Xian Yao graduated with a first-class honour in B.Sc. Physics & Statistics. As part of his bachelor’s thesis, he performed an imaging technique using a discharge plasma source to expose a biological sample to X-ray radiation and capture the image in a Lithium Fluoride (LiF) detector. He was also involved in an academic internship that designed and tested new physics experimental studies for bachelor students. The collection and analytics of these physical data has led him to a huge interest in statistical study. In his PhD, he is focused on the forefront of Bayesian nonparametric methods, whereby model assumptions are being handled via statistical techniques that automates certain necessary decisions with statistical basis instead of manual choices that are subjected to human bias. He is interested in working with various clustering and modelling problems to derive useful insights and innovative solutions. In his free time, he creates sheets of analytics as part of a balance team for a game that contains a free market nature economy, participating in discussions of problems that at times, reflect the real world. Xian Yao is a self-professed food and tech lover and he will not accept the world without them.

Thesis title: Bayesian nonparametric models for network data

12 week training placement: Pramerica under Prudential Financial Inc (currently known as Tata Consultancy Services). I built a clustering model to gain insight for a large insurance dataset within a data analytic team that deals with the retention and churn rate for insurance policies.

Areas of interest: Data analysis and visualisation, clustering and statistical models.

Professional links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/xianyao-gwee/
https://gitlab.com/users/gwee95