AlumNews
2018
Sarah Pierro, MS 2018, was advised by Richard Buckalew. She just accepted a position as an analyst at Cogo Labs, a startup accelerator in Cambridge, MA.
2017
Jake Leistico, 2017 Math and Physics BS, writes from Illinois: "I am starting my second year of the PhD program in physics at UIUC. I passed the qualifying exam (the pen and paper one) at the beginning of my first year, so I have that out of the way. My first semester I spent a lot of time attending various colloquiums, and through this I developed an interest in biophysics and biological systems. In January I joined Dr. Jun Song's research group. Dr. Song is interested in various areas of quantitative biology. The research is computational and often involves developing statistical and data analysis approaches to answering questions in genomics and related areas. I find this line of research interesting as the systems are often very complex and it gives me an opportunity to use what I learned about data analysis and advanced mathematics. Currently I have been working on developing a tensor decomposition approach (also known as Higher Order Singular Value Decomposition, or Tucker decomposition) to study epigenetic data sets."
Yujiong Liu, MS 2017, is in a PhD program at Virginia Tech, working in The Robotics and Mechatronics Lab (RML) in the Mechanical Engineering Department. The RML is directed by Prof. Pinhas Ben-Tzvi.
2016
Katarzyna Obral, MS 2016, has moved back to her homeland (Poland) after graduation. Motivated by the need of professional development and willingness to put her academic knowledge into practice, she decided to join Accenture Technology and embrace the challenges which IT consulting has to offer. Thanks to this decision within less than 2 years she has become an experienced full-stack developer, working on all layers of Business Intelligence solution, using SAP technology. So far, she has been part of the project teams delivering the cutting-edge solutions for tobacco, retail, and life sciences companies, working at the client sites in Kraków, Tokyo, and London.
2015
Alex Gelle, BS 2015, is working as a Staff Actuary at Thrivent Financial. He recently achieved his ASA designation from the Society of Actuaries and married his high school sweetheart, Rachel, in October.
Matt Arthur, BS 2015, and his wife Jo have moved to California. Matt has just begun a PhD program in Applied Statistics at UC Riverside.
2014
Charles Kuang, MS 2014, was advised by Dr. Zhuangyi Liu. After graduated from UMD with his master degree, Charles moved to the University of Wisconsin, Madison (UW) to pursue his Ph.D. in Computer Sciences with a research focus on developing machine learning methods for healthcare problems. He graduated in Summer 2018 with his Ph.D. The research towards his dissertation is recognized by the UW Computer Science Graduate Student Research Award (best dissertation award). He is now working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University.
Xingguo Li, MS 2014, advised by Dr. Kang James and Dr. Barry James. After graduated from UMD with the Outstanding Graduate Award, Xingguo moved to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and received Ph.D. degree in 2018 in Electrical Engineering. His research focuses on machine learning, optimization, deep learning, and their applications. During his Ph.D. study, Xingguo was very productive and obtained several awards, including the ASA Best Student Paper Award on Statistical Computing, the Best Student Paper Award in IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing, and the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship of UMN Twin Cities. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Computer Science Department of Princeton University.
Michal Hrabia, MS 2014, worked as a Data Analyst in a Polish multinational software house and systems integrator company Comarch after graduation. Then he joined the McKinsey & Company which is a well-known American worldwide management consulting firm. As a data analyst he is conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis to evaluate management decisions across public and private sectors.
2010
Jingrui Li, MS 2010, now lives in Oklahoma with her husband and three young sons. From 2012-2017 she was a senior consultant in Operations Research and Advanced Analytics department of American Airlines. She built optimization and machine learning models in multiple areas such as network planing, revenue network, crew management, supply chain, etc. Her project "Flight Number Optimization Modeling" won the Chairman Award. From 2018 to the present she has been the Principal Software Developer--Optimization in Power Cost Inc. She has built optimization and AI models and developed software to support energy industry.
2003
Freda Cooner, MS 2003, proceeded in the Ph.D. program in Division of Biostatistics at Twin Cities Campus. After graduation in 2006, she moved to Maryland to work in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a statistical reviewer. She had reviewed hundreds of protocols, statistical analysis plans and study data for many medical products, including medical devices, drugs and biologics, in multiple therapeutical areas. After 10 years of working in the FDA, Freda joined a pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, as an Associate Director and relocated to New Jersey. She is currently in charge of several clinical trials for multiple diabetes compounds. Her work includes drafting protocols and statistical analysis plans, coordinating with the clinical and regulatory functions, negotiating with the health agencies, and helping ensure trial conduct integrity and data quality. Outside of work, she is an active member of the statistical/biostatistical community. She chairs contributed paper award for ASA Biopharmaceutical Section, chaired 2016 Biopharmaceutical Section Regulatory-Industry Workshop, and serves as an Associate Editor for Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Statistics, just to list a few.
*Retiree Takes Same Class in 1976 and 2018*
Marc Bellario was an enthusiastic member of Joe Gallian’s Abstract Algebra class in 1976. Now retired and living in Duluth, Marc is enthusiastically participating in Gallian’s Abstract Algebra class this fall. Even though he is not taking the course for credit, he is taking quizzes and exams. Seems like old times!