Jesse Windle

Data Scientist

Prairie Village, KS

Experience

Chief Data Scientist

January 2025 - Present

DYDX Capital

Driving Data-Driven Deal Sourcing and Investment Prioritization --– leverage advanced data science and analytics to identify, evaluate, and prioritize high-potential startup opportunities --- from proof-of-concept to internal platform.

  • Extensive research to validate proof-of-concept
  • Built data management system for tracking startups and people
  • Developed prediction pipeline for scoring startups and people

Consultant

November 2023 - December 2024

Director of Data Science

May 2015 - March 2023

Hi Fidelity Genetics / Technologies

Employee #1 --- led systems and data science team.

  • Conceived and co-invented a device to measure root growth
  • Raised $2M+ in non-dilutive funding
  • Developed data systems to manage large-scale plant phenotyping experiments
  • Built root growth analysis pipeline
  • Developed novel root modeling approach for recapitulating 3D growth

Visiting Assistant Professor

August 2014 - May 2015

Duke University

Taught introductory statistics and conducted research in Bayesian statistics

Education

Postdoc in Statistical Science

July 2014

Duke University

PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics

May 2013

University of Texas at Austin

BS in Mathematics

May 2005

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Skills

Applied mathematics and statistics (Expert)

Mathematical and statistical modeling, Inference, Simulation, Optimization

Data analysis (Expert)

R, Stan, Python, NumPy, Pandas, Statsmodels

Prediction (Expert)

Python, scikit-learn, PyTorch, Jax, Flax, Lightning, Pyro

Systems (Advanced)

SQL, MongoDB, Python, SQLAlchemy, FastAPI, Next.js, Prisma

Publications

Capturing in-field root system dynamics with RootTracker

Plant PhysiologyNovember 2021

J.J. Aguilar, M. Moore, L. Johnson, R.F. Greenhut, E. Rogers, D. Walker, F. O'Neil, J.L. Edwards, J. Thystrup, S. Farrow, J. Windle, P.N. Benfey. Plant Physiology, 187(3):1117–1130

A tractable state-space model for symmetric positive-definite matrices

Bayesian AnalysisDecember 2014

J. Windle and C. Carvalho. Bayesian Analysis, 9(4):759-792

The Bayesian Bridge

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series BSeptember 2014

N. Polson, J.G. Scott, and J. Windle. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, 76(4):713–733

Bayesian Inference for Logistic Models Using Polya–Gamma Latent Variables

Journal of the American Statistical AssociationDecember 2013

N. Polson, J.G. Scott, and J. Windle. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 108(504):1339-1349

Projects

rootmodel

The code (R and Stan) supporting the paper Inferring monocotyledon crown root trajectories from limited data

R • Stan • Root modeling

gmmfun

A Python package for fitting distributions via their moment generating function using the generalized method of moments

Python • Statistics

ctgauss

A Python package for sampling from a Gaussian random variable conditioned on a piecewise linear function

Python • Statistics

BayesLogit

An R package for sampling from the family of Polya-Gamma distributions

R • Bayesian statistics

Inferring monocotyledon crown root trajectories from limited data

Manuscript on root modeling methodology

Root modeling • Statistics

Sampling from a Gaussian distribution conditioned on the level set of a piecewise affine, continuous function

Manuscript on HMC sampling within a constrained space

Statistics • Sampling

Efficient Data Augmentation in Dynamic Models for Binary and Count Data

Manuscript on Bayesian analysis of time series data with binary and count observations

Statistics • Bayesian methods

Forecasting High-Dimensional, Time-Varying Variance-Covariance Matrices

Ph.D. Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 2013

Statistics • Time series