Carol Woodward
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
When: Monday, November 2, 2026; 3 pm
Where: Atrium in Little Hall
Title: Adaptive Time Integration Methods, Software, and Applications
Abstract: Adaptive time integration has become an essential tool for the efficient and accurate simulation of time-dependent science and engineering applications. In this presentation, we develop the formulation of both single-rate and newly developed adaptive multirate methods, emphasizing how these multirate approaches exploit disparate temporal scales to achieve greater efficiency than standard single-rate schemes. A further focus is on software infrastructure, where robust implementations of adaptive and multirate integrators enable practical deployment in large-scale scientific computing. We highlight how these methods are hardened into reliable software frameworks and discuss their use in applications. Lastly, we consider the impact of numerical libraries in the age of AI coding assistants.
Yunier Bello-Cruz
Northern Illinois University
When: Monday, October 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Where: Atrium in Little Hall
Title: On the circumcentered-reflection method
Abstract: The talk will discuss several variants of the circumcentered-reflection method (CRM) for the convex feasibility problem (CFP): finding a point in the intersection of closed convex sets. CRM was developed as an acceleration tool for classical projection-based algorithms. For affine sets, it provides an effective way to track a common point and often exhibits very fast behavior, including finite termination in many cases. For general convex sets, global convergence results obtained are obtained via Pierra’s product-space reformulation, together with convergence guarantees once the iterates enter a region of “centralized points,” where pure circumcenter steps have useful structural properties. Linear convergence is obtained under an error-bound condition and superlinear convergence holds in favorable geometric settings, such as a nonempty interior of the intersection with locally differentiable boundaries. Finally, a practical finite-convergence approach is discussed that replaces exact projections onto the sets with projections onto separating halfspaces, using positive exogenous perturbation parameters.
Burak Kocuk
Associate Professor, Sabancı University
When: Friday, April 11, 2025 at 10:40 –11:30 AM
Where: Williamson 100 or over Zoom
Title: Learning to Relax Nonconvex Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programs
Abstract: Nonconvex quadratically constrained quadratic programs are NP-Hard to solve in general. Literature primarily employs either semidefinite or linear programming to relax them, which are usually effective for distinct problem types, and a holistic understanding of which relaxation should be preferred over the other for a given instance is lacking. In this research, we present a learning-based approach to predict whether a semidefinite or linear programming relaxation would produce a stronger bound for a given instance by examining spectral properties and sparsity patterns of the data matrices.
Bio: Burak Kocuk is an associate professor in the Industrial Engineering Program at Sabancı University. He obtained his BS degrees in Industrial Engineering and Mathematics, and MS degree in Industrial Engineering from Boğaziçi University. He obtained his PhD degree of Operations Research from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Before joining Sabancı University, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. His current research focuses on mixed-integer nonlinear programming and stochastic optimization problems, from both theoretical and methodological aspects.
Dr. Gonzalo Muñoz
Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering
Universidad de Chile
When: Wednesday, October 16, 2024; 4:00–5:00 pm ET
Where: Weil 401E
Title: Decision-focused predictions via pessimistic bilevel optimization: a computational study
Abstract: Dealing with uncertainty in optimization parameters is an important and longstanding challenge. Typically, uncertain parameters are predicted accurately, and then a deterministic optimization problem is solved. However, the decisions produced by this so-called predict-then-optimize procedure can be highly sensitive to uncertain parameters. In this work, we contribute to recent efforts in producing decision-focused predictions, i.e., to build predictive models that are constructed with the goal of minimizing a regret measure on the decisions taken with them. Specifically, we formulate the expected regret minimization as a pessimistic bilevel optimization model, refine known NP-hardness results of this problem, and present a single-level reformulation. Leveraging the single-level reformulation, we show various computational techniques to achieve empirical tractability and report extensive computational results on shortest-path and bipartite matching instances with uncertain cost vectors. Joint work with Victor Bucarey, Sophia Calderón and Frédéric Semet.
Bio: Gonzalo Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at the Industrial Engineering Department of Universidad de Chile and a Researcher at the Institute of Complex Systems in Engineering, Chile. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department at Columbia University. His main interests include theoretical and computational developments in Mixed Integer Linear and Non-linear Optimization. His work has received recognition from the optimization community, such as the 2023 INFORMS Optimization Society Young Researcher Prize.
Sparse Estimation: Closing the Gap Between L0 and L1 Models
Dr. Alper Atamtürk
Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering & Operations Research, University of California, Berkeley
Friday, September 8, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Alejandro Toriello
Professor at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Tech
Friday, August 21, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ETWeil 406
Dr. Artem Prokhorov
Professor of Business Analytics, University of Sydney
Thursday, June 22, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Mark P. Van Oyen
Professor, Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering
University of Michigan
Friday, April 21, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Serhan Ziya
Professor, Department of Statistics and Operations Research
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Friday, April 14, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. John Vande Vate
Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Friday, April 7, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Michele Samorani
Associate Professor, Information Sciences & Analytics
Santa Clara University
Friday, March 31, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Varun Gupta
Associate Professor of Operations Management
University of Chicago
Friday, March 24, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Pinar Keskinocak
William W. George Chair & Professor and Director of the Center of Health and Humanitarian Systems
Georgia Tech
Friday, March 10, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Ebru Bish
Professor of Operations Management, Department of Information Systems, Statistics and Management Science
University of Alabama
Friday, March 4, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dr. Alan Andrew Scheller-Wolf
Richard M. Cyert Professor of Operations Management
Carnegie Mellon University
Friday, February 17, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Dynamic Scheduling with Bayesian Learning
Dr. Xiaoshan Peng
Assistant Professor, Department of Operations and Decision Technologies, Kelley School of Business
Indiana University
Thursday, February 16, 2023; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Semialgebraic parametric analysis by metaprogramming (SPAM) and its applications in optimization
Dr. Yuan Zhou
Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Kentucky
A Dynamic Model for Airline Fleeting and Scheduling
Dr. Chiwei Yan
Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
University of Washington
Wednesday, November 2, 2022; 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM ET
Quantum Approaches for Combinatorial Optimization Problems
Dr. Chunjing Jia
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics
University of Florida
Tuesday, October 25, 2022; 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET
Optimization and Economic Equilibrium
Dr. Tyrrell Rockafellar
Professor, Department of Mathematics
University of Washington
Wednesday, October 12, 2022; 4:05 PM – 4:55 PM
LITTLE HALL 225
A Review on Discrete Diversity of Optimization from an Operations Research Perspective
Dr. Rafa Martí
Professor, Department of Statistics and Operations Research
University of Valencia
Tuesday, April 19, 2022; 4:05 PM – 4:55 PM
Dynamic-Data-Driven Simulation Modeling for Resilient Microgrid Systems
Dr. Nurcin Celik
Jones Career Development Associate Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
University of Miami
Friday, April 15, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Approximation algorithms for a class of stochastic selection problems with reward and cost considerations
Dr. Edwin Romeijn
H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair of the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Tech
Friday, April 08, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Convexification for Non-Convex Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming
Dr. Sam Burer
Tipple-Rollins Professor, Business Analytics
University of Iowa
Friday, March 25, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Advances in Operations Research for Public Safety
Dr. Laura Albert
Chair, Industrial & Systems Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Friday, March 18, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Interpretability, Robustness, and Fairness in Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics for Social Impact
Dr. Phebe Vayanos
Assistant Professor
University of Southern California
Friday, March 04, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Match, Batch, and Dispatch: Analysis of Order Fulfillment Policies
Dr. Natarajan Gautam
Professor, Syracuse University
Friday, February 18, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Improving Patient Safety, Patient Flow and Physician Well-being in Emergency Departments
Dr. Kevin Taaffe
Harriet and Jerry Dempsey Professor & Department Chair in Industrial Engineering
Clemson University
Friday, January 28, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Modeling the Operations of Domestic Sex Trafficking Networks: Transdisciplinary Research Meets Network Interdiction
Dr. Thomas Sharkey
Professor, Industrial Engineering, Clemson University
Friday, January 14, 2022; 11:45 AM – 12: 35 PM
Asymmetric Stochastic Shortest-Path Interdiction Favoring the Evader
Dr. Cole Smith
Dean, College of Engineering and Computer Science
Syracuse University
Friday, January 7, 2022; 11:45 AM -12: 45 PM