What was your area of study (or degree program) in the Baskin School of Engineering?

I was in the PhD program in the Statistics Department (AMS at the time). My research involved spatio-temporal models for large datasets with an application on climate research and prediction using parallel computing.

Who/what inspired to choose statistics?

My undergraduate advisor Professor Sam Behseta planted the seed of studying statistics in graduate school. Upon meeting the UC Santa Cruz statistics faculty (Sansó, Lee, Kottas, Prado) during my visit at UCSC, I knew Bayesian statistics at UCSC is what I wanted to study.

When did you graduate/receive your degree?

I received my PhD in statistics from UCSC March 2014.

Tell us a bit about your research during your time at UCSC, and how that has influenced you afterwards?

Under the supervision of Professor Bruno Sansó we developed sophisticated spatio-temporal models for multi-resolution sea-surface temperature (SST) using parallel computing. By incorporating long-term coarse resolution SST and high resolution over a smaller time period and area, we were able to predict SST over a span of 50 years at a high resolution. Using parallel computing we developed an efficient sampling scheme that partitioned the problem across processors. Thus allowing us to model long-term temporal behaviors. The skills and lessons I learned while conducting research and studying at UC Santa Cruz have largely influenced the manner in which I approach my current research on a daily basis. The high standards for rigorous statistical analysis, set by the faculty and my advisor, have carried forth into all aspects of my work.

Where are you now? What are you doing?

I currently work as a statistician at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore California. I work on ‘things’ and ‘stuff’ and it’s really fun. I am married with no kids :) but we’re thinking about getting a cat. I currently live in the bay area.

How did your experience in the Baskin School of Engineering prepare you for your future?

In BSOE you’re surrounded by other graduate students from different departments. You learn how to communicate with experts in different fields of study. Being able to communicate statistical methodologies to colleagues with no statistical background is a valuable tool that BSOE provided.

Where did you go to school before coming to UCSC?

I received my BS in Mathematics at Cal-State Bakersfield.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the small farming town of Buttonwillow California.

What was your favorite course as a student in the Baskin School of Engineering and why?

My favorite course is probably the 207 class (Intermediate Bayesian Statistical Modeling). 207 was an early class (8:00 am) in which we were all barely lucid and it was taught by Professor Sansó. It was an entertaining class with many notable quotes that I still use to this day. It was also the class that solidified my interest in Bayesian statistics.

Who were the most influential professors for you and why?

My advisor Professor Sansó. He was a great mentor both academically and personally. He had a way of making you think outside the box and would push you to bring out the best in yourself. Plus he’s hilarious.
Professor Prado initiated my interest in time-series analysis. Her door was always open and she was willing to help me even though I was not her graduate student.

What did you do for fun while at UC Santa Cruz?

There were a lot of fun things to do in Santa Cruz. We would play soccer (with professors) on Sundays up on campus. Three times a week we’d go to the climbing gym on Seabright Ave. Walking on the beach, hiking in the redwood forest, having a drink or two at the yacht club, and playing air hockey and skee-ball at the boardwalk.

What do you miss most about Santa Cruz?

The people and the ocean. I met the best friends I have in Santa Cruz. I also miss the faculty, it was a great group of people and I miss interacting and hanging out with them.

What advice do you have for current Statistics grad students?

Work really hard, you have an amazing faculty at your disposal. Ask them questions and develop your curiosity. Work together with your fellow grad students and learn from each other. And don’t shy away from contacting alumni, we are usually pretty nice and sometimes helpful.

Do you have a funny story to share from your time as a grad student?

One that comes to mind is the time we had a foosball tournament against the professors. We brought snacks, desserts, and our game faces to face the faculty in a 2v2 foosball extravaganza. I don’t remember who won, so it’s fair to assume that the faculty won.

What was your degree program in the Baskin School of Engineering?

Applied Mathematics and Statistics

Who/what inspired to choose statistics?

Finding statistics was a lucky strike for me. I knew I liked math in high school but I didn’t know studying statistics was a “thing.” When I was looking for an undergraduate program in Colombia I found a program in statistics and I decided that it was the perfect combination of mathematics and applications for me. Since then, I just followed the path to the PhD

When did you graduate/receive your degree?

I graduated in September 2015.

Tell us a bit about your research during your time at UCSC, and how that has influenced you afterwards?

My research at UC Santa Cruz was focused on models for network data using Bayesian statistics. I learned a lot of modeling and data analysis tools during my research training at UCSC that have allowed me to continue working on research in this area as well as other interesting practical problems that require the development of novel statistical methodology and efficient computational algorithms.

Where are you now and what are you up to?

In August of this year I started an Assistant Professor position at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Previous to that I was a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University for 3 years. After my PhD, I continued working on Bayesian methods applied to networks, entity resolution and other applications that include official statistics, health and human rights.

How did your experience in the Baskin School of Engineering prepare you for your future?

From learning English (I was not fluent when I started my PhD) to receiving an outstanding formation in Bayesian Statistics, my time at UCSC was a life-changing experience for me. I never thought it was possible for someone with my background to follow an academic path in the U.S. but thanks to the excellent mentoring and education I received at UCSC I have had many opportunities that put me in the position I am today with all the necessary tools to succeed.

What was your favorite course as a student in the Baskin School of Engineering and why?

The Bayesian Statistical Modeling class was my favorite because it provides the core tools of Bayesian methodology that are later needed in more specialized classes such as Time Series Analysis and Spatial Statistics.

Who were the most influential professors for you and why?

My PhD advisor, Abel Rodríguez, was and still is the most influential professor for me. In addition to being excellent in statistics and great to work with, he also played a key role in my decision to pursue an academic career by providing mentoring and support during the whole process.

What was the best thing about being a student in the Baskin School of Engineering?

The best thing was that the school is composed of a diverse group of students and faculty that made the adaptation and the PhD process easier for me. The school has a great environment that encourages learning without toxic competitiveness and people are friendly and open minded. During my time at UCSC I made very good friends that I consider friends for life. I am very grateful for that as well as the professional opportunities it has brought me.

What did you do for fun while at UC Santa Cruz?

I love hiking! Campus and the surrounding areas are absolutely beautiful and great for hiking.

What do you miss most about Santa Cruz?

I miss the amazing view of the Monterey Bay and the redwood forest! Santa Cruz is also a very peaceful and safe place to live.

What advice do you have for current statistics grad students?

Keep working hard but also enjoy your time there and take advantage of the beauty of the place. Looking back I wish I had enjoyed my time there more!

What was your area of study [or degree program] in the Baskin School of Engineering?

I completed my PhD in statistics within the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. I developed Bayesian nonparametric models for regression with binary and ordinal responses.

Who/what inspired to choose statistics?

I majored in math at UC Santa Barbara because I loved calculus, but when I got to the “abstract algebra” class where I had to prove things that seemed obvious (but were very difficult to prove!), and started to learn about “groups” and “rings” I decided I didn’t want to be a mathematician. Luckily, around the same time I took a statistics class and an operations research class, which I absolutely loved, and quickly realized I liked statistics and applied math more than pure math. During my senior year of college I took the first actuary exam, but eventually decided to pursue graduate school in statistics instead, which was definitely a good choice!

When did you graduate/receive your degree?

2014

Tell us a bit about your research during your time at UCSC, and how that has influenced you afterwards?

My research at UC Santa Cruz was focused on Bayesian nonparametric modeling for ordinal regression. I was advised by Athanasios Kottas, who was (and continues to be) a wonderful mentor. I was fortunate to be connected to researchers at NOAA/NMFS who provided data on fish maturity and body characteristics that led to the final (and probably most interesting) chapter of my thesis, which developed dynamic ordinal regression models (dynamic because the ordinal regressions are indexed and change across time) to capture the relationship between fish maturity, body length, and age across time. I continue to use Bayesian nonparametrics models, and the way I learned to think about modeling data and come up with new models for data during my PhD work continues to be helpful today.

Where are you now? What are you up to?

I work at RAND in Santa Monica, CA. I work on lots of multi-disciplinary teams, for instance with health policy researchers, economists, behavioral scientists, and psychologists. I am the statistician on these projects, which involves analysis planning, modeling, data analysis, and interpretation/writing of reports and papers. Because of the applied/public policy oriented nature of my work at RAND, I am continually learning about new substantive research areas (health policy, military health care, substance abuse, etc.) I am also now serving as an Associate Editor of a journal (Annals of Applied Statistics), which has been interesting.

Where did you go to school before coming to UCSC?

UCSB -- another beautiful location. Apparently I just can’t leave the coast of CA.

Where did you grow up?

Livermore and Walnut Creek/Clayton (the East Bay).

What was your favorite course as a student in the Baskin School of Engineering and why?

Well of course Bayesian nonparametrics, as I ended up doing my PhD research in this area. But I also really enjoyed the two Bayesian Inference classes, generalized linear models (because it covered so much and was so practical), and time series with Raquel Prado, even if it did stress me out at times due to the difficulty of the material and homework!

Who were the most influential professors for you and why?

Well of course my advisor, Athanasios Kottas! But I truly loved all of the statistics professors in the Baskin School of Engineering. They were all incredibly helpful to me as teachers, and in giving advice, and writing letters of recommendation for me after grad school. One of the best things about the department at UCSC was in fact the professors.

What was the best thing about being a student in the Baskin School of Engineering?

The fact that you are in a forest! You can step out behind the building to go for a run/walk any time!

What did you do for fun while at UC Santa Cruz?

Swam with masters (CRUZ) at the pool at noon most days, rode my bike and ran, wine tasting at all the tasting rooms on the west side and in the Santa Cruz mountains when I moved to Los Gatos partway through grad school, and cooking/going out to eat with my husband (boyfriend, then fiance, then husband during grad school).

What do you miss most about Santa Cruz ?

The small-town feel, being on the central coast, and just the pleasant, relaxed nature of the city.

What advice do you have for current Statistics grad students?

Take as many courses on diverse topics as possible! I’m continually learning new statistical topics/methods through my work and often wish I had learned more about some topic or other. Don’t stress out too much about what you’re going to do after grad school. Have a good work-life balance and try to compress work into certain hours where you are focused and productive, and then enjoy your time off.

What was your area of study [or degree program] in the Baskin School of Engineering?

Statistics and Stochastic Modeling

When did you graduate/receive your degree?

September 2011

Who/what inspired to choose Statistics?

I was always good at math and science, but I want options in terms of applications! Statistics is a field that I can work in academia, all over industry, as well as government on a myriad of applications.

Tell us a bit about your research during your time at UCSC, and how that has influenced you afterwards.

In grad school, my focus was on Bayesian nonparametric methodology: how to relax restrictive assumptions on traditional models but retain interpretability and appropriate uncertainty quantification. One thing that has always stuck with me from that time is that we started with an actual, real world problem, and found the right tool for the task at hand. All too often I see people that have a specific method they like to use and will try to force every round problem into that square solution, even if it won’t answer their original questions.

Where are you now? What are you up to? How did your experience in the Baskin School of Engineering prepare you for your future?

I currently am the Applied Statistics Group Leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where I lead a team of about 12 statisticians to help increase the statistical reasoning and quantitative rigor that inform decisions across the Lab. We try to foster a sense of community in our group, which is something that I learned at UCSC, where we had a group of students and faculty that looked out for each other. We tried to push each other forward without leaving anyone behind or walking on top of someone to get to the top.

Where did you go to school before coming to UCSC?

I got my BS and MS from Brigham Young University

Where did you grow up?

Born and raised in Phoenix, AZ...I do occasionally miss needing oven mitts to touch the steering wheel in my car.

What was your favorite course as a student in the Baskin School of Engineering and why?

All of the stat classes I took after the first year were fun, but I’d have to say the Bayesian Nonparametrics class was my favorite. My advisor taught it and it ended up being the focus of my research (plus I’m super nerdy). Looking back, I wish I would’ve taken some other just for kicks classes like surfing or learning a new language.

Who were the most influential professors for you and why?

All of the statistics professors. There were only a handful of them, but outside the obvious providing academic knowledge, each left a mark in different ways - everything from comedic relief (whether they knew it or not), to pushing us to get involved in professional activities and societies (most of which I’m still actively doing because of them), reminding us of work-life balance, and educating us on adult beverages (not that we could really afford the really nice ones at the time…but it was always a fun treat).

What was the best thing about being a student in the Baskin School of Engineering?

I’d say the two things I liked best were the community in general and the fact that everything was application based. No one was doing research that didn’t have a real world application.

What did you do for fun while at UC Santa Cruz?

We went to the beach, explored downtown and the city (SF or San Jose), and watched a lot of sports (mostly on tv, but we also went to games when we could). We used to also play soccer on the weekends with students and faculty from the department. I ran a lot outside too: good exercise and kept the stress level down.

What do you miss most about Santa Cruz?

The people, though I see them a lot anyway. There are actually more than a few of my grad student friends in the Bay area these days. It was also nice having campus up on the hill in the trees then the downtown area and the beach. It was like having the best of a lot of cities in one place.

What advice do you have for current Statistics grad students?

Make friends with the other students in the dept, it helps immensely to have friendly faces to see all the time. Also, make friends outside your department - it gives you perspective on how good you have it ;) Last, enjoy your time in Santa Cruz. Yes, grad school can be difficult and stressful, but there are worse things in life and definitely worse places to be!

What was your area of study [or degree program] in the Baskin School of Engineering?

Applied Mathematics and Statistics PhD. I was mostly a statistician, but I did enjoy both sides of the major.

Who or what inspired to choose this area of study?

I needed work. I had a philosophy undergrad degree and I had a bunch of hair-brained ideas. One of the more reasonable ones was to do a statistics masters degree. I was at McGill University in Canada and they had these great co-op programs where I could work while getting a degree. I worked at a hospital as an intern doing statistics while I earned the two-year masters degree. I really liked it and it turned out I was decent at it. My advisors at McGill encouraged me to follow up and go to grad school. I enjoyed the field and that you could learn about a bunch of different domains. Statisticians can mess around in biology, we can get into public policy or social science. Or you can do as I’ve done in my career and get into economics and business. The idea of getting a real toolset and being able to move between fields was super attractive.

When did you graduate/receive your degree?

2008

Tell us a bit about your research during your time at UCSC, and how that has influenced you afterwards?

I did a lot of work driven by projects and funding that we were getting from Sandia National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I just really get a kick out of getting into deep problems and trying to find ways we could use data and science to solve those problems and find better outcomes. I did a lot of really interesting statistical and mathematical research and I loved that. The biggest thing for me was the ability to get exposed to these large-scale, real-world engineering and research questions and make an impact on those problems and actually build real things.

Where are you now?

I’m Vice President North America Consumer Chief Economist at Amazon. I live in Seattle. I run science for the consumer side of the organization which is the part of Amazon most people know.

How did your experience in the Baskin School of Engineering prepare you for your future?

I think the biggest thing I got out of the Baskin School of Engineering was the confidence that when you have these statistical tools you can make a big difference to a bunch of different domains and that confidence to go in there and engage and seek out places where you can make a difference. When I graduated, I ended up going into academia as a professor. During the decade I spent as a professor I was very much focused on always finding cool problems out there in the real world. I explored all over the place from finance to tech companies to grocery stores to wherever I could find an interesting problem. I use the skills I learned in my job at Amazon.

Where did you go to school before coming to UCSC?

I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from McGill University.

Where did you grow up?

Victoria, BC. It’s kind of the Santa Cruz of Canada. It’s a quirky little town across the water from Vancouver.

What was your favorite course as a student in the Baskin School of Engineering and why?

I liked all of the coursework.

Who were the most influential professors for you and why?

When I arrived at UC Santa Cruz, the statistics group was pretty small, which is one of the reasons I chose to go there. I personally knew all of the professors: Herbie, Thanassis, Bruno, Raquel...all of them had a huge impact because there were so few of us. At that time, we really felt more like colleagues than students/professors. It felt like we were working together and that was fantastic. It was great how small it was. Now that they’re growing, they’ll have to find a way to keep that sense of closeness.

What was the best thing about being a student in the Baskin School of Engineering?

Santa Cruz is pretty awesome. I was a big fan of living there. Being a student there was just this wonderful environment where people are working together to solve real-world problems using the best science out there. Really open minded, sort of an engineering mindset to statistics, so figuring out the right way to use stats in order to get real things built, real systems solved. That’s what I liked about it.

What did you do for fun while at UC Santa Cruz?

I sailed a ton. I kite surfed, rode bicycles. Nic Brummell and I used to ride bikes together. I miss riding bikes with Nic.

What do you miss most about Santa Cruz?

I miss the sunshine, I miss having everything being completely open ended. I still have a lot of open ended problems in my job all the time but everything’s a lot more complicated than it was when I was a student. I miss some of that simplicity. I miss the people. That’s probably the biggest thing.

What advice do you have for current Statistics grad students?

Work on good applied problems. Don’t try to dream up problems. UC Santa Cruz is connected to cool research institutions and companies in the Bay Area. Just get yourself tapped in to real problems rather than trying to dream up problems you think fit your interests. You’ll find it much more interesting in the long run.