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, 2017Last updated on April 18th, 2024