Congratulations to Yuying Huang on her recent publication in Pharmacy as part of the Special Issue Advances in Experiential Learning in Pharmacy.
The article titled "The Association between Academic Performance and Entry-to-Practice Milestones within a Co-Operative Education PharmD Program" is an interdisciplinary collaboration with Ali Syed (School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo), Sarah Moroz (Office of Institutional Planning & Analysis, York University), John Pugsley (Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada), Nancy M. Waite (School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo), and Sherilyn K.D. Houle (School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo).
In this article, Yuying used multiple linear regression to investigate the association between academic assessments at the University of Waterloo Doctor of Pharmacy program, success rates on the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada Qualifying Exam, and performance on PharmD clinical rotations. As in many data sets, this data set contains an overwhelming number of variables. It was impractical to include all of them in the model given the sample size. Yuying chose to retain some variables based on collaborators' opinions and exclude some highly correlated variables by comparing the correlation of the variables. She then employed backward selection with AIC as the criterion to obtain models with good predictive performance and easily interpretable.
Yuying learnt to communicate effectively orally and in writing with researchers from diverse backgrounds in this endeavor. She presented her ideas verbally and visually to the collaborators to describe the limitations of various models. Her active participation leads to understandable models and results.
Congratulations Yuying!
About Yuying Huang
Yuying Huang is a third-year Ph.D. student at the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. She is a student consultant at the Statistical Consulting and Survey Research Unit. Her research areas include Bayesian computational methods, spatial statistics, and data science in various real-life applications.