Advising and Mentoring

Welcome to my Advising and Mentoring page! Below, you will find a list of former students and mentees I’ve worked with and some of the projects we worked on together.

Current Openings

Fall 2026:

• 1 position for an hourly graduate RA with good practical knowledge of latent variable models (i.e., SEM, IRT, LGCM).

Undergraduate Students

2026:

• Pavitra Shankar: Student-Centered Design of AI Tools for Statistics\(^1\)\(^6\)
  • Winner of the 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium Award for Outstanding Poster Presentation
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/HarnessingAI/
• Madison King: The Development of High School Students’ Statistical Literacy Habits of Mind\(^1\)
  • Winner of the 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium Award for Outstanding Poster Presentation
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/authenticliteracy/
• Ava Graczyk and Madeline Hunt: AI’s Failures in Interpreting Graphs\(^1\)
  • Winner of the 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium Award for Outstanding Poster Presentation
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/authenticliteracy/
• Reed Haas: The Effect of Sports Fan Identification on Sense of Community and Academic Behavior\(^1\)\(^2\)
  • Recipient of a 2026 Department of Statistics Honorable Mention distinctions for research contributions
• Samhita Periyanayaham: Statistics-Situated Tolerance of Uncertainty and Ambiguity\(^1\)\(^2\)
  • Recipient of a 2026 Department of Statistics Honorable Mention distinctions for research contributions
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/acceptuncertainty/
• Alexandra Stoica: Language Bias and Diagnostic Disparities in Personality Disorders\(^1\)\(^7\)
• Madeline Hunt: Introducing the CLEAR Data Assessment to Evaluate Students’ Visual Data Literacy\(^1\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/authenticliteracy/
• Dystonae Clark: Black College Student Perceptions of Racial Microaggressions\(^1\)\(^7\)
  • Co-Advised with Dr. Aixa Marchand
• Evan Short: Students’ “Most Life-Changing Experiences”\(^1\)
• Bloom Dawson: Perceptions of Unconventional Gender Tropes in Fiction\(^1\)
• Emma Costell-Wollwage: The Constraints of Studenthood: How Academic Responsibilities Moderate Political Engagement Routes\(^1\)
• Hanako Salay and Jada Giddens: Emotional Intelligence and Visual Framing Effects\(^1\)
• Gaby Zakrzewski: The Effect of Gun Violence Exposure Through Social Media on Students\(^1\)
• Audrey Mathews: Understanding the Influence of Campus Wildlife on Students\(^1\)
• Ari Coulekar: Individual Differences in Humans’ Clustering Strategies of Visual Data\(^1\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/clustering/
• Karena Liang: The relationship between students’ personality traits and attitudes towards statistics\(^1\)\(^2\)
• Megna Sivakumar: Perceived Credibility of Expert Witnesses with Indian Accents\(^1\)
• Navya Rao: Professional and Leadership Development of Undergraduate Course Assistants\(^1\)
• Lucy Lozano Guajardo: How Environmental and Dispositional Factors Affect Students ‘Bouncing Back’ from a ‘Bombed’ Exam\(^1\)
• Alyssa Sullivan and Ananya Singh: Individualism, Collectivism, and Psychological Well-being\(^1\)
• Vivian Zheng and Reed Haas: Motivation, Performance, and Student Well-Being\(^1\)
• Riley Faust and Reed Haas: The Impact of Religiosity on Traditional Relationship Values\(^1\)
• Aadya Kashyap and Reed Haas: Gen Z’s Daydreaming Habits\(^1\)
• Janel Ivy and Reed Haas: Engagement, Attachment, and Satisfaction in Gen Z Romantic Relationships\(^1\)

2025:

• Ella Hiles: Studying the impact of the TikTok ban on Gen Z’s social and mental health\(^1\)
  • Winner of the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium Award for Outstanding Oral Presentation
• Mia Petrie and Madeline Hunt: Students’ thinking about biases and challenges when interpreting news media data visualizations \(^1\)\(^4\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/authenticliteracy/
• Madeline Hunt and Samin Hemani: The relationship between students’ tolerance of uncertainty and statistics understanding\(^1\)\(^2\)\(^4\)\(^7\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/acceptuncertainty/
• Reem Kharfan: Developing students’ statistical literacy habits of mind\(^1\)\(^4\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/authenticliteracy/
• Samhita Periyanayaham: A culture-specific therapy program for individuals with anxiety disorders\(^1\)
• Aman Ravishankar: Debate activities to promote students’ statistical thinking\(^1\)
• Max Fang: The relationship between students’ self-efficacy and their learning\(^3\)
• Preetha Manjunath: The relationship between students’ personality traits and attitudes towards AI\(^2\)
• Sophia Stierwalt: The relationship between students’ views of statistics and attitudes towards statistics\(^2\)

2024:

• Priyadharshini Sriramlatha and Aparajita Vemuri: The relationship of personality characteristics with learning statistics\(^1\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/acceptuncertainty/
• Bhuvan Kala, Julianna Drew, and Sanjana Gongati: Harnessing AI to develop students’ statistical thinking\(^1\)\(^2\)\(^4\)\(^6\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/HarnessingAI/
• Daniel Hogan: Mind wandering when learning statistics\(^2\)

2023:

• Shubh Goyal: Individual differences in human clustering\(^2\)
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/clustering/
• Vishnu Sadhu: Psychological factors associated with purchasing life insurance\(^2\)

2022:

• Maisie Simpson: Association between generational trauma and progressive dementia types\(^6\)

\(^1\) Presented at the UIUC Undergraduate Research Syposium
\(^2\) Presented at the UIUC Department of Statistics Undergraduate Research Experience in Statistics Symposium
\(^3\) Presented at the UIUC Department of Statistics Blackwell Summer Scholars Program Symposium
\(^4\) Presented at the US Conference on Teaching Statistics
\(^5\) Presented at the Electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics
\(^6\) Published a peer-reviewed journal paper
\(^7\) Published a Bachelor’s thesis

Graduate Students

2026:

• Laura Bandi: Assessing Students’ Statistics and Data Science Career Choices
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/HarnessingAI/
• Tiffany Reyes Denis: Harnessing AI to develop students’ statistical thinking
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/HarnessingAI/

2025:

• Laura Bandi: Latent change score modeling of students’ propensity to pursue statistics and data science
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/HarnessingAI/
• Amos Jeng and Tiffany Reyes Denis: Harnessing AI to develop students’ statistical thinking
  • For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/HarnessingAI/

2024:

• Maisha Ahasan: The impact of teacher-student identity congruence on students’ sense of belonging