Basic background information on yourself, perhaps where you came from, former education, etc.
I was born and raised in the United States, but my parents are Chinese immigrants. I got my Bachelor’s degree in Operations Research and Chinese from the United States Military Academy at West Point. I was then commissioned in the US Army as a Military Intelligence Officer. However, I was lucky enough to get a Military Fellowship at Lincoln Laboratories which gave me the opportunity to come to MIT as my first “assignment”.
What degree you received from MIT and when
SM in Operations Research 2019
Who your advisor was at MIT
I was co-advised by Professor Karen Zheng and Dr. Lin Li from Lincoln Laboratories.
What was the research you did while at MIT
I conducted research on food safety risk analysis, analyzing supply chain and certification inspections for potential predictors of food safety violations. In addition, I worked on detecting human trafficking ads and keywords from escort service advertisements. These projects required extensive data analysis and relied on various interpretable modeling techniques.
Where are you working now
I am working as a Military Intelligence Officer in the Army and will be stationed in Colorado Springs come January after 4 months of additional training.
Advice/guidance to students coming to the ORC – why the ORC from your perspective
The ORC is a very close community. Everyone is willing to help and share their work with you. Most of my best friends from my time here are from the ORC. In addition, everyone in the ORC does fantastic research with very interesting and useful applications.
How did the ORC contribute to your development as a scientist and as a person?
The ORC really pushed the limits of my academic capacity. I continue to be amazed by the intellect that surrounds me everyday. The ORC inspired me to dig deeper, think harder, and explore new things in my research and in life.
What is the one memory about the ORC you will carry with you?
There are just way too many memories with the people here, whether it was planning fun events with the INFORMs officer, going out with the department after finals, or even getting help from some fantastic T.A.’s who also happened to be department mates (usually).
