People / Students / Class of 2024
Jialong (Mark) Li graduated in 2023 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with high distinction in Statistics and a minor in Computer Science. Throughout his time at Illinois, he developed a comprehensive data science skill set that encompasses machine learning, data engineering, and software engineering. Driven by his research interests in data privacy, machine learning, and data mining, Jialong actively pursued cutting-edge data science topics. During his senior year, he joined the Illinois Risk Lab - Privacy Preserving in Machine Learning Group as a research assistant. Collaborating closely with experts from Cisco and team members, he delved into federated learning, GAN, differential privacy, and entity resolution, aiming to find a balance between the model accuracy and privacy tradeoff. Moreover, Jialong took a proactive approach in addressing research difficulties by developing an R package that utilized nonparametric statistics to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the feature alignment process in vertical federated learning. This package improved the accuracy from 50% to 80% and received acclaim from the lab supervisor and fellow team members for its effectiveness and innovative idea. After graduating, Jialong secured a position as a machine learning engineer at Diagens Biotechnology, with a specific focus on developing their AI Chromosome Karyotype Analysis System. At Diagens, he designed an object detection algorithm to ensure the precise and cautious removal of untransformed lymphocytes and impurities from chromosome images. Additionally, he enhanced the image rating algorithm using CLIP-IQA and U-Net, allowing for quantitative assessment of chromosome images based on their image quality and clinical significance (e.g., chromosome count, separation). In addition to his machine learning experiences, Jialong has cultivated solid engineering skills and business acumen through internships at Shandong Provincial Hospital, EY, and Zhongtai International - Big Data Center. Leveraging programming languages like Python, C++, R, and SQL to extract the value of data while ensuring data security and privacy. As an incoming student at Northwestern MLDS, Jialong looks forward to collaborating with exceptional peers, broadening his toolkit, and acquiring interdisciplinary knowledge from NU’s prestigious law, business, and cryptography departments. Upon graduating, Jialong aspires to be a data scientist dedicated to creating trustworthy data science solutions.
