UMMC Department of Data Science

https://umc.edu/news/News_Articles/2023/05/Brian-Christman.html

#UMMCGrad2023: Late bloomer finds his way following three loves After realizing he was too squeamish to be a physician, Brian Christman found his calling in statistics and data science, which allow him to “play in everyone’s backyard.”

Yesterday we celebrated our Biostatistics & Data Science graduates: Roungu Ahmmad (Ph.D.), Yan Gao (Ph.D.), Anshul Anugu (M.S.), Brian Christman (M.S.), and Hunter Sylvester (M.S.). We are so proud of you all!

Congratulations to Hunter Sylvester, a second-year Biostatistics & Data Science student, for being inducted into the L.C. Dorsey Honor Society! Way to go Hunter!!!!!

Seminar Alert! Join us today at 11:00 AM in Room 211 of the Translational Research Center to hear a talk by Thao Tran from the Department of Psychology at Colorado State University. Thao will discuss "“Psychological Distress and Coping During the COVID-19 Pandemic :A Structural Topic Modeling Approach”. We hope to see you there!

Seminar Alert! Join us today at 1:00 PM to hear a presentation by Dr. David Kaplan, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Come learn about Bayesian dynamic borrowing!

Dr. Yufeng Zheng and one of our student’s are at Alcorn today for the Graduate Fair. Stop by to visit with them if you are in the area and learn more about our programs!

Seminar Alert! Dr. Nashlie Sephus, Principal Tech Evangelist at Amazon and Founder/CEO of the Bean Path, will be onsite to discuss building a tech state of mind. Let's learn how to mitigate biases in artificial intelligence and create a more inclusive tech workforce! Join us today at 11 AM, either in-person or online!

Congratulations to Mengna Zhang on successfully defending her dissertation proposal yesterday! Mengna (center) is pictured with Dr. William "Bill" Hillegass (left) and Dr. Hao Mei (right; chairperson). Way to go Mengna!

Seminar Alert! Tomorrow's seminar speaker will be Dr. Christine Peterson, Associate Professor of Biostatistics from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She will discuss Bayesian approaches to the meta-analysis of safety data from clinical trials. We hope to see you there!

Research Alert! Congratulations to Dr. Yunxi Zhang on her first-authored publication "Framework for Evaluating and Developing Sustainable Telehealth Programs" in the journal "Telemedicine and e-Health." Way to go Dr. Zhang! https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/tmj.2022.0407

Today we showed our students, faculty, and staff some love! Many thanks to Mengna and Tran who were the creative directors for the decorations!

Research Alert! Congrats to Dr. Wondwosen Yimer who co-authored the publication "COVID-19 Not Hypertension or Diabetes Increases the Risk of Preeclampsia among a High-Risk Population" in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

COVID-19 Not Hypertension or Diabetes Increases the Risk of Preeclampsia among a High-Risk Population Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) infection has been associated with greater morbidity and increased mortality in certain populations, such as those with chronic medical conditions, the elderly, and pregnant women. Our goal was to determine if COVID-19 infection during preg...

Seminar Alert! Today we will hear from Dr. Thomas Belin, Professor and Vice Chair of Biostatistics at UCLA. Come hear about internal validity in community partnered participatory research! See you at 1:00!

Seminar Alert! Tomorrow's guest speaker will be Dr. Todd Schwartz, Professor of Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Quench your cravings for cumulative logits!

It's official! Congrats to Dr. Yan Gao and Dr. Md Roungu Ahmmad! It was a pleasure and honor to be involved in your academic journey! Many wishes for continued success from your Biostatistics & Data Science family!

Happy holidays to our Data Science family! Thanks for the laughs and merriment as we gathered to celebrate the end of the semester. Big congrats to the teams who won the prettiest and ugliest gingerbread houses!

Admissions Deadline Alert! Prospective students who wish to apply for admission to the doctoral program with consideration for a stipend should apply by December 31. The application link: https://wd5-student.myworkdaysite.com/ummc/ummc_student. We look forward to reviewing your application!

wd5-student.myworkdaysite.com We are pleased you are considering UMMC as your choice for higher education. Please visit our prospective student website to learn more about the programs offered at UMMC. A career in the medical field is something to which many people aspire, but they often believe their only options include doctor...

This week we give thanks for the all the wonderful faculty, staff, and students who call the UMMC Department of Data Science home. Our students are exceptional both in the classroom and community. They volunteer countless hours at the EversCare Food Pantry, Jackson Free Clinic, and Stewpot. We are so thankful that they brought their talents to our program and community!

Seminar Alert! Tomorrow's Biostatistics & Data Science Seminar features Dr. Elena Tuzhilina, Assistant Professor of Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto. We will be learning about the Group Regularized Canonical Correlation Analysis technique! We hope to see you (and your brains😆)there!

Last weekend we started a new annual tradition....Potluck in the Park! Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and their families bundled up and gathered together in Old Trace Park for an amazing feast of our favorite foods. It was such a treat tasting international and regional cuisines!!! So happy to get a snapshot of our second class of Biostatistics & Data Science students that matriculated in fall 2018!

Seminar Alert! Tomorrow's presenter is Dr. Gen Li, Associate Professor of Biostatistics at University of Michigan. He will be discussing analyses of the microbiome. We hope to see you (and your microbiome😀) there!

Last Saturday we stepped away from our computers for a good cause....the Central Mississippi "Walk to End Alzheimer's"! Pictured below (from left to right) are doctoral students Tran and Phi Le, their daughter Linh, and faculty member Dr. Jeannette Simino.

No tricks...only treats for our Biostatistics & Data Science graduate students who are so sweet! Just don't tell the School of Dentistry😆

Seminar Alert! Tomorrow's presenter is Dr. Jennifer Starling, Statistician at Mathematica. We hope to see you there!

Friday was our turn to put patients (er....pumpkins) under the knife! Thanks to our wonderful Biostatistics & Data Science students for joining in the fun!

Research Alert! Dr. Rajesh Talluri, Assistant Professor of Data Science, is presenting "Estimation of practice effects in longitudinal cohorts using Bayesian hierarchical models" at the 4th International Conference on Statistical Distributions and Applications this Saturday. Way to represent!

Congratulations to Md Roungu Ahmmad who successfully defended his dissertation today! He shares a celebratory snapshot with Dr. Wondwosen Yimer, his doctoral advisory chair (left) and Phi Le, his classmate and friend (right).

Dissertation Defense Alert! Mr. Md Roungu Ahmmad will orally defend his dissertation "Modeling Multivariate Longitudinal and Multiple Time-to-Event Outcomes" this Thursday at 1 PM. Good luck Roungu! We are rooting for you!

Congratulations to Dr. William Hillegass and Mr. Chad Blackshear on their Research Excellence Awards! These awards recognize investigators who have procured significant extramural funding. Keep up the great work!