Eric C.

Chi
Rice University
Dept. of Statistics
Houston, TX 77005
email: echi@rice.edu
website: ericchi.com

Research Interests
Numerical optimization, statistical learning, tensor decompositions, robust estimation, data mining,
applications to high dimensional data analysis in bioinformatics

Education
2007 - 2011 Ph.D. & M.A., Statistics, Rice University, Houston, TX
Thesis Advisor: David W. Scott
2005 - 2007 Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Completed two years of didactic and clinical training in MD/PhD program
1999 - 2001 M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
Minor areas: Statistics, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
1995 - 1999 B.A., Physics, Summa Cum Laude, Rice University, Houston, TX

Professional Experience
Associate Professor (July 2021 - ), Dept. of Statistics, Rice University

Assistant Professor (August 2015 - June 2021), Dept. of Statistics, North Carolina State University
Postdoc (July 2013 - August 2015), Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University
Mentor: Richard G. Baraniuk
Postdoc (September 2011 - July 2013), Dept. of Human Genetics, UCLA
Mentor: Kenneth L. Lange
CSGF Intern (Summers 2010, 2011), Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California
Mentor: Tamara G. Kolda
CSGF Intern (Summer 2009), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Berkeley, California
Mentors: Paul Spellman & Elizabeth Purdom
Graduate Student Researcher (2007-2011), Dept. of Statistics, Rice University, Houston, TX
Advisor: David W. Scott
CPRIT Intern (Summer 2008), Dept. of Epidemiology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Mentors: Kim Anh Do & Christopher Amos

Staff (2004-2005), Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, California

Graduate Student Researcher (2000-2004), Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley
Advisor: Jean C. Walrand
Eric C. Chi 2

Student Intern (Summer 1998), Shell Oil E&P Bellaire Technology Center, Houston, TX
Student Intern (Summer 1996), M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Selected Awards & Fellowships

Nominee for the Michael Dickey Outstanding Research Mentor Award, 2021
LeRoy and Elva Martin Award for Teaching Excellence, NCSU, College of Sciences, 2020

ICML Top 33% Reviewer Award, 2020

Thank-a-Teacher Award, NCSU, 2019
Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, National Science Foundation, 2018

Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, 2017

U.S. delegate to 61st Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students, 2011
Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, 2008-2011
Larus Award for Best Student Presentation at AAAS Southwestern & Rocky Mountain Meeting, 2010

R25 Cancer Prevention Fellowship, 2008

Jack C. Pollard Graduate Fellowship in Engineering, 2007
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 1999-2002

Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award at UC Berkeley, 2001

Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, 1999
Inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma (National Physics Honors Society), 1998
Bonner Book Award Recipient (Rice Physics Dept.), given to the most outstanding sophomore, junior,
senior physics student, 1997, 1998, 1999

Editorial Positions
Associate Editor, Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 2016 - present.
Editorial Board of Statistical Methods in Medical Research (SAGE Journals), 2011-present

Publications
Note: the sign * at the beginning of a paper indicates alphabetical order of authorships; the sign + indicates
co-first authorships; and names in italic indicate student authors.
Eric C. Chi 3

Journal Articles
43. X. Liu, E. C. Chi, and K. Lange, A Sharper Computational Tool for L2 E Regression. Technometrics, in
press, arXiv:2203.02993 [stat.ME].
42. J. T. Chi and E. C. Chi, A Computational Framework for Robust Structured Regression Using the L2
Criterion. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, in press, DOI:10.1080/10618600.2022.2035232.
41. M. Zhang, G. Mishne, and E. C. Chi, Multi-scale Affinities with Missing Data: Estimation and Appli-
cations. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, 15(3):303–313, 2022, DOI:10.1002/sam.11561.
40. X. Liu and E. C. Chi, Revisiting Convexity-Preserving Signal Recovery with the Linearly Involved GMC
Penalty, Pattern Recognition Letters, 156:60–66, 2022, DOI:j.patrec.2022.02.004.
39. E. C. Chi, Discovering Geometry in Data Arrays. Computing in Science and Engineering, 23(6):42–51,
2021, DOI:10.1109/MCSE.2021.3120039.
38. H. Yi, L. Huang, G. Mishne, and E. C. Chi, COBRAC: A fast implementation of convex biclustering
with compression, Bioinformatics, 37(20):3667-3669, 2021, DOI:10.1093/bioinformatics/btab248.
37. M. Vardhan, J. Gounley, S. J. Chen, E. C. Chi, A. M. Kahn, J. A. Leopold, and A. Randles, Non-invasive
characterization of complex coronary lesions, Nature Scientific Reports, 11(1):8145, 2021,
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-86360-6.
36. Y. Feng, L. Xiao, and E. C. Chi, Sparse Single Index Models for Multivariate Responses, Journal of
Computational and Graphical Statistics, 30(1):115–124, 2021, DOI:10.1080/10618600.2020.1779080.
35. J. S. Stanley III, E. C. Chi, and G. Mishne, Multi-way Graph Signal Processing on Tensors: Integrative
Analysis of Irregular Geometries, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 37(6):160–173, 2020,
DOI:10.1109/MSP.2020.3013555.
34. E. C. Chi, B. R. Gaines, W. W. Sun, H. Zhou, and J. Yang, Provable Convex Co-clustering of Tensors.
Journal of Machine Learning Research, 21(214):1–58, 2020, https://jmlr.org/papers/v21/18-155.html.
33. H. L. Brantley, J. Guinness, and E. C. Chi, Baseline Drift Estimation for Air Quality Data using Quantile
Trend Filtering, Annals of Applied Statistics, 14(2):585–604, 2020, DOI:10.1214/19-AOAS1318.
32. J. Rhyne, E. C. Chi, J-Y. Tzeng, and X. Jeng, Fast-LORS: Joint Modeling for eQTL Mapping in R, Stat,
9(1):e265, 2020, DOI:10.1002/sta4.265.
31. E. J. Min, E. C. Chi, and H. Zhou, Tensor Canonical Correlation Analysis, Stat, 8(1):e253, 2019,
DOI:10.1002/sta4.253.
30. *E. C. Chi and S. Steinerberger, Recovering Trees with Convex Clustering, SIAM Journal on the Mathe-
matics of Data Science, 1(3):383–407, 2019, DOI:10.1137/18M121099X.
29. +E. C. Chi and T. Li and, Matrix Completion from a Computational Statistics Perspective, WIREs
Computational Statistics, e1469, 2019, DOI:10.1002/wics.1469.

28. E. C. Chi, L. Hu, A. K. Saibaba, and A. U. K. Rao, Going off the Grid: Iterative Model Selection for
Biclustered Matrix Completion, Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 28(1):36–47, 2019,
DOI:10.1080/10618600.2018.1482763.
27. J. Xu, E. C. Chi, M. Yang, and K. Lange, A Majorization-Minimization Algorithm for Split Feasibility
Problems, Computational Optimization and Applications, 71(3):795-828, 2018, DOI:10.1007/s10589-018-
0025-z.
Eric C. Chi 4

26. E. C. Chi, G. I. Allen, and R. G. Baraniuk, Convex Biclustering, Biometrics, 73(1):10-19, 2017,
DOI:10.1111/biom.12540.
25. J. P. Long, E. C. Chi, and R. G. Baraniuk, Estimating a Common Period for a Set of Irregularly Sampled
Functions with Applications to Periodic Variable Star Data, Annals of Applied Statistics, 10(1):165-197,
2016, DOI:10.1214/15-AOAS885.

24. J. T. Chi, E. C. Chi, and R. G. Baraniuk, k-POD: A Method for k-Means Clustering of Missing Data, The
American Statistician, 70(1):91-99, 2016, DOI:10.1080/00031305.2015.1086685.
23. E. C. Chi, and K. Lange, Splitting Methods for Convex Clustering, Journal of Computational and Graphical
Statistics, 24(4):994-1013, 2015, DOI:10.1080/10618600.2014.948181.

22. G. K. Chen, E. C. Chi, J. M.O. Ranola, and K. Lange, Convex Clustering: An Attractive Alternative
to Hierarchical Clustering, PLoS Computational Biology 11(5): e1004228, 2015, DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.
1004228.
21. E. C. Chi and K. Lange, Stable Estimation of a Covariance Matrix Guided by Nuclear Norm Penalties,
Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 80:117-128, 2014, DOI:10.1016/ j.csda.2014.06.018.

20. E. C. Chi, H. Zhou, and K. Lange, Distance Majorization and its Applications, Mathematical Program-
ming Series A 146(1):409-436, 2014, DOI:10.1007/s10107-013-0697-1.
19. K. Lange, E. C. Chi, and H. Zhou, A Brief Survey of Modern Optimization for Statisticians, International
Statistical Review 82(1):46-70, 2014, DOI: 10.1111/insr.12022.

18. K. Lange, E. C. Chi, and H. Zhou, A Brief Survey of Modern Optimization for Statisticians: Rejoinder,
International Statistical Review 82(1):81-89, 2014, DOI: 10.1111/insr.12030.
17. E. C. Chi and D. W. Scott, Robust Parametric Classification and Variable Selection by a Minimum
Distance Criterion, Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 23(1):111-128, 2014, DOI:10.1080/
10618600.2012.737296.

16. E. C. Chi and K. Lange, A Look at the Generalized Heron Problem Through the Lens of Majorization-
Minimization, The American Mathematical Monthly 121(2):95-108, 2014, DOI:10.4169/amer.math.monthly.
121.02.095.
15. E. C. Chi, H. Zhou, G. K. Chen, D. Ortega Del Vecchyo, and K. Lange, Genotype Imputation via Matrix
Completion, Genome Research 23:509-518, 2013, DOI:10.1101/gr.145821.112.
14. E. C. Chi and T. G. Kolda, On Tensors, Sparsity, and Nonnegative Factorizations, SIAM Journal of Matrix
Analysis and Applications 33(4):1272-1299, 2012, DOI:10.1137/110859063.
13. E. C. Chi, S. B. Mende, M.-C. Fok, and G. D. Reeves, Proton Auroral Intensifications and Injections at
Synchronous Altitude, Geophysical Research Letters 33(6), 2006, DOI:10.1029/2005GL024656.

12. R. Gupta, E. Chi, and J. Walrand, Different Algorithms for Normal and Protection Paths, Journal of
Network and Systems Management 13(1):13-33, 2005, DOI:10.1007/s10922-005-1845-6.
11. E. Chi, M. Fu, and J. Walrand, Proactive Resource Provisioning, Computer Communications 27(12):1174-
1182, 2004, DOI:10.1016/j.comcom.2004.02.019.
Eric C. Chi 5

Refereed Conference Articles

10. X. Liu, M. Vardhan, Q. Wen, A. Das, A. Randles, and E. C. Chi, An Interpretable Machine Learning
Model to Classify Coronary Bifurcation Lesions, in The 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), (Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct 31 - Nov 4, 2021), IEEE,
2021, pp. 4432–4435, 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9631082.
9. W. Zhou, H. Yi, G. Mishne, and E. C. Chi, Scalable Algorithms for Convex Clustering, in The IEEE Data
Science and Learning Workshop (DSLW 2021), (Toronto, ON, Canada, Jun 05 - 06, 2021),
10.1109/DSLW51110.2021.9523411.
8. B. Lusch, E. C. Chi, and J. N. Kutz, Shape Constrained Tensor Decompositions, in The 6th IEEE Inter-
national Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics, (Washington, DC, Oct 5-8, 2019), IEEE, 2019,
pp. 287–297, 10.1109/DSAA.2019.00044.

7. G. Mishne, E. C. Chi, R. R. Coifman, Co-manifold learning with missing data, in International Conference
on Machine Learning (ICML) 2019, (Long Beach, CA, Jun 9-15, 2019), PMLR 97:4605-4614, Proceedings.
6. J. Xu, E. C. Chi, K. Lange, Generalized Linear Model Regression under Distance-to-set Penalties, in
Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 30 (Spotlight Paper), (Long Beach, CA, Dec
4-9, 2017), pp.1385–1395, Proceedings.

5. E. C. Chi, G. I. Allen, H. Zhou, O. Kohannim, K. Lange, P. M. Thompson, Imaging Genetics via

Sparse Canonical Correlation Analysis, in ISBI’13 : Proceedings of the Tenth IEEE International Sympo-
sium on Biomedical Imaging, (San Francisco, CA, Apr 7-11, 2013), IEEE, 2013, pp.740–743, DOI:10.1109/
ISBI.2013.6556581.
4. R. Gupta, E. Chi, and J. Walrand, Sharing Normal Bandwidth During a Failure, in The Seventh IN-
FORMS Telecommunications Conference, (Boca Raton, FL, Mar 7-10, 2004), 2004.
3. R. Gupta, E. Chi, and J. Walrand, Different Algorithms for Normal and Protection Paths, in DRCN’04
: Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Design of Reliable Communication Networks, (Banff,
Canada, Oct 19–22, 2004), IEEE, 2004, pp. 189–196, DOI:10.1109/DRCN.2003.1275356.

2. E. Chi, M. Fu, and J. Walrand, Proactive Resource Provisioning for Voice Over IP, in SPECTS’03 :
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication
Systems (Montréal, Canada, Jul 20-24, 2003), 2003.
1. S. L. Thomsen, B. Baldwin, E. Chi, J. Ellard, J. A. Schwartz, Histopathology of Laser Skin Resurfacing,
in Proceedings of the Seventh Lasers in Surgery: Advanced Characterization, Therapeutics, and Systems (San
Jose, CA, Feb 8, 1997), SPIE, 1997, pp. 287-292, DOI:10.1117/12.275056.

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters & Other Refereed Articles

ii. E. C. Chi, “Proximal Methods for Penalized Regression," Wiley StatsRef-Statistics Reference Online,
10.1002/9781118445112.stat08052.
i. Y. Hu, E. C. Chi, and G. I. Allen, “ADMM Algorithmic Regularization Paths for Sparse Statistical
Machine Learning," in Splitting Methods in Communication and Imaging, Science and Engineering, Edited
by R. Glowinski, S. Osher, and W. Yin, 2016, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-41589-5.
Eric C. Chi 6

Submitted for Publication

iv. Q. Heng, E. C. Chi, and Y. Liu, Tucker-L2 E: Robust Low-rank Tensor Decomposition with the L2 Crite-
rion, arXiv:2208.11806 [stat.ME].
iii. X. Zhou, E. C. Chi, and H. Zhou, Proximal MCMC for Bayesian Inference of Constrained and Regular-
ized Estimation, arXiv:2205.07378 [stat.ME].
ii. Q. Heng, H. Zhou, and E. C. Chi, Bayesian Trend Filtering via Proximal Markov Chain Monte Carlo,
arXiv:2201.00092 [stat.CO].
i. X. Liu, A. J. Molstad, and E. C. Chi, A Convex-Nonconvex Strategy for Grouped Variable Selection,
arXiv:2111.15075 [stat.ME].

Unrefereed Manuscripts
E. C. Chi and T. G. Kolda, Making Tensor Factorizations Robust to Non-Gaussian Noise, Technical
Report Number SAND2011-1877, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM and Livermore,
CA, March 2011 (available at SAND2011-1877).

E. C. Chi and T. G. Kolda, Making Tensor Factorizations Robust to Non-Gaussian Noise in NeurIPS
Workshop on Tensors, Kernels, and Machine Learning, (Whistler, BC, Canada), December 2010 (avail-
able at arXiv:1010.3043 [math.NA]).
E. C. Chi, Parametric Classification and Variable Selection by the Minimum Integrated Squared Error
Criterion, Ph.D. Thesis, Rice University, 2011.

Tutorial Articles
J. T. Chi and E. C. Chi, Getting to the Bottom of Matrix Completion and Nonnegative Least Squares
with the MM Algorithm, StatisticsViews, March 2014.
J. T. Chi and E. C. Chi, Getting to the Bottom of Regression with Gradient Descent, StatisticsViews,
January 2014.

Invited Conference and Workshop Presentations

45. Minisymposium Talk, SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Data Science, San Diego, CA, Sep 26-30,
2022
44. Plenary Talk, 2nd Workshop on Low-Rank Models and Applications, Mons, Belgium, Sep 15-16, 2022
43. Technical Session Talk, Ken Kennedy AI and Data Science Conference, Oct 25-26, 2021
42. Invited Session Talk, ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium, Houston, TX, Dec 13-16, 2020

41. Invited Talk, Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Missing Data Workshop, Princeton, NJ, Sep 8-10, 2020
40. Invited Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Philadelphia, PA, Aug 1- 6, 2020
- Invited Session Talk, 2020 International Forum in Statistics, Beijing, China, Jul 11-12, 2020
[CANCELLED DUE to COVID-19]
- Invited Session Talk, Statistical Learning and Data Science, Newport Beach, CA, May 27-29, 2020
[CANCELLED DUE to COVID-19]
Eric C. Chi 7

39. Invited Session Talk, Eastern North American Region International Biometric Society Spring Meeting,
Nashville, TN, Mar 22-25, 2020
38. Invited Talk, Lange Symposium Software Workshop, Los Angeles, CA, Feb 21-22, 2020
37. Invited Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Denver, CO, Jul 27-Aug 1, 2019
36. Invited Session Talk, The 3rd EcoSta Conference, Taichung, Taiwan, Jun 25-27, 2019
35. Invited Session Talk, ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium, Raleigh, NC, Jun 9-12, 2019
34. Invited Talk, 2nd Workshop on Operator Splitting Methods in Data Analysis, New York, NY,
Mar 20-22, 2019
33. Minisymposium Talk, SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, Spokane, WA,
Feb 25-Mar 1, 2019
32. Invited Session Talk, 4th International Conference on Big Data and Information Analytics, Houston,
TX, Dec 17-19, 2018
31. Invited Session Talk, The 2nd EcoSta Conference, Hong Kong, China, Jun 19-21, 2018
30. Invited Talk, SRCOS Summer Research Conference, Virginia Beach, VA, Jun 3-6, 2018
29. Invited Session Talk, SDSS, Reston, VA, May 16-19, 2018
28. Invited Session Talk, CMStatistics, London, United Kingdom, Dec 16-18, 2017
27. Invited Talk, CMO-BIRS Workshop: Beyond Convexity: Emerging Challenges in Data Science, Oaxaca,
Mexico, Oct 22-27, 2017
26. Invited Session Talk, ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium, Chicago, IL, Jun 25-28, 2017
25. Invited Session Talk, The 1st EcoSta Conference, Hong Kong, China, Jun 15-17, 2017
24. Minisymposium Talk, SIAM Conference on Optimization, Vancouver, BC, May 22-25, 2017
23. Plenary Talk, SAMSI Program on Optimization (OPT) Transition Workshop, Research Triangle Park,
NC, May 1-3, 2017
22. Minisymposium Talk, SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, Atlanta, GA, Feb
27-Mar 3, 2017
21. Invited Session Talk, The 10th ICSA international conference, Shanghai, China, Dec 19-22, 2016
20. Invited Speaker Talk, Innovative Methods Program for Advancing Clinical Trials (IMPACT), Cary, NC,
Nov 17-18, 2016
19. Minisymposium Talk, The Mathematics Behind Big Data Analysis, SIAM Conference on Discrete Math-
ematics, Atlanta, GA, Jun 6-10, 2016
18. Minisymposium Talk, Combinatorial Algorithms: How Do We Cope with Hard Problems?, SIAM
Conference on Discrete Mathematics, Atlanta, GA, Jun 6-10, 2016
17. Invited Speaker Talk, Triangle Statistical Genetics Conference, Cary, NC, Nov 3, 2015
16. Invited Session Talk, Interface Symposium, Morgantown, WV, Jun 10-13, 2015
15. Minisymposium Talk, SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, Salt Lake City,
UT, Mar 14-18, 2015
Eric C. Chi 8

14. Invited Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Montréal, Canada, Aug 3-8, 2013
13. Presented Refereed Paper, International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro,
San Francisco, CA, Apr 7-11, 2013
12. Invited Session Talk, Interface Symposium, Orange, CA, Apr 4-6, 2013
11. Presented Refereed Poster, American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA,
Nov 6-10, 2012
10. Invited Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, San Diego, CA, Jul 30-Aug 4, 2012
9. Invited Session Talk, Interface Symposium, Houston, TX, May 16-18, 2012
8. Invited Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Miami, FL, Jul 30-Aug 4, 2011
7. Invited Poster, AAAS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, Feb 17-21, 2011
6. Invited Talk, Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Annual Conference,
Washington, DC, July 21-23, 2011
5. Presented Refereed Paper, NeurIPS workshop on Tensors, Kernels, and Machine Learning, Vancouver,
BC, Dec 10, 2010
4. Invited Session Talk, Interface Symposium, Robust Methods in Regression, Seattle, WA, Jun 16-19, 2010
3. Presented Refereed Poster, Workshop on High-dimensional Inference Complex Data, Groningen, The
Netherlands, Nov 23-25, 2009
2. Presented Refereed Paper, International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communication Net-
works, Banff, Alberta, Canada, Oct 19-22, 2003
1. Presented Refereed Paper, International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and
Telecommunication Systems, Montréal, Canada, Jul 20-24, 2003

Other Conference and Workshop Presentations

10. Topic Contributed Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Washington, DC, Aug 6-11, 2022
9. Topic Contributed Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Chicago, IL, Jul 30 - Aug 4, 2016
8. Poster, 17th IMS New Researchers Conference, Seattle, WA, Aug 6-8, 2015
7. Contributed Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Seattle, WA, Aug 8-13, 2015
6. Topic Contributed Session Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Boston, MA, Aug 2-7, 2014
5. Contributed Talk, Joint Statistical Meetings, Vancouver, BC, Jul 21-Aug 5, 2010 (Contributed Session)
4. Poster, Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Annual Conference, Wash-
ington, DC, Jun 22-24, 2010
3. Contributed Talk, AAAS Southwestern & Rocky Mountain Meeting, Houston, TX, Apr 8-10, 2010
2. Poster, Baylor College of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program Symposium, Houston, TX, Mar
26-27, 2010
1. Poster, Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Annual Conference, Wash-
ington, DC, Jul 13-16, 2009
Eric C. Chi 9

Invited Seminar Presentations

35. Dept. of Statistics, Texas A&M, College Station, TX, Oct 28, 2022

34. Dept. of Statistics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, Apr 29, 2022
33. Dept. of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Feb 14, 2022
32. Dept. of Statistics, Rice University, Houston, TX, Mar 1, 2021
31. Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, Feb 24, 2021

30. Dept. of Statistics & Probability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, Nov 17, 2020
29. Dept. of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, Sep 27, 2019
28. Dept. of Statistics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, Mar 15, 2019

27. Dept. of Statistical Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, Mar 8, 2019
26. Biolunch Seminar Series, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, Aug 1, 2018
25. SIAM Student Chapter Seminar Series, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, Feb 8, 2018
24. Dept. of Biostatistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, Oct 3, 2017

23. Interdisciplinary Distinguished Seminar Series in Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, NC, Sep 22, 2017
22. Dept. of Mathematics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, Sep 5, 2017
21. Dept. of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, Aug 31, 2017

20. Mathematical Sciences, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, NY, Jul 13, 2017
19. Dept. of Computer Science, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, Jan 13, 2017
18. Dept. of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, Nov 4, 2016

17. Applied Mathematics, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, Aug 3, 2016
16. Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, July 5, 2016
15. Dept. of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Aug 4, 2015
14. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, Feb 12, 2015

13. Dept. of Statistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, Feb 9, 2015
12. Dept. of Statistics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, Jan 28, 2015
11. Dept. of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, Jan 26, 2015
10. Applied Mathematics Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, Nov 11, 2014

9. Center for Imaging Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, Oct 14, 2014
8. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, Jul 2, 2014
7. Dept. of Statistics, Rice University, Houston, TX, Nov 4, 2013
Eric C. Chi 10

6. Dept. of Statistics, Texas A&M, College Station, TX, Oct 18, 2013
5. Dept. of Biostatistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, Oct 25, 2012
4. Dept. of Human Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, Oct 8, 2012
3. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, Aug 8, 2012

2. Dept. of Statistics, Rice University, Houston, TX, Mar 7, 2011

1. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, Dec 17, 2009

Funding
2019-2022, National Institute of General Medical Sciences R01GM135928, “Imputing single cell RNA
sequencing data: Mathematical, statistical, and computational challenges" PI: E. C. Chi, $696,299.

2018-2023, National Science Foundation DMS-1752692/DMS-2201136, “CAREER: Stable and Scalable

Estimation of the Intrinsic Geometry of Multiway Data," PI: E. C. Chi, $400,000.
2017-2018, ORAU Ralph E. Power Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, “Discovering the Intrinsic Ge-
ometry of Retinal Images," PI: E. C. Chi, $5,000

2016-2017, NCSU Faculty Research and Professional Development Program, “Getting Data Cubes in
Order Stably and Scalably," PI: E. C. Chi, $4,000

Software
Webserver & C++ Standalone COBRAC: A fast implementation of convex biclustering with compression
(available at https://cvxbiclustr.org/index.php)
R package fasta for accelerating first order optimization methods (on CRAN)

R package splitFeas for MM algorithms for multi-set split feasibility problems (on CRAN)
R package cvxbiclustr for convex biclustering (on CRAN)
R package multiband for period estimation of a collection of irregularly sampled signals (on CRAN)

R package kpodclustr for clustering partially observed data (on CRAN)

R package cvxclustr for convex clustering (on CRAN)
Contributed code for CP-Alternating Poisson Regression algorithm to the Tensor Toolbox (MATLAB)
Mendel-Impute algorithm for genotype imputation (MATLAB)

Teaching
Instructor, Introduction to Statistical Machine Learning (Rice - STAT 413), Fall 2022
Instructor, Statistical Inference (Rice - STAT 419/519), Spring 2022
Instructor, Statistical Machine Learning (Rice - STAT 613), Spring 2022
Eric C. Chi 11

Instructor, Statistical Programming (NCSU - ST 114), Fall 2020

Instructor, Advanced Statistical Computing (NCSU - ST 790), Spring 2020
Instructor, Computing for Statistical Research (NCSU - ST 758), Fall 2019
Instructor, Statistical Programming (NCSU - ST 114), Fall 2019

Instructor, Introduction to Statistical Learning (NCSU - ST 563), Summer 2019

Instructor, Advanced Statistical Computing (NCSU - ST 790), Spring 2019
Instructor, Computing for Statistical Research (NCSU - ST 758), Fall 2018

Instructor, Statistical Programming (NCSU - ST 114), Fall 2018

Instructor, Advanced Statistical Computing (NCSU - ST 790), Spring 2018
Instructor, Computing for Statistical Research (NCSU - ST 758), Fall 2017
Instructor, Statistical Programming (NCSU - ST 114), Fall 2017

Instructor, Advanced Statistical Computing (NCSU - ST 790), Spring 2017

Instructor, Statistical Programming (NCSU - ST 114), Fall 2016
Lecturer, SAMSI Optimization Program Summer School, Aug 8-12, 2016

One and half day tutorial on “Optimization for Statistics and Machine Learning"
Instructor, Advanced Statistical Computing (NCSU - ST 790), Spring 2016
Instructor, Experimental Statistics for Biological Sciences I (NCSU - ST 511), Fall 2015
Guest Lecturer, Optimization Methods in Biology (UCLA - BIOMATH 210), 2011

Graduate survey course on theory and numerical methods for discrete and continuous optimization, with
applications from genetics, medical imaging, pharmacokinetics, and statistics. Three lectures.
Teaching Assistant, Applied Stochastic Processes (Rice - STAT 552), 2008
Graduate course on the theory of some of the most frequently used stochastic processes in application; discrete
and continuous time, Markov chains, Poisson and renewal processes, and Brownian motion. Responsibilities
included planning and giving discussion sessions; writing solutions and grading homework.
Teaching Assistant, Probability and Statistics (Rice - STAT 310), 2007
Undergraduate course on probability and statistics. Responsibilities included assisting with discussion ses-
sions and grading homeworks and exams.

Volunteer Instructor, Pre-Algebra (San Quentin State Prison), 2003

Responsibilities included lesson planning, giving biweekly lectures, and assisting with homework.
Teaching Assistant, Probability and Random Processes (UC Berkeley - EECS 126), 2001

Undergraduate course on probability and random processes. Responsibilities included planning and giving
discussion sessions, writing homework solutions, and giving two guest lectures.
Eric C. Chi 12

Current Ph.D. Students

Qiang Heng (NCSU)

Nhi Le (Rice)

Former Ph.D. Students

Xiaoqian Liu, 2022, PhD Statistics (NCSU); Now postdoc at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Min Zhang, 2022, PhD Statistics (NCSU); Now at Facebook.
Weilian Zhou, 2021, PhD Statistics (NCSU), co-advised with Soumendra Lahiri; Now at Amazon.

Xu Han, 2021, PhD Statistics (NCSU); Now at Tencent.

Yuan Feng, 2019, PhD Statistics (NCSU), co-advised with Luo Xiao; Now at Walmart eCommerce.
Meng Yang, 2018, PhD Statistics (NCSU), co-advised with Jung-Ying Tzeng; Now at SAS.
Brian Gaines, 2017, PhD, Statistics (NCSU), co-advised with Hua Zhou; Now at SAS.

Student Committees
Jeremy Ash, Department of Genomic Sciences, Advisors Denis Fourches and Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver.
Halley Brantley, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisors Montserrat Fuentes and Joseph Guinness.
Amanda Brucker, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Jung-Ying Tzeng.

Luming Chen, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Sujit Ghosh.

Nathan Corder, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Shu Yang.
Xingqi Du, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Subhashis Ghosal.
Luqin Gan, Department of Statistics, Rice, Advisor Genevera Allen.

Rahul Ghosal, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Arnab Maity.

Joonho Gong, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Arnab Maity.
Liuyi Hu, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisors Wenbin Lu and Hua Zhou.
Yujie (Jeffrey) Jiang, Department of Statistics, Rice, Advisor Wenyi Wang.

Shuhan Liang, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisors Wenbin Lu and Rui Song.
Ye Liu, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisors Wenbin Lu and Rui Song.
Qi Ma, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Sujit Ghosh.

Tuhin Majumder, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Soumen Lahiri and Donald Martin.
Rachel Minster, Department of Mathematics, NCSU, Advisor Arvind Saibaba.
Timothy Reid, Department of Mathematics, NCSU, Advisor Ilse Ipsen.
Eric C. Chi 13

Brian Naughton, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Howard Bondell.

Bo Ning, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisors Peter Bloomfield and Subhashis Ghoshal.
Jacob Rhyne, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor X. Jessie Jeng.
Lin Su, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisors Howard Bondell and Wenbin Lu.

Longshaokan Wang, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Eric Laber.

Jiahong Yan, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NCSU, Advisor Ning Lu.
Yukun Song, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Minh Tang.

Lin Xiao, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Luo Xiao.

Sheng Zhang, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Rui Song.
Chaowen Zheng, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisors Rui Song and Yichao Wu.
Caleb Weaver, Department of Statistics, NCSU, Advisor Luo Xiao.

Zev Woodstock, Department of Mathematics, NCSU, Advisor Patrick Combettes.

Undergraduate Students
Lisa Lin, Rice University, 2022 -
Arie Ogranovich (Rice REU), Rice University, Summer 2022
Gazi Fuad, Rice University, 2021-2022

Gabriel Meriano, Rice University, 2021- 2022

Lucy Liu (DST), North Carolina State University, 2021-2022
Andrea Staicu (DST), North Carolina State University, 2021-2022

Billy Fryer (DST), North Carolina State University, 2020-2021

Justin Lumpkin (DST), University of Maryland, College Park, 2021-2021
Qinrou Wen (GEARS), Zhejiang University, Summer 2020
Haochen Lei (GEARS), Southern University of Science and Technology, Summer 2020

Zirui Li (GEARS), Tianjin University, Summer 2020

Wenxing Wang (GEARS), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Summer 2020
Ishaan Radia, North Carolina State University, Spring 2020

Boren Jiang (GEARS), Zhejiang University, Winter 2020

Jianing Chu (GEAR), Zhejiang University, Summer 2018
Shuheng Huang (GEAR), Zhejiang University, Summer 2018
Jinshen Luo (GEAR), Zhejiang University, Summer 2018
Eric C. Chi 14

Han Wang (GEAR), Zhejiang University, Summer 2017

Ruan Yingying (GEAR), Zhejiang University, Summer 2017
Chandni Malhotra, North Carolina State University, Summer 2017
David Elsheimer, North Carolina State University, Spring 2017

Department, College, and University Service

Statistics Department A-Exam Committee, Rice University (2022)
Statistics Department Graduate Admissions Committee, Rice University (2021-2022)
Statistics Department Thompson Student Award Committee, Rice University (Spring 2021, Fall 2022)

Statistics Department Diversity Committee, North Carolina State University (2020-2021)

Data Science Minor Advisory Committee Member, North Carolina State University (2020-2021)
College of Sciences IT Advisory Committee Member, North Carolina State University (2017-2021)

Professional Service
Reviewing

Referee: Annals of Applied Statistics, Biometrics, Electronic Journal of Statistics, IEEE Transactions
on Signal Processing, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Computational
and Graphical Statistics, Journal of Machine Learning Research, Journal of Multivariate Analysis,
Journal of Nonparametric Statistics, Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, Linear Algebra
and Its Applications, Numerical Algorithms, Pattern Recognition Letters, PLOS One, SIAM Journal
on Mathematics of Data Science, SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications, SIAM Journal
on Optimization, Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, Statistics & Probability Letters, Statistical
Methods in Medical Research, Statistica Sinica, Technometrics, The American Statistician, Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics
Grants and Awards Reviewing

ARO, 2021, 2022

DOE Computational Sciences Graduate Fellowship Screening Committee, 2021, 2022
NIH/NIGMS Panel, 2021
NSF Ad Hoc, 2020
NSF Panel, 2019, 2020
ORAU Ralph E Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards Reviewer, 2019, 2020
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation Reviewer, 2022
Conference Organization and Reviewing
Organizer of Invited Session, “Recent Advances in Computation for Statistical Learning," 15th Inter-
national Conference of the ERCIM WG on Computational and Methodological Statistics, London,
United Kingdom, Dec 17-19, 2022
Eric C. Chi 15

Organizer of Invited Session, “Recent Advances in Computation for Statistical Learning," 4th Inter-
national Conference on Econometrics and Statistics, Hong Kong, Jun 24-26, 2021
Co-organizer of Minisymposium, “Computation and Applications of Tensor Decompositions," SIAM
Conference on the Mathematics of Data Science, Virtual Session, Jun 18, 2020
Organizer of Invited Session, “Recent Advances in Computation for Statistical Learning," 3rd Inter-
national Conference on Econometrics and Statistics, Taichung, Taiwan, Jun 25-27, 2019
Technical Program Committee, 28th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Macao,
China, Aug 10-16, 2019
Technical Program Committee, IEEE Data Science Workshop, Minneapolis, MN, Jun 2-5, 2019
Program Committee: Co-organizer of Machine Learning Track, Symposium on Data Science &
Statistics, Bellevue, WA, May 29-Jun 1, 2019
Organizer of Invited Session, “Recent Advances in Computation for Statistical Machine Learning,"
11th International Conference of the ERCIM WG on Computational and Methodological Statistics,
Pisa, Italy, Dec 14-16, 2018
Co-organizer of Invited Session, “Recent Advances in Statistical Machine Learning," Symposium
on Data Science & Statistics, Reston, VA, May 16-19, 2018
Co-organizer of SAMSI Research Workshop, Operator Splitting Methods in Data Analysis, Mar
21-23, 2018
Technical Program Committee, IEEE Data Science Workshop, Lausanne, Switzerland, Jun 4-6, 2018
Session Chair, “New methods in high dimensional data analysis," 1st International Conference on
Econometrics and Statistics, Hong Kong, Jun 15-17, 2017
Co-organizer of Minisymposium, “Majorization/Minimization Algorithms in Statistics and Opti-
mization," SIAM Conference on Optimization, Vancouver, Canada, May 22-25, 2017
Session Chair, “Resampling Methods for High-Dimensional Inference," Joint Statistical Meetings,
Chicago, IL, Jul 30-Aug 4, 2016
Organizer of Invited Session, “High-dimensional Data Analysis," 45th Symposium on the Interface,
Morgantown, WV, Jun 10-13, 2015
Program Committee, SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM14), Philadelphia, PA,
Apr. 24-26, 2014
Organizer of Invited Session, “Optimization Problems and Algorithms in Statistics and Machine
Learning ," INFORMS Optimization Society Conference, Houston, TX, Mar 6-8, 2014
Organizer of Invited Session, “New developments and applications in MM and EM algorithms,"
INFORMS Optimization Society Conference, Houston, TX, Mar 6-8, 2014
Co-organizer of Allocated (IMS) Invited Session, “The Intersection of Tensor Analysis and Statis-
tics," Joint Statistical Meetings, Montréal, Canada, Aug 3-8, 2013
Co-organizer of Invited Session, “Random Solutions to Big Problems," 44th Symposium on the
Interface, Orange, CA, Apr 4-6, 2013
Co-organizer of Invited Session, “Multiway World: Modern Data Analysis with Tensor Decompo-
sitions," Joint Statistical Meetings, San Diego, CA, Jul 28-Aug 2, 2012
Organizer of Invited Session, “Tensor Decompositions and their Applications," 43rd Symposium on
the Interface, Houston, TX, May 16-18, 2012
Other Service
Panelist for Strengthening The Impact of Research (STIR) Workshop, Mar 9, 2021
Eric C. Chi 16

Math Alliance Graduate Faculty Mentor, 2020-present

Panelist for Impacts Identity Development Workshop, Jun 25, 2020
East Meets West NC STEM Academy (Army Educational Outreach Program)
Gave guest lecture on careers in data science, Greensboro, NC, Feb 8, 2020
Inaugural Minority Symposium Judge, Cary, NC, Jan 12, 2020
Data Scientists in Training (DST) Program (at NCSU 2019-2020, 2020-2021; at Rice 2021-2022)
Developed and ran a year-long outreach/research experience program for high school students
in the Triangle area. The goal of the program is to introduce students and teachers to careers
in data science through hands on experience with projects as well as mentoring and career
guidance.
SLDS Student Paper Award Committee, 2019
Panelist for Building Future Faculty Program, Mar 16, 2018
Program committee for Broader Participation in Data Mining (at KDD 2017), reviewed student
travel scholarship applications
Broader Engagement Mentor to undergraduate and postdoc at SIAM CSE 2017
VIP Consultant at ASA DataFestTM at Duke, Apr 1-3, 2016
Wiley Science Advisor, John Wiley & Sons, 2010-2018
Responsibilities included providing opinions on publishing decisions, market feedback, and technology usage.
Student advisor to journal editor, Wiley-Blackwell: Stat. and Math., 2009-2011
Responsibilities included providing opinions on new devices and technologies, the “Generation Y" scientific
community, and literature research preferences.