Rafiq Islam
Ph.D. Candidate in Mathematics
Florida State University
Contact
Email: rislam@fsu.edu
Office: Love Building: Room 331A
Office Hours:
M, W: 12:00 pm -1:00 pm
T: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
About
Hi, thank you and welcome to my website. My name is Mohammad Rafiqul Islam (Rafiq Islam), and I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Mathematics Department at Florida State University. My research focuses on Theoretical Machine Learning, particularly optimization and sampling techniques in Bayesian learning using Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. I work on developing scalable algorithms for collaborative learning under regularization and privacy constraints. My research is conducted under the supervision of professor Lingjiong Zhu.
I hold a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Mathematics degree from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, with minors in Statistics, Physics, and Computer Science. I also completed an integrated master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from the same institution. During my master’s studies, I pursued actuarial exams and passed several professional exams from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), UK which are equivalent to the exams P, FM, and Life Contingencies of Society of Actuaries (SOA), USA . With this background, I began my professional career in the life insurance industries in Bangladesh, working for two years at two prominent life insurance companies.
In 2018, I moved to the United States to pursue a second master’s degree in Mathematics, specializing in Statistics and Data Analytics, at Youngstown State University, Ohio. During my studies and professional work, I developed a deeper interest in data science, machine learning, and research, which ultimately led me to pursue a Ph.D. in Mathematics with a focus on Theoretical Machine Learning.