Collaborators
Undergraduate Students
Rebekah Scott presenting her undergraduate research at the USU Student Research Symposium, 2023.
Tommy Bolton presenting his undergraduate research at the USU Student Research Symposium, 2023.
Thomsen Bolton (BS)
Tommy Bolton was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2020 he graduated from Copper Hills High School with an enhanced diploma with a mathematics emphasis. While in college, he was awarded the Robert and Christi Heal scholarship, the College of Science Research Mini Grant, and was also a Goldwater Scholar Applicant. Tommy is currently in his third year of the statistics program at Utah State University. While maintaining a 3.98 GPA, he is a member of the data science club and has served on the executive board of the Delta Sigma Phi chapter at Utah State University. Tommy is very passionate about his design of experiment and his research interests include optimality, full factorial designs, and fractional factorial designs, and optimal designs with user generated replication. Tommy also completes at least 12 hours of service each semester and can often be found volunteering for Special Olympics Utah. Tommy is an avid skier, Star Wars fan, and enjoys playing the piano.
Rebekah Cutler (BS) 🎓 Graduated Spring 2023! On to Los Alamos National Laboratory and an MS program at Iowa State University! Congrats Rebekah!
Rebekah is an undergraduate student studying mathematics and statistics at Utah State University. Her research interests include various applications of machine learning and utilizing particle swarm to improve experimental design. She is currently exploring the space filling design concept for mixture experiments. Formerly a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, she transferred to Utah State to pursue a career in data science and academia. Her internship at Dugway Proving Ground in the Data Science Division and work as a mathematics and statistics tutor at the Aggie Math Learning Center have helped her develop a deeper understanding of mathematics outside of the classroom. She is proficient in R and SAS, and currently learning Python and Julia. Rebekah enjoys giving back to the community and has received several awards for her volunteer service, including Thanksgiving Point Youth Volunteer of the Year and the Presidential Volunteer Service Award Gold.
Master's Students
Ryan Bushman (MS)
Ryan Bushman graduated summa cum laude from USU with a B.S. in statistics and minors in anticipatory intelligence and Portuguese. He is currently pursuing a M.S. in statistics at USU. His research is centered on design of experiments with a focus on optimal design for the estimation of variance components. Other areas of interest include Bayesian statistics, machine learning, and data visualization. Ryan is familiar with R, SAS, Python, and MATLAB and is currently learning to work in Julia. In addition to his research with Dr. Walsh, he has worked directly with the USU Assessment Librarian as a statistics research assistant since January of 2020. In this position he performs research design, data analysis and data visualization for library assessment research. In his free time, he enjoys volleyball, snowboarding, camping, and playing music.
Aloka Dayarathne (MS)
Aloka Dayarathne was born and raised in Sri Lanka. She has joined USU for her graduate studies. Her academic and research interests include Regression, Design of Experiments, and data analysis with the R, SAS, and STATA programming languages. Her current research is focusing on the uncertainty propagation of estimated concentrations using calibration standards and test samples of spectrophotometry for chemical compounds with the support of bootstrapping and Monte Carlo simulations. She has two years of teaching experience and has participated in several biostatistical studies. In Aloka's free time, she likes to go hiking, travel, shop, and read novels.
Will Gullion (MS) 🎓Graduated Spring 2023! On to work for the US Department of Defense at Hill Airforce Base! Congrats Will!
Will Gullion is currently a graduate student studying statistics at Utah State University. His academic and research interests include design of experiments (DoE), mathematical statistics, material science, and developing algorithms in the Julia programming language. His current research deals with creating an algorithm to generate locally optimal designs for second order response surface models. In his spare time, Will enjoys single-board computing, reading, and playing pickleball, and exploring different moustache styles. His teaching interests include introductory programming, intermediate physics, and mathematics. He is a member of the American Statistical Association (ASA), as well as the American Mathematical Association (AMA). He is also a participant in the Department of Defense's Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholar Program, which allows students in STEM disciplines to obtain scholarships and find eventual employment with the Department of Defense after graduation
Hyrum Hansen (MS)
Hyrum was raised in Forest Grove, OR where he spent a great deal of time wandering amidst the trees. Seeking a better vantage point, he moved to Utah where towering mountains share wisdom the trees are too young to recognize. In addition to the wisdom of the mountains, Hyrum has spent his entire adult life seeking the wisdom of academia. After graduating in 2022 with dual BS in statistics and political science he decided to further his education by pursuing an MS in statistics. His research concerns an improved algorithm for computing the g-score corresponding to a designed experiment. Other interests include machine learning, optimization, applied mathematics, and statistical computing. Hyrum has also really enjoyed teaching for the USU mathematics department. Calc II has been his favorite class to teach. Last summer he enjoyed working as an instructor for AI camp, a private education company focused on teaching practical applications of AI to aspiring data scientists.
Hyrum is almost as excited to explore the optimal design space as he is to bikepack to Missoula this summer. If you need him, you can probably catch him in the canyon running or at the library sweating over challenging optimization problems.
Asher Hanson (MS)
Hailing from Rigby, Idaho, Asher Hanson is a dynamic Data Scientist specializing in the optimal design of experiments. Currently pursuing a Masters of Statistics at Utah State University, Asher earned his Bachelor's in Data Science from Brigham Young University - Idaho.
Asher's technical proficiency extends to R, Python, PySpark, and Julia, reflecting his commitment to staying at the forefront of data science technologies. While at Utah State, Asher has been able to teach several introductory courses and has found great joy in helping others understand the amazing applications of statistics.
Asher's research interests include developing methodologies for generating robust optimal experimental designs.
Beyond the world of data, Asher finds joy in running, playing pickleball, and going on hikes.
Laboratory Mascot
Data Cat (Professor Doctor Habilitation)
Laboratory mascot, expert purveyor of the scientific method, and data scientist extraordinaire. Data provides the paw of approval on our work before it goes out the door. As demonstrated photo left, Data is researching statistical implications of string theory.
