STAT 17: Statistical Methods for Business and Economics
Spring 2026
Welcome to STAT 17 Spring 2026! Course materials will be added as the quarter progresses.
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Marcela Alfaro Cordoba
Associate Professor of Teaching
UC Santa Cruz
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Welcome to our statistics journey together! Iβm genuinely excited to work with each of you this quarter, and I hope youβll find that statistics is far more engaging and relevant to your life than you might expect. My door (and Ed Discussion) are always open: whether youβre struggling with a concept, curious about how statistics applies to your field of interest, or just want to chat about data science, I encourage you to reach out and connect.
Office Hours:
- Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:25 am β 12:00 pm, outside the classroom
- Tuesdays and Wednesdays by appointment. Book an online appointment using this link
Teaching Team

Qianyu Dong
Qianyu is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Statistics. Her research focuses on prevalence mapping using household surveys through Bayesian modeling. Outside of work, she is recently in her phase of exploring British rock/pop, and currently into Blur and Gorillaz.
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Yongqi Chen
Yongqi is a third year PhD student in statistics. She earned her bachelorβs degree from Rutgers University. She is 100% Bayesian.
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Lissette Villa
Liz is a 2nd year statistics PhD student currently working on developing statistical methods for dose finding in clinical trials. She completed my undergraduate studies in mathematics with a concentration in actuarial science at CSU Fullerton.
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Jacob Fontana
PhD Candidate at UCSC
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Office Hours for all:
- See here
