
  Review Session  
  Final Exam