Department of Civil Engineering

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

CE 6013: Statistical Methods in Civil Engineering

3 Cr. Hr./week
Course Objective:

This course offers an in-depth overview of statistical methods for data analysis, with a
particular focus on environmental engineering applications as well as other relevant civil
engineering applications. It also offers an opportunity for learning quantitative data modeling,
interpretation of results and presentation of the results to the stake holders of non-technical
background. The course will allow the use of open-source programming language such as R,
python as well as MATLAB for statistical data modeling.

Content:

Probability theory, Bayes' theorem; Descriptive and exploratory data analysis, data
visualization; sampling design, hypothesis testing, derivations of statistical distributions,
models used for inference with continuous and/or discrete data, analysis of variance; regression
modeling with continuous and discrete variables; nonparametric methods; factor analysis,
principal component analysis; introduction to time series analysis.

Course outcome:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

i. Explain the basics of statistics and probability concepts that can be used to describe
engineering data quantitatively
ii. Identify properties of random variables for a given experiment and select appropriate
distributions to represent data, estimate parameters, and test hypothesis
iii. Estimate relationships between dependent and independent variables and interpret
results
iv. Employ the statistical methods to solve problems related to civil engineering
v. Apply computational tools such as R statistical package, python, or MATLAB to analyze
the real-world data

Textbook:

1. Applied Statistics and Probability for Engineers. Seventh edition. D. C. Montgomery,

and G. C. Runger, Wiley.
Reference books and Materials:

1. Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences. Eighth edition. J. L. Devore,
Cengage learning.
2. Probability & Statistics for Engineers & Scientists. Ninth edition. R. E. Walpole, R. H.
Myers, S. L. Myers, and K. Ye., Prentice Hall.
3. Additional book chapters will be used for time-series statistics and factor analysis

CE 6013_April 2023
 4. Lecture notes to be provided in the class

Course Schedule: Mondays 2:30-05:30 PM*

Instructor: Sheikh Mokhlesur Rahman, PhD
503, Dr. Jamilur Reza Chowdhury Civil Engineering Building
Email: [email protected]
Office hours: contact via email
Course LMS: MS Teams

Team code: mbpeg2j

Team Link: https://cutt.ly/ce6013_april2023
Marks Distribution:

Item Percentage
Homework 10%
Paper Review 10%
Term Project 25%
Mid Term Exam 25%
Final Exam 30%

Grading System:

Marks Obtained Grade Grade Point Merit Description

90% and above A (Plus) 4.0 Excellent
80% to below 90% A 3.5 Very Good
70% to below 80% B (Plus) 3.0 Good
60% to below 70% B 2.5 Average
50% to below 60% C 2.0 Pass
Below 50% F 0.0 Failure

CE 6013_April 2023
 Tentative Lecture Plan

Lecture Classwork Classwork

Topic
No. assigned due
Introduction, Descriptive Statistics,
1 HW1
Visualization

2 Probability theory HW1

HW2
Statistical distributions of continuous
3 Group formation
and discrete variables
for Term Project
Point estimation, central limit
HW2;
theorem, review of measure of
4 Group formation for
central tendency and measure of
Term Project
dispersion
Sample design and Hypothesis
5 HW3
testing for single sample
Sample design and Hypothesis
6 HW3
testing for two samples
Mid-Term Exam
7 Project Proposal
Project proposal discussion
Regression of continuous variables Project Proposal;
8
and correlation Paper Review
Multiple linear regression; logistic
9 HW4
regression; Non-parametric methods;
Analyses of variances: one-way and
10 HW4
two-way ANOVA
Time-series statistics: Introduction
11 Factor Analysis and Principal HW5
Component Analysis: Introduction

12 Project Presentation HW5

13 Project Presentation

Final Exam

CE 6013_April 2023
Paper Review:

The objective of the Paper Review is to familiarize students with the academic articles.
Students will form a group of 3 to 4 persons. Each group will select one paper and write a
review of the paper.

Format: Summarize the paper. The paper review shall include, at least, the following:
- Objective of the study
- Novelty
- Methods
- Data
- Results and conclusions
- Critical analysis and limitations (in your opinion)

Paper review shall be of maximum two (2) pages. Fontsize shall be either 11 or 12 points.
Spacing shall be 1.5 lines.

You may select papers from any article that used statistical methods to analyze data related to
any engineering field, preferably Civil Engineering (i.e., either of Structural, Geotechnical,
Transportation, and Environmental Engineering). The paper should be shared with the class
one week in advance. Papers shall be posted as PDFs on Teams.

Term Project:

Students will work in a group of 3 to 4 persons on term projects. The topic can be freely
selected by the students to match their personal/professional/research interests as long as it
covers the application of statistics for engineering related data analysis.

Important deliverables:
• Proposal: Written, Word or PDF, maximum 2 pages
• Final presentation: Oral, 10 + 5 minutes
• Final report: Written, Word or PDF, 6-8 pages excluding appendix and/or codes

CE 6013_April 2023