Xiaoran is currently pursuing Masters degree in operations research in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She has a MS in Statistics from the University of Toledo, and BS in Mathematics from Nankai University, China. Before joining Northeastern University, she worked as an analyst at JEA consulting company, Toledo, Ohio. Her main responsibilities included developing oil refinery output and demand database, long-term and short-term refinery demand forecasting models. She also supported and contributed to the development of worldwide lil products trading pictures by analyzing various sources of data. Her research in the SDS lab focuses on climate extreme data developments and visualization.