I am an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Florida (UF), where I also serve as an assistant director of the Center for Applied Optimization. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher under Andrea Lodi at Polytechnique Montréal. Before that, I graduated with my Ph.D. in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon University in May 2018, under Egon Balas.
My work has been supported by grants from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and the UF Informatics Institute. Thank you very much to these sponsors!
You can find more information about me and my recent research on my CV. Please contact me if you have any questions about my work.
Updates
- June 2025: It would be great to see you at the 2025 Mixed Integer Programming Workshop in Minnesota, for which I am chairing the program committee.
- March 2025: I am honored to receive a CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), titled CAREER: Disjunctive Cutting Plane Selection via Machine Learning for Mixed Integer Programming; thank you to the NSF for its support!
- June 2024: Hope to see you at the 2024 Mixed Integer Programming Workshop, for which I am serving on the program committee.
- March 2024: I have joined the editorial board for the INFORMS Journal on Computing.
- July 2023: Received a grant on Efficiently Strengthening Disjunctive Cutting Planes; thank you for the support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
- March 2023: I served on the organizing committee for PanOptiC, a workshop in honor of Panos Pardalos.
- August 2022: I helped organize the Workshop on Data Science for Real-Time Decision Making celebrating the achievements of the Canada Excellence Research Chair held by Andrea Lodi.
- February 2022: I have joined the editorial board for the journal Computational Optimization and Applications.
- September 2021: Adding a new role! I am now an assistant director of the Center for Applied Optimization at UF.
- May 2021: I (virtually) presented my talk on Strengthening V-Polyhedral Disjunctive Cuts at the 2021 Mixed Integer Programming Workshop; the talk is available on YouTube.
- January 2021: I started a new job as an assistant professor at the University of Florida, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering! If you are applying to, or already a student at, UF and you are interested in working with me, please see the Students section below.
- June 21, 2020: Please join and contribute to Discrete Optimization Chats, a virtual gathering place for the discrete optimization community.
- April 13, 2020: Elias B. Khalil and I are organizing virtual Discrete Optimization Talks (DOTs). Visit the DOT website for the details.
- April 9, 2020: I am keeping a list of virtual seminars.
- Old news: I founded the INFORMS Student Chapter at CMU, which I encourage the CMU community to join. The chapter has been recognized several times by INFORMS for its activities. I was also the founding chair of the YinzOR Student Conference, an annual student-led conference organized by CMU INFORMS.
Students
- Mohammad Amini (coadvised with Mostafa Reisi)
- Zixuan Feng
- Boyang Han
- Connor Johnston
Update: July 2023: I am not seeking additional students at the moment. If you would like to pursue postgraduate studies at UF, please consider applying with some of my fantastic colleagues.
Some of the courses / skills that would be helpful for a researcher working with me (not necessarily as background, and not for every project, but as an expectation for what you might need to learn through courses, reading groups, and independent study): writing proofs formally, linear algebra / matrix analysis, real analysis, convex analysis, linear programming, integer programming, graph theory, computer programming (C++ / Python / Julia), software engineering. Familiarity with LaTeX is helpful to communicate results.
Information on the application procedure for graduate programs, for both master's and doctorate students. Please be aware that (in our department) applications are first reviewed by a committee, who make an admission decision. Afterwards, individual faculty members can offer funding for your PhD; typically, students secure funding before accepting a PhD offer. I schedule interviews with prospective PhD candidates to my group through early March, after initial decisions are made by the admissions committee.
I strive to foster a collaborative and welcoming research community. All members of the research team are accepted based on merit (based on technical skills + research alignment). Applications are encouraged from people with any background, including: people who have any educational background; people with any sexual orientation and racial or gender identity; people having disabilities or health issues; underrepresented minorities; indigenous people; and people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Research can be a challenging and taxing endeavor, especially during the initial transition period, and I make concerted efforts to support my students with that in mind. I also encourage students to take advantage of the Office of Graduate Professional Development.
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