Pedagogy of diversity and data analytics: Theory to practice

A course in probability is a requirement in Baccalaureate Programs in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Students view this course as conceptual with little connection to real world problems. Efforts have been undertaken to mitigate this issue and connect the conceptual topics to data analytics to make the course relevant. Data analytics based exercises are now integral to the course. Several demos were created to link statistical concepts with practice through analysis of data. In this study, a demo created to illustrate the concept of diversity to improve the performance of a machine vision system is described. It incorporates concepts of Bayes’ rule, single and multiple random variables, goodness fit tests, random number simulation and data analytics to illustrate the pedagogy of diversity and associated data processing. Student survey results suggest that these demos enhance that the learning experience in the engineering probability course.