Monthly Archives: October 2024

Favorite Non-STAT courses!

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by Ricky Lin

Ricky is a 2nd year student in Statistics & Computer Science, shares some of his favorite courses outside of Statistics that he’s experienced so far! Read on for some great insights and recommendations.

Everybody has to take their major classes. But when you have the option to choose a gen-ed or just take a class for the fun of it, there are so many awesome options to choose from. This is where the breadth of college comes from, and getting a well-rounded education comes into play. Here are a few of my personal favorites!

BTW the gen-eds double dip in two requirements, so if that’s something you are looking for, register early since spots are limited!

Photo credit: Ricky Lin

TE 200 Introduction to Innovation

Although this class is restricted to LLC residents, if you are in one or want to apply for one, I’d definitely recommend it! I was part of the Innovation LLC in the Technology Entrepreneur Center and it was a fun environment where I met some cool people! It’s a 1-hour seminar class, where there are weekly readings and class meetings are mostly discussions. You learn about successful entrepreneurs and the keys to success to start from a simple idea to a full-fledged start-up. I took it with Keilin and she was super nice to talk to. I’d definitely recommend talking with her if you have any ideas related to entrepreneurship in general.

However, the most interesting part of the class is participating in the IDEA Fair, which is a project pitching competition where students prototype their ideas and judges award money. Getting to brainstorm and work in a group is interesting, and puts your creativity to the test. Last fall, my team (PATH) secured the $500 AWARE award and it was a great experience!

Ricky (far right) and teammates with their award from the IDEA fair. Photo credit: Ricky Lin.

ArtJ302 Intro to Japanese Animation

One of my favorite gen-eds at UIUC is ArtJ302. It’s an online synchronous class run via Zoom, but that doesn’t take away from its engagement and awesome material! Professor Lindsey Stirek was very passionate and nice about the material. She gave us a great overview of anime as a whole and how different techniques are employed to illustrate ideas. Often in class, we just watched classical anime like Akira and Afro Samurai.

The best part of the class was the final, where we had the freedom to create a video essay, animation, or any medium related to the topics we learned in class. I just made a video essay on Attack on Titan, but I was blown away by the talent of some of my classmates’ animations. Definitely highly recommend this if you love anime or just want to see what the hype is all about!

Afro228 Hip Hop Music: History & Culture

This class is the latest gen-ed I have taken, and has definitely taken me by surprise. When I signed up, I expected the class to be interesting because I enjoy listening to rap, but I became increasingly invested in the origins and backstory behind the music. The professor, John Meyers, loves what he teaches, and explains things in a critical way that shows you why they are important. It’s not a memorizing date or people type of class, but rather more cause and effect and how the industry has changed over time. In class, we often listen to artists like Public Enemy, 2Pac, Nas, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem.

We also get exposed to social issues in the East and West coast, which are key components of the sound of rap. It’s a sophisticated and rather complex class that encourages further thinking, so if you want to engage with American hip-hop culture and learn about how it has evolved over time, look no further!

To conclude, I’d recommend taking classes that interest you rather than spend time simply fulfilling a requirement for the sake of doing it. Steve Jobs dropped all of his technical classes and took a design calligraphy class just because he thought it was interesting, and the rest was history (this is an exaggeration, but you get the point). Sometimes taking less classes to enjoy college is the way to go—you only go to college once.

One thing to keep in mind is that at first, nothing really makes sense. Everyone is trying to figure life out and what they want to do. But be open to new experiences and give things a try, and when you look back the dots will connect. Go for that business, graphic design, or computer science minor you’ve been thinking about. Why not? I hope this has given some perspective and wish you all the best of luck for registration

Favorite Statistics Courses

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by Mia Paelmo

Looking for recommendations on STAT courses? Want some insights on what certain STAT courses might offer you? Read Mia’s thoughts below on her favorite STAT electives she’s experienced so far!

When I first came to Illinois I remember the first thing I received during my orientation was a recommended schedule for statistics courses I should take each semester. The first few semesters listed the required courses (STAT 400, STAT 410, etc.), but the remaining half semesters simply said ‘ STAT Electives’. I remember not having any idea which courses to take, but as an incoming freshman I thought ‘Oh well it’s still too early, I’ll worry about that when I need to’. News flash! College goes by faster than you think, and before you know it you’re on Reddit a few hours before your registration slot trying to figure out what the best elective is. Don’t get me wrong, Reddit can be a very useful source when picking out certain courses, I know I have definitely used it in the past. However, it would have been nice to get advice from a friendly face, someone I could trust. And that is exactly who I am going to be for you! Today, I will be recommending two of my favorite statistics electives I have taken throughout the past 4
years.

STAT 385 – Statistical Programming Methods
The first course that I always recommend to statistics majors is STAT 385, also known as ‘Statistical Programming Methods’. I loved this course, and personally think that it should be required for the major because of how useful it is, not just in real life but in other statistics courses as well. This class is basically an introduction to R and RStudio. You will learn data transformations, how to use base R functions, and you will be introduced to many different packages. And while that is all fun and exciting, I think the main reason why I recommend this class to others is because it helps you become comfortable with R and RStudio. After I took STAT 385, I was in STAT 425 and 426, which are two required courses for the major. In both classes, I did most of the assignments in R, and both of the professors did in class examples using R. In fact, I think I have used R and RStudio in almost all of the higher level statistics courses I have taken. So yeah, as a statistics major here at Illinois, it’s good to know R and RStudio. And while the content in STAT 385 is more about programming rather than data analysis in R, I think I was more comfortable using R/RStudio in my other classes because of my experience in STAT 385. I think this is a very well-developed course where you learn many useful tools, and I always recommend this class to anyone who is starting to think of what electives to take. It sets up a good foundation as you start to take more higher level and applied statistics courses.

STAT 432 – Basics of Statistical Learning
The second course I would recommend is STAT 432, also known as ‘Basics of Statistical Learning’. I took this course the spring semester of my junior year, and I enjoyed the content and structure of the class a lot! In this class you will learn about supervised and unsupervised machine learning. You will learn different algorithms such as logistic regression and classification trees, and you’ll use R (see, I told you!) to create models for each technique. I loved this class because I found the material super interesting and it was the first class where I felt like I was using my skills for real life application. It did not just feel like another college class where I had to get assignments done for a grade, I genuinely wanted to build models and understand how they worked. I also think when you have a passionate professor, they can project that passion and interest onto their students. When I took this class in the spring, Professor Gökçe
Dayanıklı taught it and she was very thorough with the material and always valued the feedback of the students, which I think was a great aspect of the course! The final project encouraged us to collaborate with others, develop different models and evaluate their performance, and summarize our findings in a written report. Overall, this was a well-rounded course that offered real life application for both technical and practical skills, I highly recommend it!

To wrap up, I think all of the statistics courses offered at Illinois are exceptional! And while I do recommend looking into the two courses I discussed today when registering for classes, it is important to remember that the purpose of electives is to further explore topics that interest and excite you. I’m glad I was able to share my experiences and I hope this post gave you a little more insight on a few interesting courses we have in this department!

Study tips, academic resources, and productivity tools

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by Carrie Song

Carrie, a junior majoring in Statistics, shares some advice and tips for finding academic success while maintaining balance in a busy semester.

As we’re getting towards the middle of the semester, the excitement of school getting started might be fading away and it’s perfectly normal to feel stressed about assignments, midterms and other tasks. Whether you are just getting started on your college career or one semester away from graduating, here are some tips I find particularly helpful to make life and studying easier.

Rest
Yes, it might sound crazy but taking a break from time to time when doing intense studying can help you concentrate better. This could be zoning out for 5 minutes after finishing a problem set or going grocery shopping in the middle of the day just to take your mind off work. Personally, I love grabbing a boba and taking a short walk late in the afternoon, it relaxes my brain in a way that I can focus and be more productive when I get back. Also, try not to stay up too late at night, especially during weekdays, as not getting enough sleep will somewhat affect your ability to concentrate on the next day –trust me, you don’t want to fall asleep in lectures and having to make up the contents all by yourself towards the end of the semester.

View on the South Quad. Photo credit: Carrie Song.

Practice Regularly
In most STEM classes, the key to success is generally not how smart you are, but how much time you are willing to dedicate to practicing. Doing homework problems independently, organizing notes, working collaboratively with a study group… all these things are super helpful when you’re trying to get a satisfactory grade in a certain class. Having trouble understanding some of the class material? Go to o ice hours! The course staff are there to help students succeed in class. Even outside of class, there are resources that will help you succeed in classes such as the C.A.R.E. tutoring held by the Grainger College of Engineering. Make sure you understand the basic information or concept for a certain topic before you dive into the problem sets, plus constant review of these information will allow you to be more familiar with the subject.

Get Organized & Plan Ahead
Things can get really messy if you have 4 or 5 classes going on at the same time, especially when each one of them has assignments due at a different time. One thing I find particularly useful dealing with it is that I would filter out the big assignments (ones that gives you a longer period of time to finish), and spread them out step by step, making sure I’m constantly working on instead of forgetting its existence until two hours before it’s due. For the works that have weekly due dates, I tend to dedicate a time slot for them in each week and try to finish them during that time slot. This allows a sense of regularity in the messy schedule and in some way, makes a habit. Another thing I find helpful is to have an estimate of how much time you need for each task and give yourself some extra time to finish that task in case something happens. This way, you’ll be unlikely to forget about something and therefore have a higher chance in succeeding.

Hard at work! Photo credit: Carrie Song.

Change Study Spots
When you’re tired of your old study spot, go somewhere else and see what else you can find! I find it helpful especially during finals week and everywhere is crowded. A change of environment can be refreshing to the brain and get you back to focusing. Some of my favorite study spots are the ACES Funk Library, the Psychology building and the Illini Union!

The Funk ACES Library. Photo credit: Carrie Song.

With that much being said, it’s eventually up to each individual to find out which way works best, and I hope the strategies I’ve taken in the past could be inspiring to you and help ease some of that stress. Nevertheless, I’m sure you’ll do amazing in the semester, best of luck!