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STAT 444Statistical Learning - Advanced Regression

Units
0.50
Faculty
Mathematics
Subject
Statistics

When it runs

  1. F24
  2. W25
  3. S25
  4. F25
  5. W26
  6. S26
  7. F26
  8. W27
  9. S27

Ran in 6 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: scheduled, 2 lecture sections. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

This course introduces modern applied regression methods for continuous response modelling, emphasizing both explainability and predictive power. Topics cover a wide selection of advanced methods useful to address the challenges arising from real-world and high-dimensional data; methods include robust regression, nonparametric regression such as smoothing splines, kernels, additive models, tree-based methods, boosting and bagging, and penalized linear regression methods such as the ridge regression, lasso, and their variants. Students will gain an appreciation of the mathematical and statistical concepts underlying the methods and also computational experience in applying the methods to real data.

Prerequisites

  • Complete all of the following
    • Must have completed the following:
      • STAT341 - Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (0.50)
    • Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
      • STAT331 - Applied Linear Models (0.50)
      • STAT371 - Applied Linear Models and Process Improvement for Business (0.50)

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

No course lists it as a requisite.

Winter 2027 sections

Enrolment from UW Open Data, which can trail Quest by up to two days. Instructors and rooms: Schedule of Classes.
SectionClassEnrolledMeets
LEC 00157650 / 100TTh 13:00–14:20
LEC 701222637 / 9999Online or by arrangement

Resources

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Reviewed on UW Flow

78% liked it40% easy83% useful

From 23 ratings and 9 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

  • Lot's of content, but learning all kinds of regression is super useful.

    Mar 2026 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Prof ruined it for me. The content is very relevant to ML and the hands-on modeling was interesting (although in R). First term to have both a final project AND exam. Also had a midterm and 2 assignments both manageable. Overall, would recommend only if a different professor teaches and changes up the course outline a bit.

    Apr 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Took it with Kun Liang. Didn't learn a single thing. Did NOT understand anything. It's the standard 4th year stat courses, but all I remember is writing down random stuffs in the midterm hoping for part marks. There was no final so it was okay. 100% sure I won't remember a single thing.

    Apr 2024 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Loved this course! Took it with Alex Stringer, was very fun and enjoyable! Not hard to get a decent grade but it'll be hard to get an excelling grade (i.e, 80+ very doable but 90+ difficult); we got to learn about the content published this year (ft. trevor hastie's paper on CV and NCV) and apply course content to a final project

    Aug 2023 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • The materials are interesting. You learn to fit "wiggly lines" to data rather than just a straight line (as in STAT 331). However, I would recommend avoiding Professor Alex Stringer for the next few offerings of this course since he is very new to this course and he didn't cover many of the concepts described in the course description.

    Aug 2023 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

188 posts and comments in 142 threads mention STAT 444, November 2013 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Fall 2024

Spring 2024

STAT444 VS STAT443 5 points, 0 comments

u/poeticorange: “I’m currently taking CS480 and is planning to take STAT441 and CS486 in future terms. Should I take STAT444 with Alex Stringer or STAT443 with Jeremy VanderDoes? Appreciate any advice or comments on the courses or profs.”

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Winter 2024

stat440 or stat444？ 4 points, 2 comments

u/EsabellaGranger: “I am a stats student and I am looking to pursue the MDSAI ( masters of data science and AI) program at waterloo or related fields elsewhere , which one do you recommend taking this spring? BTW, both courses are taught by Stringer, has anyone taken his 440 or 444? …”

u/positivity_nerd: “I took stat 444 with Prof Alex. He is exceptional in teaching. The class size was small and everyone was interested to learn the content. Stat 440 is his expertise so i know he is biased towards that 😂.”

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Fall 2023

cs479 or stat444 (taken stat441) 2 points, 1 comment

u/HotAbies3173: “I'm a 4a student and taking stat 441 this term (2023 winter) with Ali Ghodsi Boushehri, most content is Neural Networks， so I‘m here to ask should I choose cs479 (Neural Networks) next term or choose stat444 instead?”

u/Reasonable_Seaweed_4: “stat444 is learning about advanced regression techniques like regularization, splines, KNN, etc. i think random forest and decision trees are also taught by some professors. if you want to deep dive into neural networks then take CS.”

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Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026

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