The course project consists of a report that is around 10-15 pages long. It is fine to work as a group, in which case the number of pages of the report should be about \(15 \times .9^n\) where \(n\) is the number of people in the group.

Let me know what your intended topics are once you think you know. Below are templates for two different types of report. You can do either one of these, or combine elements of ech one. If you want to stray from the basic formats described below, come talk to me and we can come up with an alternative format. You should email me or talk to me about your initial ideas for each of these projects by March 7.

Data project

Describe some multivariate data that we haven’t used in class that is of a reasonable size. Apply at least two different multivariate techniques to the data. The techniques you apply do not need to be “correct” or “optimal”, but you do need to comment on their appropriateness, and possibly other techniques or models that would be more appropriate. The format of the project should be all-electronic and replicable by me: The data should be available via http, and all code should be included in with your report. The written component of the report should include

1. an introduction section where the data source is described, as well as a description of why the data are of interest and what you are going with do it;
2. an exploratory data analysis section;
3. one or more methods section, where you apply at least two methods to analyze the data in some way;
4. a summary of your results.

The report should be turned in electronically. I suggest using R markdown to write the report.

Review project

Describe mathematically a multivariate technique or result that interests you. This could be something we’ve done in class that you would like to explore further, or something we haven’t discussed in class. The report should include

1. an introduction that describes the purpose of or motivation for the technique or result, and a brief literature review;
2. a main body, describing the technique or result mathematically;
3. summary, describing limitations of the results, possibilities for extension and/or links to other work.