William Qian's Portfolio
Education
Sc.M. in Biostatistics (Thesis)
Brown University
GPA: 3.83 / 4.0
09/2023 - Estimated: 05/2025
Courses:
  • Causal Inference & Missing Data
  • Bayesian Statistical Methods
  • Statistical Inference
  • Applied Generalized Linear Models
  • Longitudinal Data Analysis
  • Multilevel Data Analysis
  • Statistical Learning/Big Data
  • Practical Data Analysis
  • Statistical Programming with R
B.S. in Data Science and Big Data Technology
Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance
GPA: 3.87 / 4.0
09/2019 - 06/2023
Courses:
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Database Principles and Applications
  • Object-Oriented Programming
  • Linear Algebra
  • Calculus
  • Python Programming
  • Operating System
  • Introduction to Computer Systems
  • Data Structure and Algorithms
  • Probability and Statistics
  • Optimization Theory and Algorithms
  • Algorithm Design and Analysis
  • Time Series Analysis
  • Machine Learning and Data Mining
  • Multivariate Statistical Analysis
  • Distributed Data Warehouse
Special:
  • Awarded for National Scholarship.
  • Graduated with distinction.
Experience
Research Assistant
Brown University & Syndemics Lab at Boston Medical Center
Project: HEAL Data2Action (D2A) Program - Emulator of RESPOND Model
Instructor: Prof. Stavroula Chrysanthopoulou
06/2024 - Current
Providence, Rhode Island
  • Utilized GEE, GLME, MERF and LSTM models to emulate the outcome of RESPOND model;
  • Advanced data transformation and model tuning techniques such as Hyperband search are used to conduct comparisons between models to find out the one with the best performance;
  • Constructed a model fitting and predicting pipeline for Boston Medical Center's research workflow.
Research Assistant
Brown University
Project: A Causal Approach to Fair Predictive Modeling via Penalized Maximum Likelihood Estimation
Instructor: Prof. Alice Paul
03/2024 - Current
Providence, Rhode Island
  • Utilized path-specific effects (PSEs) and penalized maximum likelihood estimation (PMLE) to address discrimination in datasets, ensuring fairer predictive outcomes;
  • Employed the g-formula to estimate causal parameters, such as natural direct and indirect effects, for decomposing the total effect of variables on outcomes;
  • Generalized this algorithm and developed a python package.
Teaching Assistant
Brown University
Project: Applied Regression Analysis
Instructor: Prof. Anarina Murillo
03/2024 - 05/2024
Providence, Rhode Island
  • Developed student understanding of statistical concepts by leading lab sessions and facilitating practice with R;
  • Provided individualized support during office hours, guiding students on data analysis, research design, and statistical methodology selection;
  • Evaluated student comprehension of statistical methods through meticulous grading of homework and exams.
Junior Data Analyst Intern
PricewaterhouseCoopers Shanghai Acceleration Center
07/2022 - 11/2022
Shanghai, China
  • Designed and implemented the database migration scripts and added them to the project pipeline, improving the process deployment efficiency by 50%;
  • Optimized SQL queries for 60 million rows of data, reducing their execution time to one-third of the original;
  • Analyzed the features and distribution of user data, providing insights from a data science perspective;
  • Advanced the project launching date by one day by fixing bugs from a business perspective.
Research Assistant
University of Chicago
Project: Research on Malicious URL Detection Based on Random Forest
Instructor: Prof. Nick Feamster
06/2021 - 09/2021
Remote
  • Cleaned the experiment data to remove illegal values and split it into training and testing datasets;
  • Trained the Random Forest model, and compare it with baseline built on machine learning algorithms such as SVM, Decision Tree, and XGBoost;
  • Pruned the trained Random Forest Model to obtain the optimistic classification accuracy within the minimum model size.
Research Assistant
Enligence Laboratory of Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance
Instructor: Prof. Gaoyu Zhang
11/2019 - 01/2023
Shanghai, China
  • Conducted experiments under the instruction of laboratory tutor;
  • Participated in various professional skills and academic competitions and gained multiple prizes.
Extracurricular
Master's APC Student Representative
Brown University, School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics
09/2024 - 05/2025
Providence, Rhode Island
  • Solicit concerns from students to be presented to the Committee;
  • Get student feedback on current issues being discussed in the Committee;
  • Facilitate the communication between the committee and the students as needed.