Factorial and Fractional Factorial Designs

Many experiments in engineering, science and business involve several factors. This course is an introduction to these types of multifactor experiments. The appropriate experimental strategy for these situations is based on the factorial design, a type of experiment where factors are varied together. This course focuses on designing these types of experiments and on using the ANOVA for analyzing the resulting data. These types of experiments often include nuisance factors, and the blocking principle can be used in factorial designs to handle these situations. As the number of factors of interest grows full factorials become too expensive and fractional versions of the factorial design are useful. This course will cover the benefits of fractional factorials, along with methods for constructing and analyzing the data from these experiments.

• Unit 1: Introduction to Factorial Design
• Unit 2: The 2^k Factorial Design
• Unit 3: Blocking and Confounding in the 2^k Factorial Design
• Unit 4: Two-Level Fractional Factorial Designs