Zhiyang Zhou , PhD

Joseph J. Zilber College of Public Health
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53205
zhou67 (at) uwm (dot) edu

ABOUT

Zhiyang is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics in the Joseph J. Zilber College of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Prior to the current appointment, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Manitoba. Zhiyang’s research is focused on the intersection of statistics and deep learning, where he explores both methodological and theoretical dimensions. His enthusiasm for collaborative and applied research underscores his commitment to leveraging statistical insights to solve real-world problems. See his curriculum vitae (updated on 2024/Mar/21).

APPOINTMENTS

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2023–
Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), University of Manitoba, 2021–23
Postdoctoral Trainee, Northwestern University, 2020–21
Supervisor: Lihui Zhao, Associate Professor
Sessional Instructor, Simon Fraser University, 2019

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Statistics, Simon Fraser University, Canada, 2015–20
Supervisor: Richard A. Lockhart, Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Thesis: Supervised Basis Functions Applied to Functional Regression and Classification
M.Sc. in Probability & Statistics, Nankai University, China, 2009–12
Supervisor: Runchu Zhang, Professor
B.Sc. in Statistics, Beijing Normal University, China, 2005–09
Advisor: Feng-yu Wang, Professor

RESEARCH

INTERESTS

Functional/longitudinal data analysis
Deep learning/deep neural networks
Survival analysis
Tensor data analysis
Design of experiments

PEER-REVIEWED

Liu, J., Zhou, Z., Cheng, X., & Vangeepuram, N. (2023). Geographic and sociodemographic variations in prevalence of mental health symptoms among US youths, 2022. American Journal of Public Health 113:1116–1119. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2023.307355
Deng, Y., Liu, L., Jiang, H., Peng, Y., Wei, Y., Zhou, Z., Zhong, Y., Zhao, Y., Yang, X., Yu, J., Lu, Z., Kho, A., Ning, H., Allen, N. B., Wilkins, J. T., Liu, K., Lloyd-Jones, D. M., & Zhao, L. (2023). Comparison of state-of-the-art neural network survival models with the pooled cohort equations for cardiovascular disease risk prediction. BMC Medical Research Methodology 23:22. doi:10.1186/s12874-022-01829-w
Zhou, Z., & Sang, P. (2022). Continuum centroid classifier for functional data. Canadian Journal of Statistics 50:200–220. doi:10.1002/cjs.11624
R github.com/ZhiyangGeeZhou/CCC
Zhao, Y., Wang, Y., Liu, J., Xia, H., Xu, Z., Hong, Q., Zhou, Z., & Petzold, L. (2021). Empirical quantitative analysis of COVID-19 forecasting models. 2021 International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW) 517–526. (Best Paper Award) doi:10.1109/ICDMW53433.2021.00069
Zhou, Z.. (2021). Fast implementation of partial least squares for function-on-function regression. Journal of Multivariate Analysis 185:104769. doi:10.1016/j.jmva.2021.104769
R github.com/ZhiyangGeeZhou/fAPLS
Zhou, Z.. (2019). Functional continuum regression. Journal of Multivariate Analysis 173:328–346. doi:10.1016/j.jmva.2019.03.006
R github.com/ZhiyangGeeZhou/Functional-continuum-regression
Zhou, Z., & Zhang, R. (2014). A generalized general minimum lower order confounding criterion for nonregular designs. Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference 148:95–100. doi:10.1016/j.jspi.2013.12.003
R github.com/ZhiyangGeeZhou/G-GMC
Wang, W., Gong, D., Zhou, Z., & Guo, Y. (2012). Robustness of the aerosol weekly cycle over Southeastern China. Atmospheric Environment 61:409–418. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.07.029

PREPRINTS

Zhou, Z., & Lockhart, R. A. (2020). Partial least squares for sparsely observed curves with measurement errors. arXiv:2003.11542
R github.com/ZhiyangGeeZhou/PLEASS

UNDER REVIEW

Liu, J., Zhou. Z., Cheng, X., Zhang D., Li, L., Zhang, X., & Vangeepuram, N. (2023). Trends and Disparities in Food Insecurity Prevalence by Immigration Status in the United States from 2011 to 2021.

INVITED PRESENTATIONS

2023/Dec/14–16, 18th International Joint Conference CFE-CMStatistics
2024/Jul/17–19, 7th International Conference on Econometrics and Statistics (EcoSta 2024)
2024/Jun/7–9, 6th ICSA-Canada Chapter Symposium
2024/Apr/19, Southeast Wisconsin Data Science (SEAWINDS) Collaborative First Annual Research Symposium
2023/Dec/18, 16th International Conference of the ERCIM WG on Computational and Methodological Statistics (CMStatistics 2023)
2023/Jul/08, 12th ICSA International Conference
2022/Dec/17, 15th International Conference of the ERCIM WG on Computational and Methodological Statistics (CMStatistics 2022)
2022/Oct/25, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Round, George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation
2022/Oct/24, Biostatistics Seminar Series, Northwestern University
2022/Jul/10, 5th ICSA-Canada Chapter Symposium
2022/Jun/20, ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium
2022/Jun/07, Machine Learning Special Interest Group Meeting, George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation
2021/Oct/22, NIC-ASA & ICSA Midwest Chapter Joint Fall Meeting
2021/Sep/13, ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium

FUNDING

Principal Investigator, NSERC Discovery Grants (with the Discovery Launch Supplement, 2022/Apr/01–2027/Mar/31; terminated early on 2023/Sep/01 due to relocation)

TEACHING

COURSES IN PROGRESS

PH 716 Applied Survival Analysis
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

SUPERVISION FOR

Ian Nadolski (2024–, M.Sc. student at uwm.edu)
Manthan Mehta (2024–, M.Sc. student at uwm.edu)
Kelly Wikoff (2023–24, M.Sc. in Biostatistics, uwm.edu)
Donald Kenneth Cramer (2023–, Ph.D. student at uwm.edu)
Ke Wang (2022–24, M.Sc. in Statistics, umanitoba.ca)

CO-SUPERVISION FOR

Yuting Kang (2023–, M.Sc. student at ctgu.edu.cn, with Chang-Lin Xiang & Changyu Guo as senior supervisors)
Omar Hassan (2022–23, B.Sc. in Physics, umanitoba.ca, with Wouter Deconinck as the senior supervisor; currently M.Sc. student at uvic.ca)

ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR

Hassan Maleki Golandouz (2023–, Ph.D. student at umanitoba.ca, supervised by Lisa Lix)
Ying Miao (2023, M.Sc. student at umanitoba.ca, supervised by Po Yang)
Qiao Tang (2023–, Ph.D. student at umanitoba.ca, supervised by Po Yang)

SERVICE

REVIEWER

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER

hLife (Youth Editorial Board, 2024-25)
Journal of Multivariate Analysis (Early Career Advisory Board, 2024–26)

CONFERENCE

Scientific Committee for the 5th International Congress of Applied Statistics (UYIK-2024)

UNIVERSITY

U Manitoba: Graduate (Stats, 2022–23), IT (Stats, 2022–23), Research & Seminar (Stats, 2021–22), Statistical Consulting (Stats, 2022–23), Executive Committee (Faculty of Science, 2022–23)

CHAIRING

M.Sc. defence: Guanhong Xiao (2023/Aug/16, Stats, umanitoba.ca), Aaron (Xiang) Zheng (2023/Jan/18, Stats, umanitoba.ca), Keith Uzelmann (2022/Aug/24, Stats, umanitoba.ca), Nasiba Ahmed (2022/Aug/22, Stats, umanitoba.ca)
Ph.D. defence: Xiaohua Liu (2023/Jun/29, Stats, umanitoba.ca), Yungang (Yg) Liang (2022/Dec/23, Math, umanitoba.ca)

ZhiyangGeeZhou