Biography
I am currently a doctoral candidate in human development and family studies. I received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Zhejiang University in China, a Master of Science degree in human development and family studies, and a Master of Science degree in statistics, both from Penn State. My research interests lie in dynamic systems modeling and time series analysis, as well as the application of these methods to studying dynamic processes in individuals and groups. Specifically, I am interested in 1) frequentist and Bayesian estimation techniques for fitting linear and nonlinear dynamic systems models; 2) machine learning/data mining and other nonparametric techniques for exploring inter-relations among high-dimensional dynamic data; and 3) applications of dynamic system models to real-time process data (e.g., in emotion regulation, communication, and collaboration). During my graduate career, I have worked with Dr. Sy-Miin Chow on developing statistical and computational methodologies to study human processes (e.g., use of likelihood ratio tests in initial condition examination of the autoregressive latent trajectory model, and estimation techniques for regime-switching continuous-time models). My current projects include the development and improvement of the dynr package for multivariate time series analysis in R and applications of dynamic models and data mining techniques to dyadic co-regulation and emotion regulation. Beyond research, I have worked as a student consultant at the Statistical Consulting Center at Penn State, helping university-wide students with their data collection and analysis. I have also been involved in teaching online and offline, undergraduate and graduate courses at Penn State.
Dr. Ou is currently a Research Scientist in the Advanced Psychometrics group of ACTNext.