Congratulations, Dr. Li!

Today (Oct 6, 2022) Yike Li defended his doctoral dissertation on short-term ex ante load forecasting. 

Yike joined our MSEM program in Fall 2018. He completed his master thesis under my supervision in Spring 2020. After that, he continued working with me to pursue his PhD.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not slow him down at all. Instead, the lockdown days may have speeded up his research. Towards the end of his PhD journey, I was frequently surprised by the amount of work he has done within a short timeframe between our meetings. 

From January 2021 to May 2022, Yike worked at Duke Energy as a Data Scientist intern, where he built predictive models to understand consumer electricity usage. After that, he spent a summer with Cruise. While Yike received many offers during the past few months, he decided to bring his talent back to Cruise after graduation. 

While the load forecasting literature is dominated by ex post forecasting studies, many practical issues with ex ante forecasting have never been thoroughly studied. Yike's dissertation tackled some of the most difficult problems in ex ante load forecasting. I'm glad to see that he is applying these skills in the transportation sector. 

Thanks to Yike, I can tell my department chair: "My student makes more than your Dean!"

Congratulations, Dr. Yike Li!