Name: Ricardo Reyna
Pronouns: he/him/his
Institution: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Department: School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Biography:
When I started going to school, I noticed there was something about math that was so appealing. I decided to participate in math competitions in my school district from 7th grade till 10th grade. I applied and got accepted to attend my local university, University of Texas Pan American, to take College Algebra and Elementary Statistics classes. This was eye opening for me, I made me see that math is fun. So I applied to universities with pharmacy as my mindset and started to attend University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. But after a Calculus class and a very insightful conversation with professors here, I applied and was accepted into the Pathways Program for Mathematics. Through this program I worked closely with a mentor and other resources that brought me to a specific math field I like, statistics. University has only deepened my respect for math and given me a better perspective of how math, more specifically statistics and health can be intertwined. In my Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree, both had a concentration in Statistics. I have been accepted into a PhD program for Mathematics at UTRGV and plan to accomplish the things I set my heart to do.
Academic Status: PhD Student
Year in program: 3rd
Research Area/Department: Data Science; Machine Learning/AI
Other, specify:
Major/Specialty: Mathematics and Statistics with Interdisciplinary Applications – Statistics with Data Analytics & Medical Applications/ Machine Learning Coding Applications
Degrees Earned or in Progress: Bachelor of Science/ Mathematics with concentration in Statistics/ 2015 – 2018 Master of Science/ Mathematics with concentration in Statistics/ 2018 – 2020 PhD/ Mathematics and Statistics with Interdisciplinary Applications – Statistics with Data Analytics & Medical Applications/ 2021 – Present
What courses or academic preparation have you completed to prepare for a summer internship experience?
Intro to Math Software Exp Design & Categorical Data Statistical Learning Machine Learning Biostatistics Data Mining & Warehouse
Have you published any research or worked on research/technical projects? No
Where has your research been published or where have you conducted research/technical projects?
Please describe your research/academic interests:
In my Masters I was tasked to use a Statistical Model application to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) that help confirmed some pretty neat ideas of IBS as well as confirmed some potential for the stat model we used. My interest would be helping people and using Statistics to do so. Working in the health industry via Pharmaceutical Company, building a machine/ algorithm or designing some Statistical Analysis procedures to better help our society understand health. I know Pursuing a Doctorate in Mathematics will help me achieve my goals. I’m currently researching Image Reconstruction Analysis in Machine Learning for Medical Analysis. The item I specifically want to do is Medical Analysis of Cancer Cells. We are currently in contact with our University’s Medical School, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Medical School, to get a dataset of Mice Brains with/ without cancerous cells in the brain. We have also set our sights elsewhere looking towards another dataset using leukemia cells dataset. Imaging analysis is not unique to the medical field, but it is where my passion is at.
Computational and Data Science Areas:
Computer Science; Data Analytics and Visualization; Machine Learning and AI
Research Synergy:
The idea of Bayesian Inference has been popular recently because of how close it is to the way nature behaves and has been shown to provide better decisions. Bayesian Inference assumes that the behavior of all parameters is not random but a statistical distribution behavior prior and considers it for the problem at hand. Deep learning has all steps performed by a computer, whereas machine learning may have some steps done by human interaction. The integration of more computer computations tends to reduce workload and error of the system at hand. This integration has made so many more practices streamlined both in business and in health. I’ve been keeping myself informed on these two topics and plan to have my dissertation be a mixture of these two ideas through a convolutional neural network [CNN] for medical image analysis. I also have several experiences of implementing a statistical model to data application in my schoolwork, in my degrees, and in my work experience. I enjoy the idea of putting a model to some data using MATLAB and R; I enjoy the challenge and the building of the code. I would like to bring what I can offer to DOE labs.
Motivation:
My role ideally is helping people and using Statistics. Designing a machine/ algorithm for a Statistical Analysis procedure to better help our society understand health is why I started pursuing my Doctorate. If I get the chance to work with Sustainable Research Pathway, I will be able to learn and become more versatile in my field and other relevant aspects. I welcome any necessary advice and feedback available exclusively to programs like these. I also welcome any inspiration from faculty and peers on the basis having a similar interest and similar background.
Lightning Talk Title: Machine Learning + Bayesian