Meet the Students

Augustine Kena Adjei is a PhD student and a research assistant at the Department of Statistics. Prior to his time at UNL, Augustine Kena received his bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He earned his master's degree in Mathematics with a concentration in Statistics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2022. His research areas include statistical modeling and experimental design. In his spare time, he likes to watch soccer.

Frank Agyemang is a master’s student from Ghana. He went to school at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology before making his way to UNL. Frank is interested in the application of stochastic processes in finance and hopes to work as an investment banking analyst in the future. He has been an instructor for Calculus classes, as well as classes focusing on Ordinary Differential Equations. Frank loves movies, and in his down time you can find him watching movies and relaxing.

Arian Alai is a master's student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Originally from Omaha, NE, Arian earned a dual degree in Mathematics & Data Analytics with minors in Philosophy and Business Administration from Doane University in Crete, NE. Prior to teaching at UNL, Arian worked as a Business Intelligence Analyst at Sandhills Global for two years. His research interests include statistical modeling, artificial intelligence, and computational statistics.

Sarah is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics. Originally from Papillion, NE, she earned her BS in Civil Engineering at UNL. She received her Master’s in Public Health Biostatistics from UNMC. Sarah studied trends in inflammatory breast cancer through UNMC’s Cancer Epidemiology and Education in Special Populations (CEESP) program. She currently works with Creighton University’s School of Medicine and hopes to continue working with medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty after graduation. Sarah and her husband Scott have four kids.

Aarif is a PhD student and graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics. He hails from Guyana, South America, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Statistics and a Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education at the University of Guyana. He further earned a masters degree in Actuarial Science with minors in Finance and Statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Aarif’s research interests include machine learning, crime and transportation statistics, Bayesian analysis, and experimental design. In his free time, he enjoys bowling, archery, and traveling.

Aleena is a PhD candidate at the Department of Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is working with Dr. Bertrand Clarke on streaming data prediction. She is originally from India. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India, and master’s degree from University of Calcutta. Aleena is currently a teaching assistant in the department. She plans to work in the industry after she graduates. Aleena loves to travel a lot. In her free time, she listens to horror audio stories.

Jiaqi Chen is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics at UNL. He is originally from China, where he earned his B.S. in Biology from Wuhan University before pursuing his M.S. in Biostatistics at University of Florida. During his free time, Jiaqi enjoys soccer and basketball.

James is a PhD student from Irvine, California. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at Doane University in Crete, NE. James has previously had a research internship at West Coast Analytics, and he currently has a teaching assistantship. In his free time, he enjoys going out to eat and playing video games.

Pranta Das is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics. Prior to his time at UNL, Pranta received a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His main area of interest for research involves applications and developments of statistical methodology in sectors involving health-related issues. After graduation, Pranta hopes to work in academia or with pharmaceutical companies. In his free time, he likes to watch movies, listen to music, and travel.

Enakshy is a graduate student and teaching assistant at the Department of Statistics. Originally from Kolkata, India, she received her MS in Statistics and Informatics from IIT Kharagpur in India. She worked in the marketing analytics domain for insurance, telecommunications, and loyalty industries. Her research interests include statistical modeling, machine learning, and artificial interlligence. In her spare time, she loves traveling, pottery, and gardening.

Fasanya Oluwafunmibi Omotayo is a Masters Student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is originally from Nigeria and holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Statistics from the Federal University of Technology, Akure. His major interest is in health-related research, where he hopes to provide data-driven solutions to real-world problems.

Michael Grantham is a PhD candidate from Lincoln, Nebraska. Michael received his bachelor’s at UNL in mathematics in 2016 before doing coursework in Data Science at Columbia University in the City of New York. He returned to complete his master’s in Statistics at UNL in the fall of 2020. While at UNL, he taught both calculus-based and non-calculus-based statistics (380 and 218, respectively). He also worked as a research assistant examining polypeptide nonparametric classification problems and using Bayesian modelling for random effects models.

Muxin Hua received her Bachelor of Science at Hong Kong Baptist University and her Master of Science at New York University. Originally from China, Muxin is excited to explore a multitude of research areas. She has interests in machine learning and experimental design. Her hope is to continue her research studies and continue to uncover new interests. In her free time, Muxin loves to cook.

Ryan is a first-year MS student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics.  He is originally from Goodland, Kansas and received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Fort Hays State University.  In his free time Ryan enjoys traveling, golfing, and watching Husker games.

Francis is a master's student and a teaching assistant at the Department of Statistics. He has a bachelor's degree in actuarial science from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He plans to pursue a doctorate in Statistics after graduation and hopes to work in academia or in industry as a Statistician or an Actuary. When he is not immersed in his studies or teaching assistant duties, you can often find him riding a bicycle with friends or enjoying soccer matches on the weekends.

Minh is a PhD student and research assistant in the Department of Statistics. Originally from Vietnam, he earned his BS in Mathematics and MS in Statistics at Portland State University. Minh’s current research involves group testing optimization. In his free time, he likes to exercise and cook.

Kalani is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics. Originally from Sri Lanka, she earned her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Sri Jayawardenepura in Sri Lanka. She received her Master’s degree in Statistics at UNL. Her research interests include genetics. Kalani plans teach at a university upon graduation. In her spare time, she enjoys playing badminton.

Bipin is a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics. He has a 3 year Bachelor of Science degree and a 2 year Master's degree in Statistics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. His interests are in experimental design and statistical modelling.

Aaron Schram is a PhD student and a Graduate Teaching Assistant/ Statistical Consultant at the department of Statistics. Originally from Zimmerman, MN, Aaron got his Bachelor's of Science in Statistics with a minor in Math at Winona State University. Aaron's research interests are consulting, experimental designs, and he would like to explore predictive modeling more. Currently, he is working with optimizing predictive modeling for genomic selection in plants. His personal interests are mainly just playing video games and hanging out with friends.

Anita is a PhD student and a research assistant at the Department of Statistics. Originally, from Kathmandu, Nepal, she earned a Master’s degree in Statistics from Sam Houston State University in Texas. She has also worked as a teaching assistant for Stat 218 in the department. Her research interests include Computational Statistics, Statistical Modeling and Machine learning. After graduation, Anita plans to teach at a university but is open to industries as well. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family, travelling, and watching movies.

Tyler is a PhD student from Red Wing, Minnesota. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Winona State University in Minnesota. At UNL, Tyler is currently a statistical consultant at the SC3L and doing research with data visualizations. In his free time, Tyler enjoys spending time in the outdoors, playing video games, watching hockey (go MN Wild!) and cooking.

Yifan Wu is currently a PhD student and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics. He completed both his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees at UNL. While at UNL, Yifan taught courses in both calculus-based (STAT380) and non-calculus-based statistics (STAT218). He has a diverse range of interests, including machine learning, deep learning, bioinformatics, and Bayesian statistics. When he is free, Yifan enjoys traveling with his wife.

Chao is a PhD student and originally from China. His research involves algorithms predicting epistatic effects in the genome-wide association study. He is also working on a side project applying the same algorithm to matchmaking in massive multiplayer competitions to detect chemistry between players.  In his free time, he enjoys games, including a dying game called Heroes of the Storm.