Graduate Student Profile - Shraddha Mehta
Written by: Meghan Honerlaw, M.S. candidate in Statistics
Shraddha MehtaShraddha was born in Mumbai, India. Not only does her country of origin add to her diverse background, so does her undergraduate experience. As a mathematics and economics major Shraddha was exposed to many applications of statistics and mathematics. In fact, it was an experience that she had analyzing data from a bone-marrow patient-donor matching organization that may have changed the direction of her life. The bone-marrow project exposed Shraddha to applied statistics and the impact that statisticians can have on real world problems. Motivated to learn more, Shraddha decided to pursue a doctoral degree in Statistics.
When Shraddha began investigating graduate programs in statistics, she chose Purdue Statistics because it was ranked in the top 10 and offered a diverse range of specialties. As a part of her first year studies, Shraddha took STAT 525, Intermediate Statistical Methodology. Although STAT 525 is a required core course it ended up being her favorite statistics courses because of the professor and the usefulness of the material. Shraddha's positive experience in Intermediate Statistical Methodology probably helped direct her towards her ultimate area of research and PhD study.
Like most of the well-rounded graduate students in Purdue's Statistics program, Shraddha has supplemented her academic coursework with extra-curricular opportunities. STATCOM, a volunteer community outreach organization that provides free consulting to governmental and nonprofit groups, is one example of how she has added to her repertoire of activities. Shraddha was the Director of STATCOM from July 2007 to December 2007. As Director, Shraddha refined her presentation skills and gained experience interacting with potential clients who were looking for STATCOM services. Through STATCOM Shraddha has travelled to the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) to give presentations to countless established professional statisticians. This wonderful experience offered priceless networking opportunities for future work in the statistical field.
By taking advantage of the opportunities within Purdue Statistics Shraddha has positioned herself well to excel in both research and consulting. During her second year of study Shraddha identified MED Institute Inc., located in West Lafayette, IN as a company of interest that could provide her valuable summer internship experience. MED Institute Inc. is a medical device company that was established as part of the COOK Group. At MED Institute Shraddha worked as a summer intern, had a fabulous experience, and has remained as a research assistant for the last two years. This real-world learning experience helped Shraddha decide that in the future she would like to work in the pharmaceutical world or in a medical device manufacturing company.
Besides being busy with her research assistantship, Shraddha is also conducting PhD research with Professor Jayanta Ghosh and Professor Bruce Craig. She is working on developing an alternative to the Cox Proportional Hazard for analyzing survival or time-to-event data. The Cox Proportional Hazard method is currently the most widely used method, but it has certain limitations. Shraddha is trying to develop a method that will overcome those limitations.
Shraddha's advice for incoming students is, "Purdue is a really good school with a huge campus that offers a wide variety of academic and non-academic opportunities. The Department of Statistics has excellent faculty who work in diverse areas and also has great staff and graduate students; all of whom are extremely friendly and helpful."
October 2008
