Yu CHENG (成玉)

Professor

Department of Statistics

University of Pittsburgh

WWPH 1818, 230 Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Email: yucheng@pitt.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Professional Experience

09/2023–08/2026: Chair, Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh
01/2021–12/2023: Treasurer, American Statistical Association (ASA) LiDS section
09/2022–08/2023, 09/2021–12/2021: Acting Chair, Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh
04/2017–08/2018: Interim Chair, Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh
01/2016–03/2017: Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh
09/2014–08/2015: President, ASA Pittsburgh Chapter

Employment

2020–present: Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh
2013–2020: Associate Professor with tenure, Department of Statistics
2006–2013: Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics
2016–present: Associate Professor and Professor, Department of Biostatistics (secondary), University of Pittsburgh
2006–2017: Assistant and Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry (joint), University of Pittsburgh

Education

2006, Ph.D., Statistics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
2001, M.S., Statistics, National University of Singapore
1999, B.S., Statistics, University of Science and Technology of China

Honors and Awards

ASA Fellow, 2024
ASA Pittsburgh Chapter Statistician of the Year, 2020

Research

My current methodological research focuses on dynamic treatment strategies, sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART), disease classification, and multiple endpoints. My prior research includes disease classification, risk evaluation, quantile association, regression and association analyses of competing risks data, discriminant analysis, and adaptive design. I have also actively participated in various collaborative projects.

Currently, I am the site PI of a PCORI method grant on SMART studies and a co-investigator on projects examining cardiovascular disease and environmental influences on maternal and child health outcomes. Additionally, I have contributed to studies on COVID-19, HIV, smoking cessation, systemic lupus erythematosus, bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, and cystic fibrosis.

Visit Google Scholar for the list of publications.

Computing

• GO-SMART: Generalized Outcome-Adaptive Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial, Yang et al. (2024)  
• Predicting Absolute Risk for a Person with Missing Risk Factors: Simulation Study, Wang et al. (2024)   R code
• Imputation-Based Q-Learning for Optimizing Dynamic Treatment Regimes with Right-Censored Survival Outcome, Lyu et al. (2023)
• Dynamic Impairment Classification Through Arrayed Comparisons, Wang et al. (2023)   R Shiny
• Quantifying Diagnostic Accuracy Improvement of New Biomarkers for Competing Risk Outcomes, Wang et al. (2021)
• Cumulative Incidence Regression for Dynamic Treatment Regimens, Chen et al. (2020)
• Estimating the Cumulative Incidence Function of Dynamic Treatment Regimes, Yavuz et al. (2018)

Teaching

STAT 200 Basic Applied Statistics, Fall 2008 Syllabus
STAT 1000 Applied Statistical Methods, Fall 2010, 2012 Syllabus
STAT 1631 / 2630 Intermediate Probability, Fall 2011 Syllabus
STAT 1632 Intermediate Mathematical Statistics, Spring 2008, 2012, 2021 Syllabus
STAT 2131 Applied Statistical Methods I, Fall 2009, 2015, 2018 Syllabus
STAT 2132 Applied Statistical Methods II, Spring 2014, 2015 Syllabus
STAT 2261 / BIOST 2054 Survival Analysis, Spring 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021 Syllabus
STAT 2381 Supervised Statistical Consulting, Fall 2020, 2022, Spring 2026 Syllabus