Diwei is a Professor in Statistics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Loughborough University. Before these roles, she was a Senior Lecturer in Statistics, following her earlier positions as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Brighton and the University of Wolverhampton, respectively. Her academic career began with a PhD at the University of Nottingham, funded by a Marie Curie research fellowship, from 2006 to 2010.
Diwei is an applied statistician specialising in developing statistical methods to analyse real-world data from various fields. She focuses on improving statistical shape and image analysis methods, playing a significant role in advancing the analysis of biomedical images. This includes MRI, X-ray, and ultrasound imaging, with a particular focus on applications in brain, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal research. Her research expertise also lies in the enhancement of statistical analytics within engineering data, especially in areas like automotive, chemical engineering and transport.
Diwei has attracted substantial funding for a variety of research and innovation initiatives, working alongside industry partners from numerous sectors and scales. Her proficiency has been broadly recognised, notably with her appointment as Knowledge Exchange Super Champion at the KE Hub for Mathematical Sciences at the Isaac Newton Institute. Furthermore, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel at the Newton Gateway to Mathematics. In recognition of her significant contributions, she was awarded the distinguished Knowledge Exchange Catalyst fellowship by the International Centre of Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) in 2023. Diwei also played a leadership role as the Chair of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) East Midlands Group between 2019 and 2020. Additionally, since 2019, she has served as a specialist for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK.
Grants and Research Projects
- KTP Project, Data Analytics and Uncertainty Quantification for Powertrain Data. Industry Partner: Caterpillar. Duration: 30 months. Funded by Innovate UK. 2023-2026. £250K
- Statistical Analytics for Oil Evolution. Funded by Caterpillar. 2021-2024. £281K
- Knowledge Exchange Catalyst Fellowship. Funded by the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) and EPSRC. 2023-2024. £63K
- Knowledge Exchange Super Champion. Funded by the KE Hub for Mathematical Sciences. 2023-2024. £20K
- Uncertainty Analysis for Financial Modelling. Funded by TDP Company Ltd. 2022-2025. £75K
- Data-Driven Analytic and Statistical Modelling for Powertrain Data. Funded by Caterpillar. 2019-2023. £75K
- Development of a Software Tool for Musculoskeletal Diffusion Tensor Image Analysis. Funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund and EPSRC IAA. 2019-2020. £60K
- Statistical Shape Analysis of Brain Fibre Description. Funded by the London Mathematical Society. 2019. £1.4K
- Development of Non-Euclidean Diffusion Tensor Image Analysis Software. Funded by EPSRC IAA. 2017-2018. £5K
- Detection and Identification of Nanoplastics Using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. Funded by EPSRC through the NanoPrime scheme. 2018-2019. £2K
- Statistical Algorithms for Thermal Thresholds Detection. Funded by GB Electronics (UK). 2013-2014. £5K
- Visit to the Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano (Italy). Funded by Politecnico di Milano. 2013. £1K
Research Recognitions and Awards
- Awarded the Knowledge Exchange Catalyst Fellowship in 2023, funded by the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS).
- Appointed as Knowledge Exchange (KE) Super Champion between 2023 and 2024, funded by the UK KE Hub for Mathematical Sciences.
- Awarded PhD Supervisory Team of the Year, Loughborough University, 2024
- The paper titled “Effect of Football Boot Upper Padding on Shooting Accuracy and Velocity Performance” was included in a special collection by Springer Nature, commemorating the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023.
- The paper titled “A Tensor-Based Catheter and Wire Detection and Tracking Framework and Its Clinical Applications” was recognized as the featured paper in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, a leading journal in the field.
- The paper titled “Procrustes Analysis for Diffusion Tensor Image Processing” received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE 3rd International Conference on Machine Vision.
- The paper titled “Non-Euclidean Statistics for Covariance Matrices with Applications to Diffusion Tensor Imaging” was featured in the prestigious Annals of Applied Statistics, attracting significant attention with 476 citations (as of October 2024), greatly enhancing the quantitative analysis of brain data obtained through Diffusion MRI and achieving global recognition.
- The research presentation titled "Statistics: An Important Player in the Big Data Age" won an international BarCamp competition held in Italy in 2013.
- MAC170 Medical Statistics, Module leader
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MAC173 Statistical Shape and Image Analysis
- Statistics advisor, Mathematics Education Centre, Loughborough University
- Guest Editor-in-Chief, Special Issue: AI in Sport, Journal of Sports Sciences (2024-2025)
- Guest Editor, Special Issue: The Combination of Data-Driven Machine Learning Approaches and Prior Knowledge for Robust Medical Image Processing and Analysis, Frontiers in Medicine (2023-2024)
- Panel Lead for AI for Inclusivity for Sport Performance, Global Sport University Network (GSUN) Summit 2024, Oregon, USA
- Organiser and Lead for the Knowledge Exchange Workshop for Mathematical Sciences, July 2024, funded by ICMS. Participants included mathematical academics and representatives from various companies, ICMS, the UK KE Hub for Mathematical Sciences, and Innovate UK
- Committee Member of the Statistics in Sport Section of the Royal Statistical Society (2024-present)
- Academic Panel Member of Innovate UK Analysis for Innovators Funding Scheme (2023-present)
- Specialist for UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) (2019-present)
- Super Champion for the UK Knowledge Exchange Hub for Mathematical Sciences (October 2023 – present)
- Elected Senate Member of the Academic Staff in the School of Science, Loughborough University (2022-present)
- Committee member of the Royal Statistical Society East Midlands Group (2021-present)
- Chair of the Royal Statistical Society East Midlands Group (2019-2021)
- Member of the Royal Statistical Society
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA UK)
- Member of the London Mathematical Society
Current PhD students:
- Kefan Chen (2024-present): Statistical Analysis for Spectral Data
- Roxy Duan (2024-present): Computational Statistics for Transport Data
- Roy Li (2024-present): Statistical Methods for Data Protection and Security
- Ruochen Zhang (2024-present): Statistical Methods for Medical Image Analysis
- Lei Lyu (2023-present): Statistical Machine Learning for Traffic Data Simulation and Prediction.
- Chubing Li (2022-present): Uncertainty analysis of real estate investment
- Jennifer Ferris (2021-present): Statistical Models of Lower Limb Soft Tissue for Integration into Multimodal Imaging Technologies
Completed PhD projects:
- Stefan Calvert (Sept 2019 – July 2024), Data-Driven Analytical and Statistical Modelling
- Lei Ye (Jan 2017 – June 2021). Thesis: Computational Statistics for Brain and Muscle Diffusion Tensor Image Analysis.
- Khawla Mahmood (Oct 2014 – Nov 2018). Thesis: Statistical Analysis for Decomposed Multivariate Time Series Data with an application to Water Discharge Forecasting.
- Safa Elsheikh (Oct 2013 – June 2018). Thesis: Computational Statistics for Human Brain Diffusion Tensor Image Analysis.
- Jiajia Yan (Feb 2012 – Nov 2016). Thesis: Statistical Analysis on Diffusion Tensor Estimation.
Postdoc/Research Associates:
- Stefan Calvert (2024-present), KTP associate
- Eddie Chen (2023-present): Statistical Analytics for Oil Evolution.
- Sobhi Berjawi (March 2022-December 2022). Oil analytics.
- Safa Elsheikh (Oct 2019 - Nov 2020). Musculoskeletal Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Image Analysis
- Wil Ward (2017). Medical Image Analysis