Students & Mentoring
I work with a small number of undergraduate and graduate students each year on research projects, senior research, and Capstone projects. My mentoring focuses on problems in statistical learning and sequential decision-making, often motivated by real-world scientific applications.
PhD Opportunities
I am actively seeking PhD students interested in statistical learning, nonparametric statistics, contextual bandits, and sequential decision-making.
Prospective students with a strong background in probability, statistics, or machine learning, and an interest in both theory and computation, are encouraged to reach out.
Research Areas
Projects are typically centered around:
- contextual bandits and reinforcement learning
- nonparametric and kernel methods
- statistical learning theory
- sequential decision-making under uncertainty
- applications to agriculture, climate, and environmental systems
Working With Me
Projects usually involve a mix of theoretical and computational work, including reading research papers, developing methods, and implementing ideas in R or Python.
I expect students to be engaged, curious, and willing to work through open-ended problems.
Capstone and Independent Study
Students interested in Capstone or independent study projects should contact me early, ideally in the Fall semester prior to enrollment.
A short email describing your interests and relevant background is sufficient.
Current and Former Students
2026
Yixue Wang
Senior Capstone Project, Spring 2026
Next: MS in Data Science, Northeastern University, starting Fall 2026
Alexander Meylikhov
Independent Study, Spring 2026
Next: MS, Harvard University, starting Fall 2026
2025
Zachary LeClaire
Senior Capstone Project, Spring 2025
Current Position: PhD in Statistics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Tina Ma
Senior Capstone Project, Spring 2025
Current Position: MS in Data Science, Columbia University
Hao Zheng
Independent Study, Fall 2025
Next: MS in Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, starting Fall 2026
Ruoyu Shao
Senior Research Project, Spring 2025
2024
Wentao Lin
Independent Study, Spring 2024
Current Position: Data Scientist at CTrees
Next: MS in Computer Science, Georgia Tech, 2026–2028