Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science
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MPS team’s statistical models earn Best Project Award

June 25, 2024

A student team from the Department of Statistics and Data Science’s Master of Professional Studies (MPS) program was awarded the department’s Best Project Award for its work with a leading investment management firm.

Jessica Rizzo, Yihang Hu, Haotian Xiang, Mingtao Jia, and Haoyang Wang – collectively known as Team 11 – beat out the other student teams for their work developing statistical and machine learning models for the client company. David Ruppert, the Andrew Schultz Jr. Professor of Engineering in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering and professor of statistics and data science, served as the team’s faculty advisor.

Awarded each semester, the Best Project Award recognizes an MPS team that exhibits excellence in the MPS program’s linchpin project course, Applied Statistics MPS Data Analysis Project (STSCI 5999), which challenges students to work alongside client companies and apply statistical methods to solve real-world problems.

The team was recognized during the Department of Statistics and Data Science’s Graduate Recognition Ceremony, held Friday, May 24, in Barton Hall.

During the ceremony, several other MPS students were also individually recognized with leadership and communication awards as part of the program’s end-of-semester honors.

Project Leadership Award winners were Jessica Rizzo, Suphakrit Lertkitcharoenvong, James Clark, and Shengyuan Zhang.

Client Communication Award winners were Jonathon Chee, Mengyao Zhao, Yuxi Li, Elana Pocress, Siqi Zhang, Mingtao Jia, Yuxuan Chen, and Alice Rau.

Cornell’s MPS in Applied Statistics and Data Science is a one-year program that prepares students for careers in industries where modern data analysis skills are highly coveted.