Our Team
Staff
Nickolas Vance
Director of Data Technology Innovation, DTI Lab
Nick leads the data analytics and innovation development teams for the Data and Technology Innovation (DTI) Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Nick has a B.A. in communication and an M.S in information sciences both from the University of Illinois. He has expertise in data analytics, technology prototyping, software development and social media analytics.
Chieh-Li “Julian” Chin
Data Analyst, DTI Lab
Research Manager, iSchool
Julian Chin is a data analyst at the Data and Technology Innovation Lab. She is also a research manager at the Social Computing Lab led by Professor Jana Diesner in the School of Information Sciences (iSchool). She has a B.S. in Business Administration, an M.S. in Library and Information Sciences, and an M.S. in Computer Science. She is experienced in software development, web development, and data analysis. Her research interests focus on data ethics and regulations in research practices in the area of responsible computing.
Hannah Christensen
Manager of Data & Technology Innovation, DTI Lab
Hannah Christensen is a data analyst at the Data and Technology Innovation Lab. She has a B.A. in Education and an M.S. in Library and Information Sciences from the School of Information Sciences (iSchool) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests focus on student success. She has experience in data analytics, prototyping, and usability testing.
Curtis Donelson
Data Analyst, DTI Lab
Alexa Project Lead
Curt is a data analyst with the Data and Technology Innovation Lab. His background is in behavioral health decision-making, with B.S. degrees in Psychology and Biology. He is currently working towards an M.S. in Data Science and performs machine learning and data visualizations in the DTI Lab. He is also the lead developer on the Alexa skills project.
Ashley Hetrick
Data Analyst, DTI Lab
Ashley Hetrick is a data analyst at the Data and Technology Innovation Lab. Ashley has experience with data engineering, data science and analytics, and IT support. Her preferred tool is Python, but Ashley has worked with Excel, SQL, and visualization tools to solve various problems. Ashley is certified in Splunk, ITIL, and project management.
Yoon Lee
Data Engineer, DTI Lab
Yoon is a data engineer at the Data and Technology Innovation Lab. Yoon has over 15 years of software development experiences and played role as a Develops with Scrum agile framework. Yoon has a B.A. in management information systems and an M.S in information science.
Ryan Thomas
Data Analytics Solutions Specialist, DTI Lab
Ryan is a Data Analytics Solutions Specialist and a member of the Data and Technology Innovation team. He has an M.S. in Technology-based Instruction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has spent his career delivering technology services at the U of I. As a principal on the U of I Splunk Service team, his current focus is on the use and analysis of streaming data in the pursuit of intelligent IT infrastructure and services. Ryan’s primary interest lies in student success / learning analytics.
Chen Wang
Research Programmer, NCSA
Chen Wang is a research programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and works on development projects for the DTI Lab. Chen has a B.S. and an M.S. in Atmospheric Sciences, and a M.S. in Bioenergy. She is experienced in software development, web development, and data analysis. Chen is the lead developer of the tool SMILE (social media analytics tool) within the Social Media Macroscope.
James Balamuta, PhD
Faculty Affiliate, DTI Lab
Visiting Assistant Professor, Statistics
Dr. Balamuta is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on latent variable estimation with a specialization in restricted latent class models, which provide considerable insight in psychological and educational assessment. For his work, he has been awarded the 2022 Psychometric Society Dissertation Prize and was a co-recipient of the 2021 Bradley Hanson Award for Contributions to Educational Measurement. He also has a strong interest in data science pedagogy and figuring out innovative ways to incorporate industry data science techniques in academic settings. Within the lab, he provides insight into various data science and statistical learning techniques for student success initiatives and co-leads students participating in the Undergraduate Research Experience in Statistics (URES) program.
Joseph T. Yun, Ph.D
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Accountancy
Director, Data Science Research Service, Geis College of Business
Faculty Affiliate, DTI Lab
Dr. Yun has a B.S in computer science, an M.S. in advertising, and a PhD in Informatics. His research is focused on computational business and the technologies that surround it. He currently works at the Gies College of Business incorporating data science and large-scale computational systems into business research and teaching. Dr. Yun is the principal investigator of the Social Media Macroscope, an open research environment for social media analytics. Dr. Yun recently co-founded Marketing AI Partners (MAP) at the U of Illinois Research Park. MAP is a startup company focused on helping brands and agencies incorporate data science into their businesses. His professional website can be found at www.josephtyun.com.
Graduate Students
- Vishwa Pancholi
Information Management, 2023
Undergraduate Research Experience in Statistics Students (URES)
- Tyler Barton
Statistics & Computer Science, 2022
Undergraduate Students
- Siddhesh Agarwal
Computer Science and Advertising, 2023 - Kanav Khanna
Statistics and Computer Science, 2023 - Mit Kotak
Engineering Physics, 2023 - Aaryaman Kumar
Statistics and Computer Science, 2023
Alumni
- Mrinoy Banerjee
Computer Science, 2021 - Divya Bhati
Computer Science, 2021 - Jarret Brunner
Statistics and Computer Science, 2021 - Zongjian “Jack” He
Statistics, 2020 - Brian Ko
Computer Science, 2020 - David Koruna
Statistics, 2019 - Mackenzie Kirkham
Computer Science, 2021 - LingHsi “Althea” Lui
Master of Computer Science - Louise Liu
Master of Engineering - Ram Muthukamaran
Statistics and Computer Science, 2021 - Rose Nowak
Computer Science, 2021
- Dingyu Peng
Mechanical Engineering, 2019 - Ajaita Saini
Statistics and Computer Science, 2021 - Siddharth Shetty
Information Management Masters, 2021 - JingTao “Skyler” Shi
Computer Engineering and Statistics, 2021 - Abhinav Tekulapally
Mathematics and Computer Science, 2021 - Kathy Tian
PhD candidate in Advertising, Marketing and Data Science - Cecily Wang
Master of Engineering - Yixi Wang
Economics and Statistics, 2019 - Duorui “Rachel” Xu
Kinesiology with Computer Science minor, 2020 - Jiachen “Lulu” Yao
PhD candidate in Advertising