Su I Iao

About Me

I am a Data Scientist on the Launch Eval DS team at Waymo in Mountain View, CA, where I report to Maria Terres. I graduated with a Ph.D. in the Graduate Group in Biostatistics at the University of California, Davis, advised by Professor Hans-Georg Müller in 2025. Prior to my doctoral studies, I earned my M.S. in Applied Statistics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2020 and my B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from the Sun Yat-sen University in 2018.

Work Experience

• Data Scientist July 2025 – Present
  • Waymo, Mountain View, CA
• Data Scientist (intern) June 2024 – Sept 2024
  • Genentech, South San Francisco, CA

Research Interests

My research focuses on developing statistical methodologies and theoretical frameworks for analyzing non-Euclidean data. In particular, I am interested in:

• Metric-space-valued data: Networks, covariance matrices, distributions, and compositional data, with applications in biological and social sciences.
• Functional/longitudinal data: Dense and sparse functional data.

Publications and Preprints

• Iao, S.I., Zhou, Y. and Müller, H.G. (2025+) Deep Fréchet Regression. Journal of the American Statistical Association (just accepted).
• Iao, S.I., Kundu, P., Chen, H., Carey, J.R. and Müller, H.G. (2024) Longitudinal activity monitoring and lifespan: quantifying the interface. Aging (Albany NY) 16(17), 12108.
• Iao, S.I., Jansen, E., Shedden, K., O’Brien, L.M. and Chervin, R.D., Knutson, K.L. and Dunietz, G.L. (2021) Associations between bedtime eating or drinking, sleep duration and wake after sleep onset: findings from the American time use survey. British Journal of Nutrition 127(12), 1888–1897.

Software

• Iao, S.I., Bhattacharjee, S., Chen, Y., Zhu, C., Chen, H., Zhou, Y., Gajardo, Á., Kundu, P., Zhou, H. and Müller, H.G. (2023) fdaconcur: Concurrent Regression and History Index Models for Functional Data. R package version 0.1.3.
• Zhou, Y., Chen, H., Iao, S.I., Kundu, P., Zhou, H., Bhattacharjee, S., Carroll, C., Chen, Y., Dai, X., Fan, J., Gajardo, A., Hadjipantelis, P.Z., Han, K., Ji, H. and Zhu, C., Müller, H.G. and Wang, J.L. (2024) fdapace: Functional Data Analysis and Empirical Dynamics. R package version 0.6.0.
• Kundu, P., Zhu, C., Chen, K., Delicado, P., Iao S.I., Zhou H., Chen, H., Cui, M. and Müller, H.G. (2024) fdarep: Two-Dimensional FPCA, Marginal FPCA, and Product FPCA for Repeated Functional Data. R package version 0.1.1.
• Chen, Y., Zhou, Y., Chen, H., Gajardo, Á., Fan, J., Zhong, Q., Dubey, P., Han, K., Bhattacharjee, S., Zhu, C., Iao, S.I., Kundu, P., Petersen, A. and Müller, H.G. (2023) frechet: Statistical Analysis for Random Objects and Non-Euclidean Data. R package version 0.3.0.

Awards

• 2025 Student Paper Award Finalist in Nonparametric Section, American Statistical Association.
• 2025 Best Presentation in Nonparametric Section, American Statistical Association.
• Poster Award - 2024 Statistics in the Age of AI, Washington, D.C.

Presentations

• Deep Fréchet Regression
  • Statistics in the Age of AI Conference, Washington, DC, May 2024
  • Joint Statistical Meeting, Portland, OR, Aug. 2024
  • Joint Statistical Meeting, Nashville, TN, Aug. 2025

Teaching Assistant

• [STA 13 - Elementary Statistics]
• [STA 100 - Applied Statistics for Biological Sciences]
• [STA 106 - Applied Statistical Methods: Analysis of Variance]
• [STA 108 - Applied Statistical Methods: Regression Analysis]
• [STA 224 - Analysis of Longitudinal Data]