About Me
Hi! I’m Qiong (pronounced similarly to “Chiong” if that helps!). I grew up in Qinghai Province, on the edge of the Qing-Tibet Plateau. If you’ve heard of it, I’m impressed; if not, that’s usually how this conversation starts. It’s home to spectacular landscapes, Qinghai Lake (the largest lake in China—and yes, it’s a saltwater lake), countless mountains, grasslands, and yaks, and—despite what some people seem to assume—actual people, including me.
I am currently an assistant professor in the Institute of Statistics and Big Data at Renmin University of China. I completed my graduate studies in the Department of Statistics at the University of British Columbia, where I was fortunate to be advised by Professor Jiahua Chen. Prior to that, I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Science and Technology of China.
Education
- Ph.D. in Statistics University of British Columbia · 2022
- M.Sc. in Statistics University of British Columbia · 2017
- B.Sc. in Statistics School of the Gifted Young, University of Science and Technology of China · 2015
Research Interests
My work bridges statistics and machine learning, with a focus on developing methods that make data a more powerful storyteller. I am particularly interested in problems where principled statistical thinking can meaningfully improve modern AI systems. My current research explores three interconnected directions:
Mixture reduction — approximating large or growing mixture models with simpler ones, with applications to federated learning and 3D Gaussian Splatting compaction.
Empirical likelihood — modernizing classical EL for intelligent federated learning and learning under noisy labels.
Tabular foundation models — evaluating and extending prior-fitted networks for in-context statistical learning, from supervised prediction to clustering.