Epstein Institute Seminar Series
Academic Year 2023-2024
Fall 2023
8/22 Introduction - Dr. Yigal Arens, University of Southern California
8/29 Dr. Joseph Nuamah, Oklahoma State University, Improving Human-System Interaction via Wearable Physiological Monitoring
9/5 Dr. Victor Zavala, University of Wisconsin, Graph-Structured Optimization: Properties, Algorithms, and Software
9/12 Dr. Afrooz Jalilzadeh, The University of Arizona, Stochastic Approximation Methods for Solving Stochastic Nash Equilibrium Problems
9/19 Dr. Zeyu Zheng, University of California - Berkeley, Non-Stationary A/B Tests
9/26 Dr. Robert Schuler, University of Southern California, Schema Evolution for Scientific Asset Management
10/3 Dr. Gerard Cornuejols, Carnegie Mellon, Dyadic Linear Programming
10/10 Dr. Narayan Rangaraj, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Operations Planning in Long Distance and Metro Rail Systems
10/17 NO SEMINAR - INFORMS
10/24 Dr. Stefan Wild, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Optimization and Learning with Zeroth-Order Stochastic Oracles
10/31 Dr. Haihao Lu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scale Up Constrained Continuous Optimization with First-Order Methods
11/7 Dr. Esteban Moro, Universidad Carlos III Spain, Understanding Urban Social Resilience Through Behavioral Mobility Data
11/14 Dr. Chai Keong Toh, University of California - Berkeley, Smart Cities: Design & Research
11/16 RECHTIN Lecture: Mark Daskin, Emeritus Collegiate Professorship, University of Michigan, Core Principles of Operations Management
11/21 NO SEMINAR - THANKSGIVING WEEK
11/28 Dr. Paul Grigas, University of California - Berkeley, A Margin Theory for Contextual Stochastic Linear Optimization: From Generalization to Active Learning
Spring 2024
1/16 Introduction - Dr. Yigal Arens, University of Southern California
1/23 Dr. Satish Kumar Thittamaranahalli, University of Southern California, Revisiting FastMap: New Applications
1/30 Dr. David E. Bernal Neira, Purdue University, Discrete Nonlinear Optimization: Modeling and Solutions via Novel Hardware and Decomposition Algorithms
2/6 NO SEMINAR
2/13 Dr. Yale Herer, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, An Asymptotic Perspective on Risk Pooling: Limitations and Relationship to Transshipments
2/20 Dr. Jay Lee, University of Southern California, Role of Process Systems Engineering in Decarbonization and Energy Transition
2/27 Dr. Xiaolei Fang, North Carolina State University, High-Dimensional Data Analytics for System Condition Monitoring and Performance Improvement
3/5 Dr. Jing Dong, Columbia Business School, Stochastic Gradient Descent with Adaptive Data
3/12 NO SEMINAR - SPRING BREAK
3/19 Dr. Gökçe Dayanikli, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Finding Optimal Policies for Large Populations: An Application to Epidemic Control
3/26 Dr. Xuan Song, Iowa Technology Institute, Toward Mild Additive Manufacturing for Extremes
4/2 Dr. Reha Uzsoy, National Science Foundation, Funding Perspectives from The National Science Foundation
4/9 Dr. Zijun Gao, University of Southern California-Marshall School of Business, Selective Randomization Inference for Adaptive Studies
4/16 Dr. Madeleine Udell, Stanford University, AI and the Future of Optimization Modeling
4/23 Dr. Aida Khajavirad, Lehigh University, Binary Polynomal Optimization through a Hypergraph Theoretic Lens
Academic Year 2022-2023
Fall 2022
8/23 Introduction - Dr. Suvrajeet Sen, University of Southern California
8/30 Dr. Sven Koenig, University of Southern California, Multi-Agent Path Finding and Its Applications
9/6 Dr. Kimon Drakopoulos, University of Southern California, Efficient and Targeted COVID-19 Border Testing Via Reinforcement Learning
9/13 Dr. Roshan Joseph, Georgia Tech University, Space-Filling Points
9/20 Dr. Krishna Rajan, University of Buffalo, Mapping Information Connectivity in Materials Science
9/27 Dr. Katya Scheinberg, Cornell University, Overview of Adaptive Optimization Methods for Stochastic Oracles
10/4 Dr. Hanzhang Qin, Amazon, A New Approach for Vehicle Routing and Stochastic Demand: Combining Route Assignment with Process Flexibility
10/11 Dr. Krishnakumar Balasubramanian, University of California - Davis, High-dimensional Inference with Stochastic Approximation Algorithms
10/18 NO SEMINAR - INFORMS
10/25 Dr. Simge Kucukyavuz, Northwestern University, Generalized Submodular Optimization
11/1 MOVED TO 11/3 for Rechtin Lecture
11/8 Dr. Jose Blanchet, Stanford University, Optimal Transport and Distributionally Robust Optimization
11/15 Dr. Robert Hildebrand, Virginia Tech University, Redistricting, Gerrymandering, and Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming
11/22 NO SEMINAR - THANKSGIVING WEEK
11/29 Dr. Johannes Royset, Naval Post Graduate School, Relax! The Case for Rockafellian Relaxation in Stochastic Optimization and Learning
Spring 2023
1/10 Introduction - Dr. Suvrajeet Sen, University of Southern California
1/17 Dr. Nian Si, University of Chicago, Distributionally Robust Policy Learning
1/24 Dr. Xiao Liu, University of Arkansas, Domain-Aware Statistical Learning-Harnessing the Convergence of Engineering Knowledge and Data-Driven Methods
1/31 Dr. Krishna Balasubramanian, University California-Davis, Stochastic Compositional Optimization for Machine Learning
2/2 Special Guest - Dr. Alejandro Toriello, Georgia Tech University, Submodular Dispatching
2/7 Dr. Santanu Dey, Georgia Tech University, Theoretical and Computational Analysis of Sizes of Branch-and-Bound Trees
2/14 Dr. Alice E. Smith, Auburn University, Innovative Uses of Drones for Last Mile Delivery with a Focus on Healthcare
2/21 Dr. Coralia Cartis, University of Oxford, Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for Nonconvex Optimization
2/28 Dr. Abigail Horn, University of Southern California, Tracing the Source of Large-Scale Outbreaks of Foodborne Contamination Across Complex Food Supply Networks
3/7 Dr. Abdullah Alibrahim, Kuwait University, Systems Engineering in Global Health: An Agent-Based Approach to Understand P4P in Maternal and Child Health in Tanzania
3/14 NO SEMINAR - SPRING BREAK
3/21 Dr. Brian Denton, University of Michigan, Optimization in the Presence of Model Ambiguity in Markov Decision Processes
3/28 Dr. Gino Lim, University of Houston, A Chance Constrained Programming Framework to Handle Uncertainties in Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning
4/4 Dr. Yuri Faenza, Columbia University, Stable Matchings in Choice Function Models: Theory and Applications to School Choice
4/11 Dr. Alexandre Jacquillat, Massachusetts University of Technology, Optimizing Relay Operations Toward Sustainable Logistics
4/18 Dr. Randolph Hall, University of Southern California, Data Informed Mitigation to Reduce the Health Consequences of Pandemics
4/25 Dr. Dinakar Gade, Xpress Optimization, Recent Trends and Evolution in Optimization Solvers
Academic Year 2021-2022
For academic years prior to 2018-2019, please visit our archive seminar page.
Fall 2021
8/24 Introduction - Yigal Arens, University of Southern California
8/31 Dr. Amelia Regan, University of California- Irvine, Warehouse Automation and Optimization: Motivating Advances in Large Scale Integer Programming
9/7 Dr. Yayue Pan, University of Illinois at Chicago, Multi-Functional Additive Manufacturing of Smart Materials and Devices
9/14 Dr. Stephen Wright, University of Wisconsin-Madison, The Role of Complexity Bounds in Optimization
9/21 Dr. David Woodruff, University of California- Davis, Computing Bounds and Confidence Intervals for Stochastic Programs
9/28 Dr. David Simchi-Levi, MIT Data Science Lab, Statistical Learning in Operations Management
10/5 Dr. Amy Ward, Chicago Booth, Behavior-Aware Queueing: The Finite Buffer Setting with Many Strategic Services
10/12 NO SEMINAR
10/19 Dr. Jorge Nocedal, Northwestern University, Constrained Optimization in the Presence of Noise
10/26 NO SEMINAR - INFORMS
11/2 Dr. Dmitriy Drusvyatskiy, University of Washington, Stochastic Optimization under Distributional Shifts
11/9 Dr. Lin Xiao, Facebook AI Research (FAIR), Fast Convergence of Exact Policy Gradient Methods
11/16 Dr. Elise Miller-Hooks, George Mason University, Civil Infrastructure Systems Resilience: Models and Algorithms
11/23 NO SEMINAR
11/30 Dr. Xunyu Zhou, Columbia University, Policy Evaluation, Policy Gradient, and Actor-Critic Learning in Continuous Time and Space: Theory and Algorithms
Spring 2022
1/11 Dr. Philip Ernst, Rice University, Yule's "Nonsense Correlation" and New Frontiers in Statistical Inference for Stochastic Processes
1/18 Dr. Eunhye Song, Penn State University, Selection of the Most Probable Best"
1/25 Ryan Cory-Wright, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Mixed-Projection Conic Optimization: A New Paradigm for Modeling Rank Constraints"
2/1
2/8 No Seminar
2/15 Dr. Edward Kaplan, Yale School of Management, "COVID-19 Scratch Models to Support Local Decisions"
2/22 Dr. M. Ravi Shankar, University of Pittsburgh, "Molecular Patterning Directs Morphing and Motility in Liquid Crystalline Polymers”
3/1 Dr. Albert Shih, University of Michigan, "Direct Ink Writing Additive Manufacturing of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS): Model-based Toolpath Control and Applications in Soft Sensors and Actuators"
3/8 Dr. Adam Elmachtoub, Columbia University, "Contextual Optimization: Bridging Machine Learning and Operations"
3/15 No Seminar - Spring Break
3/22 Alain Rossier, University of Oxford PhD Student, "Asymptotic Analysis of Deep Residual Networks"
3/29 Dr. Ignacio E. Grossmann, Carnegie Mellon, "Global Optimization of Nonconvex Nonlinear Generalized Disjunctive Programs"
4/5 Dr. Timothy C.Y. Chan, University of Toronto, "An Inverse Optimization Approach to Measuring Clinical Pathway Concordance"
4/12 Dr. Daniel Apley, Northwestern University, "Interpreting Black-Box Supervised Learning Models via Accumulate Local Effects"
4/19 Dr. Ermin Wei, Northwestern University, "Flexible and Faithful Federated Learning Methods"
4/26 Dr. Carolyn Conner Seepersad, University of Texas - Austin, "Additive Manufacturing and Design Innovation: Challenges and Opportunities"
5/3
Academic Year 2020-2021
For academic years prior to 2018-2019, please visit our archive seminar page.
Fall 2020
8/25 Introduction - Suvrajeet Sen, University of Southern California
9/1 Victoria Stodden, University of Southern California, Two Projects for Advancing Scientific Reliability in Complex Computational and Human Systems
9/8 Renyuan Xu, University of Southern California, Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning: A Mean-field Perspective
9/15 Sze-Chuan Suen, University of Southern California, Incentivizing Adherence for Treatment of Infectious Diseases
9/22 Maged Dessouky, University of Southern California, Cost-Sharing Transportation Systems
9/29 Carl Kesselman, University of Southern California. Data and the Brain
10/6 Phebe Vayanos, University of Southern California, AI and Optimization for Social Good
10/13 Mayank Kejriwal, University of Southern California, Knowledge Graphs and COVID-19: An Overview
10/20 Adel Javanmard, University of Southern California, Dynamic Incentive-aware Learning: Robust Pricing in Contextual Auctions
10/27 Satish Kumar Thittamaranahalli, University of Southern California
11/3 Pitu Mirchandani, Arizona State University, Managing Hurricane Evacuatin with Stochastic Dynamic Networks
11/10 NO SEMINAR
11/17 Siqian Shen, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Multistage Distributionally Robust Mixed-Integer Programming with Decision-Dependent Moment-Based Ambiguity Sets
11/24 NO SEMINAR
Spring 2021
1/19 Introduction - Jong-Shi Pang, University of Southern California
1/26 Nick Meisel, Penn State, Made by Design: Rethinking Design in the Age of Additive Manufacturing
2/2 Giulia Pedrielli, Arizona State University, Black Box Optimization in the Era of Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems
2/9 Jeff Ban, University of Washington, Macroscopic Dynamic Traffic Network Control with Drivers' Route Choice Behavior
2/16 George Lan, Georgia Institute of Technology, Advancing Stochastic Optimization for Reinforcement Learning
2/23 Yu Ding, Texas A&M University, Data Science for Wind Energy: Power Curve Modeling and Production Performance Analysis
3/2 Meisam Razaviyayn, University of Southern California, Does Your Training Data Violate My Privacy? A Near-Optimal Model Discrimination Method with Non-Disclosure
3/9 Junyi Liu, University of Southern California (Post-Doctoral Associate), Nonconvex and Nonsmooth Stochastic Optimization with Modern Applications
3/16 Suvrajeet Sen, University of Southern California, Persistent Issues in Stochastic Optimization/Programming - A Disconnect!
3/23 NO SEMINAR
3/30 Roger Ghanem, University of Southern California, Physics, Structure, and Uncertainty: Probabilistic Learning for Risk Mitigation
4/6 Andres Gomez, University of Southern California, Convexification of Constrained Nonlinear Optimization Problems with Indicator Variables
4/13 Enrique Mallada, The Johns Hopkins University, Incentive Analysis and Coordination Design for Multi-Timescale Electricity Markets
4/20 Urbashi (Ubli) Mitra, University of Southern California, Active Hypothesis Testing for Fast Decision Making with Applications to SARS-CoV-2 Testing
4/27 Pavlo Krokhmal, University of Arizona, On Risk Optimization in Networks and Discrete Systems
Academic Year 2019-2020
Fall 2019
9/3 Vishal Gupta, University of Southern California
Data-Pooling in Optimization
9/10 Alaa Elwany, Texas A&M University
4.5D Printing: The Science of Producing Parts with Location-Specific Properties
9/24 Xianfeng (David) Gu, Stony Brook University
Geometric View of Optimal Transportation and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)
10/1 Lei Zuo, Virginia Tech
Energy Harvesting: From Self-Powered Sensing and Control to Blue Energy and Advanced Manufacturing
10/8 Dmitrii Ostrovskii, University of Southern California (Postdoctoral Scholar)
On Fast Rates In Empirical Risk Minimization Beyond Least-Squares
10/15 Golbon Zakeri, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Pricing Intermittent Renewal Generation Using Stochastic Flexi-Actions
10/24 Ahti Salo, The Humans of Aalto University
Decision Programming for Optimizing Multi-Stage Decision Problems Under Uncertainty
10/29 Kristian Martinsen, Norwegian University of Science & Technology
Closed Loop Tolerance Engineering Modeling and Maturity Assessment in a Circular Economy Perspective
11/5 Archis Ghate, University of Washington, Seattle
Optimal Fractionation in Radiotherapy
11/12 Yong Huang, University of Florida
BioPrinting: Implementation, Process Dynamics, and Process-Induced Cell Injury
11/19 Michael Wagner, University of Washington
Profit Estimation Error in the Newsvendor Model
12/3 Pablo Durango-Cohen, Northwestern University
Leveraging Analytics to Monitor and Manage Transportation Infrastructure
Spring 2020
1/21 Güzin Bayraksan, Ohio State University
A Multistate Distributionally Robust Optimization Approach to Water Allocation under Climate Uncertainty
1/28 Joe Qin, University of Southern California
Energy Harvesting: From Self-Powered Sensing and Control to Blue Energy and Advanced Manufacturing
2/4 Eberhardt Rechtin Lecture
David Westfall Bates, Harvard University
Collaboration Between Engineering and Healthcare: Results from the BWH Patient-Safety Learning Laboratory Studies
2/11 Zhijian (ZJ) Pei, Texas A&M University,
Ceramic Binder Jetting Additive Manufacturing: Three Methods to Increase Density
2/18 Dennis Kon-jin Lin, The Pennsylvania State University
Order-of-Addition Experiments: Design and Analysis
2/25 Daniel Kuhn, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Wasserstein Distributionally Robust Optimization: Theory and Applications in Machine Learning
3/3
3/10 Satish Kumar Thittamaranahalli, University of Southern California Compiling Weighted Constraint Satisfaction Problems to Minimum Weighted Vertex Cover Problems
3/17 NO SEMINAR-Spring Break
3/24 NO SEMINAR DUE TO COVID
3/31 NO SEMINAR DUE TO COVID
4/7 NO SEMINAR DUE TO COVID
4/14 NO SEMINAR DUE TO COVID
4/21 NO SEMINAR DUE TO COVID
4/28 NO SEMINAR DUE TO COVID
Academic Year 2018-2019
Fall 2018
8/28 Suvrajeet Sen, University of Southern California
Learning Enabled Optimization (LEO)
9/6 Bistra Dilkina, University of Southern California
Machine Learning Helps Discrete Optimization
9/10 Mayank Kejriwal, University of Southern California
Intelligent Systems for Investigative Decision Support
9/18 Binil Starly, North Carolina State University
The Convergence of Connected Machines, Deep Learning Blockchain Technologies for Driving Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) Platforms
9/25 Yuxin Chen, Princeton University
Random Initialization and Implicit Regularization in Nonconvex Statistical Estimation
10/2 Ying Cui, University of Southern California
10/10 Pinar Keskinocak, Georgia Tech University
Quantitative Models for Decision-support in Healthcare Applications
10/16 Andrzej Ruszczynski, Rutgers Business School
Risk-Averse Optimization and Control of Partially Observable Systems
10/23 Julie Swann, North Carolina State University
Engineering Modeling to Assist in Eradication of Guinea Worm
10/30 Gino Lim, University of Houston
Drone-Aided Healthcare Delivery for Patients with Chronic Diseases in Rural Areas and Uncertain Battery Duration
11/13 Hui Yang, Penn State University
Sensor-Based Modeling and Control of Nonlinear Dynamics for Advanced Manufacturing and Smart Health
Spring 2019
1/15 Hosam Mahmoud, George Washington University
Node Degrees in a Random Network
1/22 Dorit S. Hochbaum, University of California, Berkeley
Combinatorial Optimization for Image Segmentation and Large Scale Data Mining
1/29 Gary Cheng, Purdue University
Translational Manufacturing for Nano-Engineering Structures with Superior Properties
2/5 Harriet Nembhard, Oregon State University
Robotics, Sensors, and Systems to Advance Healthcare Delivery
2/12 Simge Küçükyavus, Northwestern University
Risk-Averse Set Covering Problems
2/19 Javad Lavaei, University of California – Berkeley
Efficient Computational Methods for Nonlinear optimization, Data Analysis, and Learning Problems
2/26 Mark P. Van Oyen, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Opportunities for Healthcare Operations Engineering & How First Come First Served Scheduling May be Replaced
3/5 Stan Uryasev, University of Florida
How to Supplement Risk Regulations to Avoid Industrial Catastrophes
3/19 Kaibo Liu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Big Data Analytics for Real-Time Complex System Monitoring and Prognostics
3/26 Maryam Fazel, University of Washington
The Many faces of Regularization: From Signal Recovery to Online Algorithms
4/2 Jian Liu, University of Arizona
Functional Data Analytics for Detecting Bursts in Water Distribution Systems
4/9 Erick Delage, HEC Montreal
Preference Robust Utility-Based Shortfall Risk Minimization
4/16 Ebru K. Bish, Virginia Tech Public Health Screening: Models, Algorithms, and Policies
4/23 Chi Zhou, University of Buffalo-The State University of New York Additive Manufacturing of Multiscale, Multifunctional Structures
Academic Year 2015-2016
Fall 2015
9/1 John Mitchell, Rensselaer Polytechnic University
A Convex Reformulation of Rank-Constrained Optimization Problems
9/8 Jack Xin, University of California, Irvine
Minimizing the Difference of L1 and L2 Norms and Applications
9/15 Andrew Liu, Purdue University
Convergent Decentralized Algorithms for Certain Nash Equilibrium Problems
9/22 Mahdi Soltanolkotabi, University of Southern California
Solving Quadratic Equations via Non-convex Optimization: Theory and Algorithms
9/29 Jingyan Dong, North Carolina State University
Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) Printing for High Resolution 2D Patterning and Additive Manufacturing
10/6 Xuegang Ban, Rensselaer Polytechnic University
Emission Modeling and Control on Dynamic Transportation Networks
10/20 Yanfeng Ouyang, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign
Enhancing Service Facility Reliability against the Threat of Disruptions
10/27 Xiaoping Qian, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Topology Optimization of Multi-Physics Systems
11/3 Bianca Maria Colosimo, Politecnico di Milano
Statistical Quality Monitoring of Advanced Manufacturing Processes: Open Challenges and Possible Solutions
11/10 Darinka Dentcheva, Stevens Institute of Technology
Optimization Problems with Stochastic Order Constraints
11/17 Arman Sabbaghi, Purdue University
New Perspectives on Tests for Co-Primary and Secondary Endpoints
Spring 2016
1/12 Denis Cormier, Rochester Institute of Technology,
Multifunctional 3D Printing
1/19 Michael Katehakis, Rutgers University
Asymptotically Optimal Polices for Multi Armed Bandit Models under Generalized Ranking
1/26 Lauren Cipriano, Western University in London, Canada
Identifying Best Fitting Inputs in Multi Target Model Calibration
2/2 Chaithanya Bandi, Northwestern – Kellogg School of Management
Resource Allocation under Ambiguous Risk Preferences
2/16 Tong Wang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Machine Learning Tools for Finding Decision-Oriented Patterns in Data
2/25 Meisam Razaviyayn, Stanford University
Data Science for High Throughput Sequencing
3/1 Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research Lab
Data, Predictions, and Decisions in Support of People and Society
3/8 Karen Smilowitz, Northwestern University
Logistical Challenges at Mass Participation Events: Operations Research Models for Marathon Planning
3/29 Radhika Kulkarni, SAS Institute
Eberhard Rechtin Lecture: Big Data & Big Analytics – Opportunities for Inter-Disciplinary Innovation
4/12 Andrew Schaefer, Rice University
How to Value a Prearranged Paired Kidney Exchange? A Stochastic Game Approach
4/26 Yufeng Liu, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
New Supervised Learning Techniques with Applications to Neuroimaging Data
Published on July 14th, 2017
Last updated on April 18th, 2024