Meet Cennaning Li, Statistics Summer Scholar 2013-2014

Every year, the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland offers summer scholarships to a number of students so they can work with our staff on real-world projects. We’ll be profiling the 2013-2014 summer scholars on Stats Chat. Cennaning is working with Associate Professor  David Scott on a project titled Enhancement of the metaplot package.

Cennaning (right) explains:

“In R, there are three major meta-analysis packages (meta, rmeta and metafor) for producing forest plots. However, the generated plots are quite complicated, and it’s not easy to customise the plots if users lack good R knowledge and experience. The metaPlot package created by former University of Auckland student Edna Lu is used to create flexible forest plots and implements the grid-naming scheme to allow for specific customisations. Basically, it extracts the output generated by these three packages and recreates more flexible plots. This is convenient for users customising complicated plots generated by meta, rmeta and metaphor.

“Currently, only some of the possible outputs from meta can be used by metaPlot to produce forest plots; therefore, in this project, I will try to finish the original aim of the package to enable metaPlot to produce all possible outputs from meta, and then extend this functionality to the other two packages.

“The various features of a standard forest plot will lead to many complications in customising such a plot. If we check out the three major meta-analysis packages, we often find there is often more flexibility needed in the plots than a single function can accommodate. In order to customise the forest plots, users have to scan through all the arguments to make any modifications. If they have a preferred set of formats, they have to specify these arguments every time a similar forest plot is drawn. Therefore, by pursuing this research, we can complete the package that provides these customisations but add further flexibility with a different approach to the function design.

“I have a conjoint Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Science degree, and I am doing a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Statistics. Studying statistics has greatly improved my problem-solving abilities.

“Statistics is a very useful tool; it’s useful in almost any industry, especially in this age where almost everything we do produces data. Did you know that Netflix’s decision to make the political drama House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, was based on mining billions of bits of information collected from its millions of consumers? You can find out more in this article. This is why statistics appeals to me.

“Outside university, I like playing music – I enjoy jamming with different musicians, and I am vice-president of the Guitar Union. Over the summer, I’ll probably be spending some time seeing friends, watching movies and playing computer games.”