Product Description

This user-friendly resource helps readers grasp the concepts of probability and stochastic processes, so they can apply them in professional engineering practice. The book presents concepts clearly as a sequence of building blocks that are identified either as an axiom, definition, or theorem. This approach provides a better understanding of the material, which can be used to solve practical problems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #248955 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 544 pages

From the Publisher
Applications of probability theory appear throughout modern society, such as state lotteries, weather forecasts, insurance prices. Professionals use probability theory as an astute tool for decision making. Electrical and computer engineers use probability to design computer networks, test integrated circuits, and evaluate communications systems. This book is written to help engineers clearly grasp the concepts of probability and stochastic processes. It presents the theory of probability and stochastic process as a sequence of building blocks that are clearly identified. Each block is either an axiom, a definition, or a theorem. Intuitive explanations of new concepts are interspersed with mathematical statements.

From the Back Cover
Clear, engaging, and always friendly

Maintaining their highly popular, user-friendly approach, Roy Yates and David Goodman demystify probability unlike any other text today. The authors help you develop an intuitive grasp of the principles of probability and stochastic processes, allowing you to successfully solve basic engineering problems using these principles... with a smile.

The authors present the principles of probability and stochastic processes as a logical sequence of building blocks that are clearly identified as an axiom, definition, or theorem. For each new principle, examples illustrate the application of the mathematics to engineering problems. You’ll also have many opportunities for practice.

Now revised, this Second Edition features a new chapter on random vectors, expanded coverage of the applications of probability, a streamlined presentation of Markov chains and elementary queuing theory, and a tutorial in each chapter on using MATLAB.

With this text, you’ll be able to:

• Develop an intuitive understanding of the concepts.
• Follow a single clear model that begins with an experiment consisting of a procedure and observations.
• Put the theory into practice with an extensive collection of exercises (examples, quizzes, and homework problems).
• Gain hands-on experience with MATLAB applications.
• Master basic principles without the confusion of learning two different ways of calculating probabilities and averages at the same time. (Discrete and continuous random variables are treated separately.)

About the Author
Dr. Roy Yates received the B.S.E. degree in 1983 from Princeton University, and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in 1986 and 1990 from M.I.T., all in Electrical Engineering. Since 1990, he has been with the Wireless Information Networks Laboratory (WINLAB) and the ECE department at Rutgers, University. He is currently an associate professor.

David J. Goodman is Director of WINLAB and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. Before coming to Rutgers, he enjoyed a twenty year research career at Bell Labs where he was a Department Head in Communications Systems Research. He has made fundamental contributions to digital signal processing, speech coding, and wireless information networks.

Customer Reviews

A Great Book to Teach From...
I taught an undergraduate course in probability and stochastic processes last summer using this book. This book is so clearly written and laid out that for the first time in 20 years of teaching I could lecture directly from the book rather than having to spend the time to make up a set of notes. The many worked out problems are very helpful in illustrating concepts. All in all a great book.

A pretty good book indeed!
I had to buy this book for a class for my EE degree- I must say as much as I hate probability and the like, this book was one of the best on the subject that I've ever come across. It really feels as though this is a 'friendly' book, just like it says in its title. I didn't give it a full five stars, because I think it should include a few more worked out examples per section. Nevertheless, it still has a fair number of worked examples and also quizes which are solved at the end of the book. All and all, I really enjoyed the book and consequently the course.

A supportive reader
Let me begin by saying this book is written at a level for senior level B.S. and first year M.S. engineering (not math) students. It is the best book I've seen for introducing probability, random variables and related concepts to this student demographic (particularly to Elec. Eng. or Comp. Eng majors). It has all the introductory concepts and lays out the foundation for later subject matter in a seemless, easy to read and friendly manner. To qualify this statement, let me say that I had taken a similar engineering-related probability course in school a few years back that covered most of the same topics found in the Yates and Goodman book. I was confused about several issues even after I completed the course. It wasn't until I found this text and began reading it that all the questions and doubts I'd had went away. This text doesn't cover more advanced probability related concepts like entropy, mutual information and a host of others. What it does do is clearly provide you with the foundation in probability so that you can later read other more "involved" books like Stark and Woods or Papoulis and Pillai without the agony.