Dr. Allison Theobold

Assistant Professor, Statistics Department

Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo 

Dr. Wasila Dahdul

Data Curation Librarian, UCI Libraries

University of California, Irvine

Secondary data is data originally collected by others and available for reuse. Such data can support large-scale analyses, enable new research directions, and provide access to data that is difficult or impossible to collect firsthand. This workshop will provide an overview of data sources and data discovery platforms for a variety of disciplines. We will then consider key issues in reusing data by using R to explore and visualize a real-world dataset, the U.S. National Parks Visit Data. Working through this example, participants will assess data suitability and quality, and gain an understanding of how to use documentation, provenance, and the social and historical context to work responsibly with data. 

Brian Vegetabile is a Senior Data Scientist and Applied Researcher at LinkedIn. He is an expert in Causal Inference and Machine Learning and is currently working in the Product Services & Marketplace Data Science organization focused on Systems and Marketplace Understanding. Prior to his current team, he worked on problems related to forecasting, anomaly detection, and root cause analysis focused on applied operations problems. He earned his bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering at Penn State before his PhD and Master's in Statistics at UC Irvine. 

Dr. Nuño received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Riverside in 2015, then went on to complete graduate work at the University of California, Irvine, where she received an M.S in Statistics in 2017 and a Ph.D. in Statistics in 2020. Her research interests include clinical trials and the development of robust statistical methodology for efficient sampling designs. She is particularly interested in biomedical applications in Alzheimer’s disease and pediatric oncology. 

After graduating with a B.S. in Statistics from CSU Monterey Bay in 2022, Sophia pursued a career as a data analyst in the technology sector. As an individual contributor at ConnectWise, her priorities were system implementation, churn prediction and analysis, and data pipeline management. She now leads a team of analysts focused on integrating technology and people, improving how internal teams interact with technological systems, processes, and automations. 

Cadee Pinkerton is a PhD student at UC Santa Barbara, working in statistical theory, methodology, and applied statistics in environmental and biomedical sciences.

Allen Choi is currently a Master's student at Cal Poly SLO studying Statistics. He grew up in Koreatown, Los Angeles and some of his hobbies include reading and finding new music to listen to. After graduation, Allen hopes to continue his education through a PhD in Statistics.

Sean Leader is a PhD student at UC Irvine studying Statistics. Sean loves using his domain knowledge and computational skills to better understand the world around him, in both a personal and professional context. Sean is currently working to formalize new statistical methods that combine existing efficiency frameworks with applications to biomarker discovery for Alzheimer's Disease.

Faran Igani is currently a PhD student at UC Irvine, working in survival analysis with applications to biomarker discovery for Alzheimer's disease. Faran enjoy his role as both a TA and tutor, working with students all the way from introductory statistics to those studying for their qualifying exams.