Multivariate analysis provides the foundational tools for understanding and analyzing data sets that require simultaneous examination of multiple variables. This course aims to enable students with the ability to describe, explore, and find order in data, and to extract underlying structure and patterns. While the course is intended to provide students with a background suitable for a variety of applications, the emphasis will be on the environmental sciences. Further emphasis will be placed on a working knowledge of conventional statistical methods, use of software packages (primarily R), and problem solving.

Students will be expected to have a reasonable level of competence in statistics (i.e. will have taken a basic statistics course such as EAS 538). Basic knowledge of R or similar software is helpful, but not required. The course will culminate with submittal of an individual semester-long project designed to apply fundamentals from the course to a data set selected by the student.