Teaching

My goal as an educator is to help students connect rigorous statistical reasoning with scientific problems where data and assumptions are imperfect. I ground my teaching in experiential learning — combining mathematical foundations with computation, discussion, and open-ended work on authentic problems — so that students can explain why a method works, recognize when it may fail, implement it reproducibly, and communicate what the evidence does and does not support.
Graduate courses

STATS 235 — Statistical Machine Learning

Statistical methods for high-dimensional problems: optimization and sampling algorithms; supervised and unsupervised learning; regularization; splines; Gaussian process regression; SVM; tree-based methods; graphical models; neural networks and deep learning — across both frequentist and Bayesian paradigms.

STATS 225 — Bayesian Analysis

Bayesian statistical methods and their applications, with the computational techniques commonly used in Bayesian analysis. Students learn to formulate a scientific question as a Bayesian model and perform inference to answer it.

STATS 230 — Statistical Computing Methods

Writing your own programs for statistical analysis: optimization methods (largely frequentist) and sampling algorithms (largely Bayesian), plus numerical linear algebra, the bootstrap, and other computational tools.

STATS 200B — Intermediate Probability and Statistical Theory

Parameter estimation for statistical inference: probability theory, principles of data reduction, point estimation (method of moments, maximum likelihood, Bayes), and decision theory, from both frequentist and Bayesian perspectives.

STATS 211 — Statistical Methods II

Model assessment and selection; controlling complexity (PCR, PLS, Lasso); basis expansions and splines; GAMs; Gaussian process regression; multilevel models; discriminant analysis; naive Bayes.

STATS 212 — Generalized Linear Models

Exponential family; binomial, multinomial, and Poisson models; logistic and multinomial-logit regression; Poisson and loglinear models; quasi-likelihood; Bayesian GLMs; random effects models.

STATS 275 — Statistical Consulting

Forming a scientific question, translating it to a statistical problem, applying an appropriate method, and reporting findings to non-statisticians. Students collaborate with other scientists at UCI on a specific project.

STATS 205P — Bayesian Data Analysis

Basic Bayesian concepts and methods, with an emphasis on data analysis, for the professional master’s program.

DATA 296P / 297P — Capstone Writing & Communication / Design & Analysis

A paired capstone: 297P covers problem definition, data representation, algorithm selection, solution validation, and presentation of results; 296P covers writing and presenting that work.

Undergraduate & data science courses

STATS 170A / 170B — Project in Data Science

Problem definition and analysis, data representation, algorithm selection, solution validation, and presentation of results, across a two-quarter capstone sequence.

STATS 5 — Seminar in Data Science

An introduction to data science, for entering students.

STATS 7 & 8 — Introduction to Statistics & Biostatistics

Designing scientific studies; exploring data; probability; discrete and continuous distributions; estimation; hypothesis testing; linear regression.