The Department of Statistics is proud to recognize several undergraduate students for their outstanding achievements in research, academics, and service during the academic year.
The Outstanding Undergraduate Research in Statistics Award, presented at the end of each semester, recognizes undergraduate students who have demonstrated excellence in research through the Research Experience in Statistics program, showcasing creativity, technical skill, and scholarly impact.
This year’s recipients are:
- Benjamin Leidig, mentored by Hyoeun Lee, for the project “Evaluating Hybrid Deep Learning Architectures for Day-Ahead Electricity Price Forecasting in the German Spot Market”
- Rebecca Shi, mentored by Matthew Singh, for the project “Network Embedding of Cognitive Aging”
- Han Jiang, mentored by Lelys Bravo, for the project “Bayesian Modeling of SoyFACE Multi-Year Data on Soybean Yield Response to Elevated CO₂ and O₃”
The department also recognizes the following students with honorable mention distinctions for their research contributions:
- Bingqing Li, mentored by Gökçe Dayanıklı, for “Deep Learning for Epidemic Control with Vaccination via Mean Field Games”
- Cheng Ai, mentored by Kelly Findley, for “When AI Writes the Code: Barriers and Affordances to Productive Computing for Introductory Statistics Students”
- Samhita Periyanayaham, mentored by V.N. Vimal Rao, for “Assessing Dispositions Towards Uncertainty in Statistics”
- Reed Haas, mentored by V.N. Vimal Rao, for “Situated Measurement of Sports Fan Identification on a College Campus”
- Xiaoxue Fan and Yangfei Chen, mentored by Lelys Bravo, for “Spatial Modeling of Hazard Incidence in South Carolina”
Additional departmental honors were also awarded to graduating seniors for excellence in academics, interdisciplinary achievement, and service.
The Outstanding Statistics Major Award was presented to Daksheshkaran Thinakaran in recognition of exceptional academic performance, engagement with the discipline, and commitment to the study of statistics.
The Outstanding Statistics & Computer Science Major Award was presented to Ayana Patidar for outstanding academic achievement at the intersection of statistics and computing.
The Department Service Award was presented to Charlotte Sampson in recognition of significant contributions to the department through leadership, outreach, mentorship, and volunteer service that strengthened the student community.
The department congratulates all of this year’s award recipients and honorees for their impressive accomplishments and contributions to the Department of Statistics.