What am I up to?

This is an update for my friends & family.

Learning at UCSC

I am slowly but surely maturing as a statistician. This quarter we are getting a lot of exposure to statistical theory. The stats department at UCSC is very Bayesian which differs from the predominant frequentist paradigm. So unlike at many departments, we learn statistical inference from both perspectives. Viewing things from both perspectives can reveal a lot about statistically data analysis generally. I find this dual-approach awesome.

In short, most statistical techniques have been frequentist because Bayesian approaches often require more computations. But as computational power has increased, Bayesian statistics has advanced a lot. Bayesian methods are indispensable in areas I care about, like spatial statistics (ex: ecology/climate modeling).

TA-ing

My studies in grad school are mainly funded by being a teaching assistant. This has been a great learning experience, and I’m enjoying it a lot. Below is a picture of my students and me from last quarter. I was in charge of two sections, with a total of 69 students (of which ~50 ish people attended).

Grad school is a marathon, not a sprint

I’m trying to pace myself and nurture/maintain good habits. Grad school life is very busy. It is challenging to balance everything but I’m doing well overall.

I spend Tuesday-Thursday in Santa Cruz and the rest in Sacramento to spend time with Laura at our apartment. The driving back & forth has not been that bad. The drives fly by because I schedule calls with friends or listen to podcasts. In fact, it helps me distance a bit from my school work.

Life outside of school

The distance from school on weekends I think helps me have a life outside of it. I’m still finding time to hang out with Laura and my friends. Also, still part of our fucking awesome softball team. We won our league last fall! Let’s goooo! 🥎🏆