“Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write.”
-H.G.Wells
TEAM
Tian Zheng
Associate Director for Education of Data Science Institute & Club Advisor Department Website
Tian Zheng is a Professor in the Department of Statistics. She develops novel methods for exploring and understanding patterns in complex data from different application domains such as biology, psychology, climatology, and etc. Her current projects are in the fields of statistical machine learning, spatiotemporal modeling and social network analysis. Her work was recognized with the 2008 Outstanding Statistical Application Award from the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Mitchell Prize from ISBA and a Google research award. She became a Fellow of ASA in 2014. She is currently the chair of the center for Foundations of Data Science in the Data Science Institute (DSI) of Columbia, a member of the education committee of DSI and a member of the SRCPAC committee.
Joyce Robbins
Lecturer & Club Advisor LinkedIn | Blog
Joyce Robbins, Ph.D., specializes in data visualization, with expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methods. She received her doctorate in sociology from Columbia University, her M.A. in sociology and anthropology from Tel Aviv University and her B.S.E. in civil engineering and operations research from Princeton University. Until recently, she was Assistant Professor of Sociology at Touro College in New York City, and prior to that taught high school mathematics and computer science.
Lucas Lau
Club Mentor (AI Study Group) LinkedIn
Lucas is an experienced analytics leader with established track records of delivering professional analytics services, research publications and public speaking. He has extensive experience working with C-Suite senior executives to design and execute business analytics strategies and solutions.
As a thought leader and frontier analytics practitioner, Lucas has been working on projects that adopted cutting edge technology and advanced machine learning algorithms such as deep learning. His strength is enabling business organizations with advanced analytics and cognitive computing solutions that deliver high business values and translating complex analytics to user-friendly context that ensure seamless implementation and smooth change management.
Milton Lim (mtl2164)
President
As the President of the Club, I am responsible for overall leadership of the Club to achieve its goals of enriching the student experience and career opportunities for our members. I work with the Executive Team to set both short-term goals and long-term strategy to ensure the Club functions smoothly. I have previously worked as an actuary at 2 consultancies and 5 insurance companies. I also have a MBA (HEC Paris) in managing complex projects. Outside of study, I like to travel, play tennis and ride the unicycle.
Xinming Pan (xp2203)
Vice President
As the VP of the club, I am very willing to helping Milton to manage the club. Also, I am responsible for leading the Event, Public Relationship department. Because I am going to graduate in May 2023, so anyone who is interested in this position after May can contact with me.
Yuanxi Li (yl5127)
Outreach
As a board member of the Stats club, my responsibility is to connect with alumni, practitioners, or professors and invite them to give panels and workshops. The goal is to provide students with valuable and informative experiences that can help them achieve their career or academic goals. I am not only enthusiastic about organizing events and contributing fresh ideas but also enjoy being part of a community that shares the same values and works closely as a team. My previous experience in the student union as the leader of the student rights department during my undergraduate stage has given me a deeper understanding of the value of participating in a student group and being able to make a meaningful impact.
Shreya Verma (sv2631)
Outreach
Hey, I’m Shreya Verma, from the MA Statistics program. I love Data Science and Machine Learning, and find it extremely exciting to work on real data. I like watching motivational videos, podcasts and reading self-help books. In my free time, I like to chill with friends, watch series/movies, and do leisure cooking.
Siwei Chen (yc3210)
Public Relation
I am very excited to be part of the Stats Club. I hope to promote our club on various social media platforms and help more students learn about our exciting events and workshops. I have a strong interest in data analytics and data science, and I hope to connect with like-minded students through the club. In my free time, I enjoy cafe hopping, watching TV series, baking, and reading novels.
Departments
Secretary
As the secretary of the club, our jobs would be collaborating with all departments of the club to organize events, to make connections with school departments and helping with club affairs. Some examples would be: room-booking, taking meeting notes, participating in events, helping the social platform department to design newsletters, and informing the President of all our affairs.
Career
Our goal is to connect with as many companies in the real world as we possibly can. My preferred method of communication is via email, as we should all get ready for formal professional communication. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to be involved.
Public Relation
As Public Relation Department we conducted 2 different workshops: Public Speaking Workshop that had 3 sessions during the fall term and was targeted to Statistic Master students; and Intro to Statistics which had one session and targeted non-statistic related students that may be interest in introducing this method into their research. The work during was hard, but very enriching with great results and commentaries from the attendants.
For this term our main goal is to keep conducting the 2 previous workshops, but also collaborating with other clubs and creating bonds with other programs beyond the Statistics Master. We hope to keep bringing good quality spaces that are useful and fun for a lot of graduate students within the Columbia Community.
Social Platform
You can hear our voice on various social platforms, and that’s what we do! We manage the Facebook page, LinkedIn group, CSC websites, Wechat group and weekly Newsletters. We also participants events held by other departments. Join us and reach out to more talent statisticians together.
Academic
The primary responsibility of this role is to facilitate learning of practical skills such as computer programming and statistics that are useful to graduate students looking for industry jobs. Some of the events that we run include SQL, Python and machine learning workshops.
Social Event
Some of the responsibilities this role entails are organizing various kinds of events as well as the Datafest for every semester, including event planning, ordering meals, preparing gifts and everything needed to ensure the event runs smoothly. If you have any ideas for any interesting events, please let us know. We look forward to your joining.
Finance
Our department is responsible for the internal financial management, including planning and budgeting, book-keeping and reporting, as well as collaborating with the university’s finance department for further reimbursement and fund raising. If you are interested in joining us, please feel free to let me know.
Fundraising
The primary responsibility of our department is to look for sponsorships for the major events held by our club. Different than the Finance department, we will focus on reaching out companies outside campus or other student clubs to raise money. For the Datafest, we will also contact companies to ask for dataset that is used in the competition.
Board Member 2019
| Bingliang(Greg) Lu | Sitong(Mia) Liu | Jingwen(Emily) Wang | Sailung(David) Yeung | Jinrong(Carol) Cao | Caihui Xiao |
| Jiangmei(Ruby) Xiong | Chen Wang | Xudong(Tony) Guo | Xiaomeng Huang | Miao(Ashley) Wang |
Board Member 2018
| Arpita Shah | Leo Lam | Daniel Wang | Anshuma Chankak | Tao (Coco) Guo | Michael Utomo |
| Qianhui (Karlie) Wan | Shan Guan | Wanxia Chen | Yiyi Zhang | Wenshan Wang | Xiuqi (Ann) Shao |
Board Member 2017
| Zhenyu Sun | Chengcen Zhou | Bowen Huang | Susan Fan Wang | Jixin (Jason) Li | Xuehan Liu |
| Kalabe Haile (K) | Yiran (Rosie) Li | Henrique Saboya | Lin Liu | Anujay (AJ) Shah |
Board Member 2016
| Xinjia Zhang | Han Cui | Zijian Su | Daitong Li | Zachary Chen |
| Yihua Lyu | Ying Chen | Jiwen You | Qiner Shi |
Board Member 2015
| Xianyun Wang | Aiwei Liu | Saisai Shi | Danmei Jiing |
| Ruiye Qian | Zhuxi Cai | Yan Liu |