Short Course Session 2: Sampling, Statistics and the Status Quo

This event took place on April 9, 2021. A recording of the event can be found below. 

Session 2 Description:

Session 2: Sampling, Statistics and the Status Quo is the second session in the three-session short course, Statistical Thinking for Forensic Practitioners. 

Statistical ideas such as sampling, point and interval estimation of population quantities, and hypothesis testing have direct application in forensic science. In this session, we start from fundamental ideas about variability (and its sources) in measurements used in forensic analysis, and discuss methods to ameliorate, quantify, model, and interpret variation and uncertainty in the evaluation of forensic evidence. In more detail, we will:

• Talk about variability and its sources, and introduce ideas such as reproducibility, repeatability, and accuracy.
• Briefly talk about populations and samples, and describe some sampling methods useful in forensic applications.
• Introduce the idea of estimation of population quantities such as means and proportions and of methods to report the uncertainty attached to those estimates.
• Describe how to carry out a test of hypothesis to compare two means and a test of equivalence to compare two means.
• Demonstrate how statistical concepts can be used in the study of current forensic science practice (e.g., design and analysis of black box studies)

Presenter:

Alicia Carriquiry

Director of CSAFE

Distinguished Professor and President’s Chair, Iowa State University |

About the Short Course:

Session 2 is the second session in the three-session short course, Statistical Thinking for Forensic Practitioners. Dr. Hal Stern and Dr. Alicia Carriquiry introduce fundamental concepts from probability and statistics –– motivated by forensic issues –– followed by a detailed investigation of how they apply to assess forensic evidence’s probative value. This short course will be held online in three sessions. Make sure to register for all three sessions because the content of later sessions builds on material from earlier sessions. Researchers, collaborators, and members of the broader forensics and statistics communities are encouraged to attend. Short course registrants who attend all sessions will receive a certificate of completion.

Here are the event links to the other sessions:

Session 1: Probability Concepts and their Relevance to Forensic Science

Session 3: Quantitative Tools for Forensic Evidence

Sign up for the Short Course using the form below (Chrome & Safari web browsers work the best):