Prior to coming to Marywood, Dr. Cheng worked as a software developer and system engineer in the information technology sector for several years with abundant real-world experience in software development and software engineering. Dr. Cheng earned her bachelor of science degree in software engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, China, her master of science degree in computer science and engineering from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA., and her doctoral degree in computer science from North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D. Her current research interests are in the area of computational biology, bioinformatics specified in developing and applying machine learning, and data mining algorithms to address biological programs. Her broader interests include machine learning, data mining, statistics, pattern recognition, big data, and image analysis.