Ivy Z
- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at Stanford University

Expertise

Statistics, math, machine learning, data science, data analytics, health care

Bio

Hi! I am currently a PhD student at Stanford University's Department of Statistics. I was previously a Data Scientist at a start-up as well as a Lecturer at Middlebury College in the Department of Mathematics. My interest is in the application of statistics and machine learning to improve patient outcomes in healthcare. For example, I enjoy thinking about how we can use the power of math/statistics and data to tackle issues like, "how can we detect second cancers early in pediatric cancer survivors" or "can we identify which patients are at highest risk of death because of their illness so that we can adjust treatment plans and intervene?" to ultimately improve the lives of patients. I found my love and passion for statistics a bit later in the game in college--At one point in high school, I thought I was going to major in English and at another point in college, I thought I was going to study Finance! Thankfully, I discovered the beauty of math and statistics and now, I would love to share that passion with others. Outside of statistics, my other passion is ballroom dancing. I train as a competitive latin and ballroom dancer.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Can we identify predictors of COVID cases?

This project will include learning various skills of a researcher to analyze COVID data to understand the global pandemic we are facing! 1) Searching for publicly available data and data cleaning with R 2) Formulating research questions 3) Model building for prediction Learn the basics of data cleaning, statistical modeling and prediction with R!

Modeling patient survival

Knowing what the survival rates and trajectory of a patient is extremely important for doctors to help them think about a treatment plan! How accurately can we model someone's survival? This project will involve learning the basics of survival analysis and machine learning techniques in R.

Is this "statistically significant" ?

This project will teach some introduction statistics concepts (what does "statistically significant" REALLY mean? what does it NOT mean?). We will work with a publicly available dataset to understand and apply concepts of data analysis and hypothesis testing.

Coding skills

R, Python

Languages I know

French, Cantonese, Mandarin

Teaching experience

Undergraduate school: I have tutored undergraduates at Wharton in Introduction to Statistics, reviewing course material and helping them prepare for exams! Full time career: In between my undergraduate and graduate school, I worked in a consulting firm where I also mentored junior members of my team, helping prepare them for the day-to-day job as an analytics consultant. I also led a series of learning sessions for colleagues India on applied statistics and tools. Graduate school: I have been a Teaching Fellow at Yale for various statistics courses: Theory of Statistics, a course with an undergraduate section and a graduate section (Masters and first year PhDs); Statistical Case Studies, an applied course in R for Masters and PhD students in the Statistics department. Lecturer at Middlebury College: I was teaching Introduction to Data Science in the Department of Mathematics

Credentials

Work experience

Yale School of Medicine (2020 - Current)

Graduate Research Assistant

Z.S. Associates (2018 - 2020)

Associate Consultant

J.P. Morgan (2017 - 2017)

Investment Banking Summer Analyst, Healthcare

WHOOP (2021 - 2022)

Data Science and Research Intern

Education

University of Pennsylvania (UPenn)

BS Bachelor of Science (2018)

Statistics

Yale University

MS Master of Science (2021)

Statistics and Data Science

Stanford University

PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate