Research Group

People

Postdoc Fellow:

 

Dr. Bo Zhou (2022-present)
Web: https://bozlamberth.github.io/
Research interests: Uncertainty analysis, robust optimization, continuous-time optimization with applications in flexibility and resilience of power/energy systems, energy storage, energy bank.


Current PhD Students:

 

Kevin Smith (co-advised by Brian Denton; 2020-present)
Web: https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/kevin-b-smith

 

Juan Estrada (2022-present)
Web: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~juanest/


Former PhD Students:

 

Zhihao Chen, PhD (2012-2016)
Thesis: “Strategic network planning under uncertainty with two-stage stochastic integer programming.” [link]
First position: Amazon.

 

Yan Deng, PhD (2012-2016)
Thesis: “Decomposition algorithms and parallel computing for chance-constrained and stochastic integer programs with applications.” [link]
First position: Google.

 

Yuchen Jiang, PhD (co-advised by Prof. Cong Shi; 2013-2018)
Thesis: “Supply chain and revenue management for online retailing.” [link]
First position: Uber.

 

Yiling Zhang, PhD (co-advised by Ruiwei Jiang; 2015-2019)
Thesis: Convex nonlinear and integer programming approaches for distributionally robust optimization of complex systems.
Web: https://sites.google.com/view/yilingzhang
First position: Assistant Professor in ISE at the University of Minnesota.

 

Miao Yu, PhD (2016-2020)
Thesis: “Optimization approaches for mobility and service sharing.”
First position: Ford Motor Company. Current Position: Amazon.

 

Hideaki Nakao, PhD (2016-2021)
Topic: Distributionally robust optimization in sequential decision making.
Web: https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/hideakinakao
First position: Postdoc at the Argonne National Lab.

 

Xian Yu (2017-2022)
Topic: Sequential Optimization Under Uncertainty: Models, Algorithms, and Applications.
Web: https://u.osu.edu/xianyu/
First position: Assistant Professor in ISE at The Ohio State University.

 

Huiwen Jia (co-advised by Cong Shi; 2018-2022)
Topic: Adaptive Optimization and Learning for Service Systems.
Web: https://sites.google.com/view/huiwenjia/
First position: Amazon.

 

Kati Moug (2019-2023)
Topic: Sequential Decision Making in Crisis: Mitigating Risk in Marginalized Communities with Stochastic Optimization.
Web: https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/kmoug
First position: Lecturer in Georgia Tech, ISyE.

 

Xinyu Fei (2019-2023)
Topic: Optimization Methods for Mixed-Integer Control Problems in Complex Systems.
Web: https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/xinyuf
First position: Amazon.


Supervised Marian Sarah Parker Scholars (Undergraduate) through WISE:

 

Amanda Hazel (Summer 2012)
Topic: “Using Network Optimization Tools for Shelter Relief in Haiti.”
Recognition: Finalist of the Undergraduate Technical Paper Competition in 2013 IIE Great Lakes Regional Conference.

 

Joy Chang (Summer 2015)
Topic: “Optimizing Environmental Impacts and Social Welfare of Car Sharing.”
Recognition: 2016 INFORMS Undergraduate Operations Research Award, First Place.

Group News

  • 01/2024, our paper titled “Learning to Solve Bilevel Programs with Binary Tender,” is accepted to the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2024) (acceptance rate: 31%). This is a joint work with Postdoc research fellow, Dr. Bo Zhou and Prof. Ruiwei Jiang.

  • 11/2023, our paper titled “Frequency Stability-Constrained Unit Commitment: Tight Approximation using Bernstein Polynomials,” is accepted and will appear in the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Congratulations to the postdoc, Dr. Bo Zhou, who is the first author of the paper!

  • 11/2023, our paper titled “A Distributed Approach for Agile Supply Chain Decision Making Based on Network Attributes,” is accepted and will appear in the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. This is a joint work with Drs. Mingjie Bi, Kira Barton, Dawn Tilbury from the Department of Robotics. The research is supported by an NSF grant (CMMI-2034974).

  • 11/2023, PhD student Xinyu Fei passed her doctoral thesis defense, with her thesis titled “Optimization Methods for Mixed-Integer Control Problems in Complex Systems.” Congrats, Dr. Fei!

  • 09/2023, PhD student Juan-Alberto Estrada-Garcia receives the 2023-2024 Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering (MICDE) student fellowship. Congratulations, Juan!

  • 8/2023, our paper titled “A multi-objective mixed-integer programming approach for supply chain disruption response with lead-time awareness,” is among the finalists of the 2023 IEEE CASE 2023 Best Conference Paper Award. The award winner will be announced at the conference, held on Aug 26-29, 2023 in Auckland, NZ.

  • 5/2023, our recent PhD graduate, Dr. Xian Yu, who is currently an assistant professor at Ohio State University, won the 1st Place of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) Pritsker Doctoral Dissertation Award. Congrats, Xian!

  • 5/2023, Dr. Shen receives promotion to full professor in IOE at Umich.

  • 5/2023, our paper titled “A multi-objective mixed-integer programming approach for supply chain disruption response with lead-time awareness,” is accepted to the Proceedings of 2023 IEEE 19th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2023). This is a joint work by Juan-Alberto Estrada-Garcia, Mingjie Bi, Dawn Tilbury, Kira Barton, and Siqian Shen. The research is supported by an NSF grant (CMMI-2034974). Congratulations to the two student leading authors - Juan and Mingjie!

  • 4/2023, our paper “Traffic Signal Control under Stochastic Traffic Demand and Vehicle Turning via Decentralized Decomposition Approaches” is accepted to appear in European Journal of Operational Research (led by PhD students, Xinyu Fei (UM-IOE) and Xingmin Wang (UM-CEE), and co-authored by Xian Yu (OSU), Siqian Shen (UM), Yafeng Yin (UM), Yiheng Feng (Purdue), Henry Liu (UM)).

  • 03/2023, Dr. Shen starts a rotator position as a Program Director for the U.S. National Science Foundation CMMI/CIS program.

  • 02/2023, our paper “Differential-Algebraic Equation-Constrained Frequency-Secured Stochastic Unit Commitment” is accepted to appear in the Proceedings of 2023 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM). This is a joint work with Postdoc fellow, Dr. Bo Zhou and Prof. Ruiwei Jiang.

  • 02/2023, PhD student Kati Moug passed her doctoral thesis defense. Congrats, Dr. Moug!

  • 12/2022, our paper “Binary Control Pulse Optimization for Quantum Systems” is accepted by the journal Quantum (co-authored with my PhD student, Xinyu Fei, as well as collaborators Dr. Lucas T. Brady in NASA, and Drs. Jeffrey Larson and Sven Leyffer in ANL). Congrats to Xinyu who is the only student author and also the lead author of the paper.

  • 10/2022, our paper “A Shared Mobility Based Framework for Evacuation Planning and Operations under Forecast Uncertainty” is accepted by IISE Transactions. This is a paper led by my current PhD student, Kati Moug, and former PhD student, Dr. Huiwen Jia. Congratulations, Kati and Huiwen!

  • 10/2022, our paper “Time Window Optimization for Attended Home Service Routing and Scheduling under Multiple Sources of Uncertainties” is accepted by Computers and Operations Research. This is work is based on a project supported by the Ford and UM Innovation Alliance Program (grant 000356-UM0222-H). This is a joint work with former PhD student, Dr. Xian Yu, who is currently an Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University, and our industry collaborators, Dr. Babak Badri-Koohi, Haitham Sead at Ford Motor Company.

  • 09/2022, our paper “Online Learning and Pricing for Network Revenue Management with Reusable Resources” is accepted by NeurIPS 2022 (acceptance rate: 25.6%). This is a joint work with former PhD student, Dr. Huiwen Jia, and Prof. Cong Shi from IOE. Congrats, Huiwen!

  • 09/2022, our paper “Resource distribution under spatiotemporal uncertainty of disease spread: Stochastic versus robust approaches” is accepted by Computers and Operations Research. This is a joint work with former PhD student, Dr. Xian Yu, and Prof. Beste Basciftci from U of Iowa.

  • 09/2022, our paper “Online Learning and Pricing for Service Systems with Reusable Resources,” is accepted for publication in Operations Research. This is a joint work with former PhD student, Dr. Huiwen Jia, and Prof. Cong Shi from IOE. A preprint version can be found at SSRN.

  • 07/2022, our paper “Sequential competitive facility location: Exact and approximate algorithms,” is accepted for publication in Operations Research. This is a joint work with Prof. Mingyao Qi from Tsinghua Shenzhen Graduate Institute and Prof. Ruiwei Jiang at the University of Michigan. A preprint version can be found at Arxiv.

  • 07/2022, our paper “Risk-averse reinforcement learning via dynamic time-consistent risk measures” is accepted to the 61st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC 2022) to be held in Cancun, Mexico in December 2022. It is a joint work with Dr. Xian Yu, a former PhD student, who will join OSU as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2022. Congrats, Xian!

  • 05/2022, our paper, “A Model-based Multi-agent Framework to Enable an Agile Response to Supply Chain Disruptions,” is accepted by the 2022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) (CASE 2022). The paper is a collaborative research across IOE and Robotics, supported by an NSF grant (CMMI-2034974). (The paper is also selected as the Best Conference and Application Paper Award Finalist for CASE 2022.) Congrats to student authors, Mingjie and Gongyu!

  • 05/2022, our paper, “The University of Michigan Implements a Hub-and-Spoke Design to Accommodate Social Distancing in the Campus Bus System under COVID Restrictions”, is accepted for publication in the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics. Congratulations to student authors: Gongyu Chen, Xinyu Fei, Huiwen Jia and Xian Yu!

  • 05/2022, forthcoming PhD student, Juan Estrada's paper titled “A simulation framework to evaluate efficiency and safety of public transportation systems during pandemic” wins the Best Track Modeling & Simulation Paper in the 2022 IISE Annual Conference & Expo (also co-authored with Dr. Wen Ye). Congrats, Juan!

  • 05/2022, PhD student, Kati Moug, and forthcoming PhD student, Juan Estrada, are presenting their accepted papers in the 2022 IISE Annual Conference & Expo in Seattle, WA.

  • 05/2022, PhD graduate, Dr. Huiwen Jia's paper titled “Online Learning and Pricing with Reusable Resources: Linear Bandit with Sub-exponential Rewards” is accepted to the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML2022) (also co-authored with Prof. Cong Shi). Congrats, Huiwen!

  • 04/2022, PhD graduate, Dr. Miao Yu's paper titled “Improving Column-Generation and Column-Enumeration for Vehicle Routing Problems via Random Coloring and Parallelization” (also co-authored with Prof. Viswanath Nagarajan) is selected as a featured article in the Spring 2022 issue of the INFORMS Journal on Computing. Congrats, Miao!

  • 03/2022, PhD student Xian Yu passed her doctoral thesis defense. Congrats, Dr. Yu!

  • 03/2021, PhD student Huiwen Jia passed her doctoral thesis defense. Congrats, Dr. Jia!

  • 11/2021, PhD student, Huiwen Jia's paper titled “Partner with a Third-Party Delivery Service or Not? – a Prediction-and-Decision Tool for Restaurants Facing Takeout Demand Surges During a Pandemic” is accepted and forthcoming in Service Science special issue (also co-authored with Jorge Alberto Ramırez (undergraduate visiting student from Mexico) and Prof. Cong Shi). Congrats, Huiwen!

  • 09/2021, Prof. Shen is a co-recipient of the Richard Wilson Faculty Scholar in IOE, UMich for 2021-2024.

  • 09/2021, Co-PI Shen and PI Barton (from UMich ME) receive an NSF grant to study Model-Based Intelligent Agent Approaches for supply chain transparency and resiliency.

  • 09/2021, PhD student Xinyu Fei receives the 2021 Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering (MICDE) student fellowship. Congratulations, Xinyu!

  • 08/2021, PhD student, Huiwen Jia's paper titled “Multi-armed bandit with sub-exponential reward” is accepted and forthcoming in Operations Research Letters (also co-authored with Prof. Cong Shi). Congrats, Huiwen!

  • 06/2021, PhD student, Kati Moug is a recipient of the 2021 Generation Google Scholarship. Congratulations, Kati!

  • 06/2021, PhD student, Xian Yu's paper titled “Integrated Vehicle Routing and Service Scheduling under Time and Cancellation Uncertainties with Application in Non-Emergency Medical Transportation” is accepted and forthcoming in Service Science (also co-authored with Dr. Huizhu Wang at Ford). This is work is based on a project supported by the Ford and UM Innovation Alliance Program (grant 000356-UM0222-H).

  • 06/2021, former PhD student, Dr. Miao Yu's paper titled “Improving column generation via random coloring and parallelization for Vehicle Routing Problems” is accepted and forthcoming in INFORMS Journal on Computing (also co-authored with Prof. Viswanath Nagarajan). Congrats, Miao!

  • 05/2021, our paper “An integrated car-and-ride sharing system for mobilizing heterogeneous travelers with application in underserved communities" won Honorable Mention of the Best Paper in the 2020 IISE Transactions Focus Issue on Operations Engineering and Analytics, announced in the 2021 IISE Annual Meeting.

  • 05/2021, Shen will give an invited talk in the Mixed Integer Programming Workshop 2021 (online) about Sequential Competitive Facility Location problem.

  • 05/2021, Shen is a featured speaker in the Modeling COVID-19 Symposium 2021 (online) co-organized by MICDE and SPH at the University of Michigan.

  • 05/2021, PhD students, Kati Moug, Xian Yu, Xinyu Fei and Huiwen Jia, will present their research work at the IISE Annual Conference.

  • 04/2021, PhD student, Xian Yu wins the IOE Murty Prize, which awards the Best Research Paper on Optimization written by a student in IOE. Congratulations, Xian!

  • 04/2021, Shen and Co-PI Wen Ye (UMich, SPH) are awarded an NSF grant to study the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on transportation systems and how to redesign to make them more resilient and safe to use.

  • 03/2021, in the past few months, Shen gave invited talks on various topics virtually in the 2020 Big Data Ignite Webinar Series “Data-driven in Uncertain Times” (09.2020), the International Fair event at Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico (10.2020) and department seminars at the Eindhoven University of Technology (10.2020), University of Southern California (11.2020), Tippie College of Business–University of Iowa (12.2020), Texas Tech University (03.2020) and Lehigh University (03.2020). Thanks for all the invitations!

  • 03/2021, PhD student Hideaki Nakao passed his doctoral thesis defense. Congrats, Dr. Nakao!

  • 03/2021, new paper with Beste Basciftci and Xian Yu on “Resource Distribution Under Spatiotemporal Uncertainty of Disease Spread: Stochastic versus Robust Approaches” is posted on arxiv. This paper analyzes stochastic and robust ways of locating distribution centers and making shipment plans under demand uncertainty for critical resources during a pandemic, e.g., vaccines and test kits.

  • 03/2021, new paper with Mingyao Qi and Ruiwei Jiang on “Sequential Competitive Facility Location: Exact and Approximate Algorithms” is posted on arxiv. The paper considers a competitive facility location problem (CFLP), which is a Stackelberg game and admits a bilevel mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP) formulation. We reformulate the problem as a single-level MINLP model and derive valid inequalities based on submodularity and concave overestimation. We also propose an approximation algorithm for solving CFLP that is computationally more effective and admits a constant approximation guarantee.

  • 12/2020, PhD student Hideaki Nakao's paper titled “Distributionally robust Partially Observable Markov Decision Process with moment-based ambiguity” is accepted and forthcoming in SIAM Journal on Optimization. Congrats, Hideaki!

  • 11/2020, PhD student Huiwen Jia's paper titled “Benders cut classification for solving two-stage stochastic programs via Support Vector Machines” is accepted and forthcoming in INFORMS Journal on Optimization. Congrats, Huiwen!

  • 10/2020, PhD student Xian Yu's paper titled “Multistage Distributionally Robust Mixed-Integer Programming with Decision-Dependent Ambiguity Sets” is accepted and forthcoming in Mathematical Programming. (See link of the published PDF file.) Congrats, Xian!

  • 09/2020, Shen gave a seminar talk titled “Optimization and data analytics tools for addressing COVID-19 related problems,” in the graduate seminar series in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at University of Oklahoma.

  • 09/2020, PhD student Huiwen Jia receives the 2020 Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering (MICDE) student fellowship. Congratulations, Huiwen!

  • 08/2020, PhD student Kati Moug receives the 2020 IOE Bonder Fellowship. Congratulations, Kati!

  • 08/2020, we build a website to provide a collection of optimization and data analytics tools for addressing COVID-19 related problems (including the Bluebus route and schedule redesign project and others related to optimizing testing locations, distribution of testing kits, business reopening or closedown strategies, and so on).

  • 08/2020, Shen's team applied integer programming and simulation to help redesign the University of Michgian's Campus bus systems to reduce trip time, bus capacity and infection risk. (News link)

  • 07/2020, a new PhD student Kevin Smith (co-advised with Brian Denton) joins our research group. Welcome, Kevin!

  • 06/2020, Shen receives support from Microsoft's AI for Health program for using free Azure credits to build a cloud-based system that will facilitate COVID-19 testing system design. (News link)

  • 04/2020, Shen completed an article on the Conversation about how to design and perform COVID-19 testing when supplies are scarse.

  • 03/2020, Shen completed an article on "A Summary of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering Tool for Fighting COVID-19" . A shorter read is here on Medium. The PDF slides are here (presented on April 2 in the IOE lunch-and-learn event).

  • 02/2020, Miao Yu successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congrats, Miao!

  • 02/2020, PhD alumni Yan Deng and current PhD student Huiwen Jia's paper titled “Scenario grouping and decomposition algorithms for chance-constrained programs” is accepted for publication in INFORMS Journal on Computing. Congrats!

  • 01/2020, Huiwen Jia's paper titled “Context-aware Route Recommendation with Weight Learning through Deep Neural Networks” is accepted to appear in the proceedings of 2020 American Control Conference (ACC2020). Congrats, Huiwen! This is a collaborative work with Didi Chuxing.

  • 01/2020, Shen is invited to give a plenary talk titled “New results of facility location involving competition, prioritization, and ambiguous decision-dependent uncertainty,” in the “Workshop on Smart Cities Optimization” organized by Fields Institute at the University of Toronto, Canada, January 2020. [link]