Far Detector Background Prediction Technique for a $\theta_{13}$ search in the MINOS experiment

The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, or MINOS, is a long-baseline experiment which uses neutrinos created with the Fermilab NuMI beamline to search for neutrino oscillations. The MINOS experiment is conducting a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino transitions. An observation of such transitions would indicate a non-zero value for the neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{13}$. This talk will focus on the technique used to create the far detector background prediction based on the near detector data and the systematic errors associated with this technique.