Tianhao's Homepage

About me

I am a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Mathematics at UC Irvine, specializing in Arithmetic Algebraic Geometry. I expect to graduate in June 2026 and am currently seeking internship opportunities in quantitative finance and data science. You can view my résumé (PDF).

Education

  • University of California, Irvine
    Ph.D. in Mathematics, Sept 2020 – June 2026 (expected)
    Advisor: Nathan Kaplan
    Research focus: Arithmetic Algebraic Geometry

  • University of California, San Diego
    B.S. in Mathematics, M.A. in Mathematics, Sept 2014 – Dec 2019
    Major GPA: 3.91/4.00
    Honors: Cum Laude, Dean’s Award for Excellence

Skills

  • Programming: Python, C/C++
  • Mathematics: Statistics, Stochastic Processes, Itô Calculus, Martingale Theory, SDEs
  • Quantitative Finance: Fixed Income, Portfolio Theory, Option Pricing, Greeks, Delta/Gamma Hedging, Statistical Arbitrage
  • Data Science: pandas, polars, SQL, NumPy, statsmodels, seaborn, matplotlib
  • Machine Learning: scikit-learn, PyTorch, Gradient Boosting, Deep Learning, LSTM, Encoder-Decoder Architectures, Deep Q-learning
  • Web Development: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, Bulma, Jekyll, GitHub Pages, Flask
  • Tools: Git, Docker, LaTeX, SageMath
  • Languages: English, Chinese(Mandarin)

Project Experiences

Agricultural Futures Price Prediction

Data Science Project | Erdos Institute Bootcamp | Spring 2025 | Project Page

  • Led a 5-member team to develop predictive models for U.S. agricultural futures prices by integrating market, weather data and USDA reports.
  • Aligned multi-frequency time series via interpolation and forward-filling. Spatially aggregated weather data using KNN near the crop regions.
  • Performed EDA across data sources using seaborn/matplotlib. Identified a few predictive signals with > 0.1 correlation to short-term price change.
  • Trained LSTM, XGBoost, VAR models to predict next-day and 3-day log returns. Evaluated performance using R2 score and directional accuracy.
  • Deployed results to a GitHub Pages site using Jekyll. Built a Flask backend to serve daily model predicton.

Independent Game Development

Game Development Project | 2019-2020 | Game Link

  • Designed and developed a 2D platformer action RPG from scratch using C++ and SDL, without relying on existing game engines.
  • Engineered a custom game engine based on the Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture to manage game objects and systems efficiently.
  • Implemented core gameplay mechanics, including combat systems, player controls, and enemy AI behaviors.
  • Achieved over 4,000 views and 500 downloads to date, demonstrating user engagement and interest.

Teaching Experiences

  • Associate Instructor, Summer 2024
    Instructor for Math 121A (Upper-Division Linear Algebra), UC Irvine.
  • Teaching Assistant, 2016 - 2026
    Teaching assistant for Calculus, Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, Number Theory and Math Finance
    • Received Excellent Teaching Award (2018).
    • Nominated for Most Promising Future Faculty Award (2024)

Preprints/Publications

  • T. Wang, Counting pairs of conics over finite fields that satisfy the Poncelet $n$-gon condition. 29 pp. Submitted to JTNB. arxiv link.

Honors and Awards

  • Nominated for the Most Promising Future Faculty Award (June 2024, UC Irvine)
  • Finalist in the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition (June 2023)
  • Dean’s Award for Excellence (June 2018, UC San Diego)
  • Excellent Teaching Award (June 2018, UC San Diego)
  • Member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society (since 2018)

Contact：

  • Email: tianhw11<at>uci<dot>edu
  • Office: Rowland Hall 410V, University of California, Irvine.