Fall 2023 Industrial & Systems Engineering magazine

FALL 2023

INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS

ENGINEERING

INSIDE: Welcoming new faculty 7 A professor’s journey to ISyE 10 Mitigating food insecurities with engineering 12 Turbo-charging AI 14

Fall 2023 • 1

ABOUT THE FRONT COVER

Pictured: ISyE seniors William Kaiser, Ash Picione, and Aaron Neslon meet with ISyE’s newst faculty member Kathryn Wust to discuss their Project Management project.

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering 207 Church Street SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 Email: isye@umn.edu Phone: 612-624-1582 www.isye.umn.edu Interim Department Head

Shuzhong Zhang Director of Graduate Studies

William L. Cooper Director of Undergraduate Studies

Lisa Miller Director of Faculty and Academic Affairs

Jean-Philippe Richard Department Administrator

Hongna Bystrom Editor

Emily Rice

In this edition of the magazine, we highlight the growth and trajectory of the ISyE faculty and students by emphasizing their collaborative efforts, individual research, and passion for ISyE. As the 10 year anniversary of the department passes, we eagerly look to the future of ISyE at the University of Minnesota.

CONTENTS FEATURES

10 Dr. Kevin Leder: A journey to building a legacy Legacies begin in ISyE when faculty collaborate and build lasting ties to the University and community.

10

12

TWIN CITIES

MOBILE MARKET

14

Mitigating Food Insecurity with Mobile Grocery Markets ISyE faculty and students work to help mitigate food insecurities in the Twin Cities.

14 Turbo-charging AI By improving AI, ISyE faculty are able to improve everyone’s lives.

12

16 New ISyE Space in Lind Hall ISyE’s new space in Lind Hall is in full swing; see what people are saying about it.

HIGHLIGHTS

16

18 Undergraduate Program Highlights

24 Graduate Program Highlights

30 Faculty Awards and Publications © 2023 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.

The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

Table of Contents • 3

Message from the Interim Department Head:

Dr. Shuzhong Zhang

Twelve years ago, when I first came to join the University of Minnesota, there was no Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE). ISyE was, at the time, a graduate program within the Department of Mechanical Engineering consisting of five faculty members. Launching ISyE to a full-fledged department meant no step for the people of ISyE at that time: We didn’t even have to move offices. But surely it was a giant step for the College of Science and Engineering (Thank you, Dean Steven Crouch and Dean Mos Kaveh, for making it happen!). I was fortunate enough to serve as ISyE’s founding department head, and thanks to my successor (now predecessor) Professor Saif Benjaafar, who took it to a whole next level, ISyE is now home to 15 faculty members, 200 undergraduate students, and 70 graduate students. There is so much excitement and energy in this department, you can hardly miss it when you come to visit our fantastic new space on the second floor of Lind Hall. This year, I am acting as an interim department head, and a national search for a new head is on the way.

ISyE is centered around its people. Last year’s recruitment efforts resulted in two new faculty members joining us: Jeff Hong and Kathryn Wust. Jeff is a full professor, a leading expert on simulation, and he will arrive in Minnesota next fall.

Jeff currently is the Area Editor (area: Simulation) of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) flagship journal, Operations Research. Kathryn received her Ph.D. in June from University of WisconsinMadison and joined us in August as an assistant teaching professor. Kathryn’s research and teaching interests include industrial engineering, human factors, healthcare systems, patient experience, and patient safety; her expertise expands the dimension of the existing faculty of ISyE. As for the coming year, a regular faculty search will continue.

This year also marks a year of harvest for all our educational programs. We continue to be a discovery major that attracts a wide variety of diversity in our undergraduate student body to include female identifying, international, and transfer students.

Our undergraduate students tend to stay in ISyE once they declare ISyE as their major, and are successful in finding a career after graduation with a steady placement rate of over 98%. We offer over 10 scholarships annually to undergraduate students who demonstrate leadership, community impact, or inclusion, among other qualities. ISyE undergraduate students are engaged in the classroom via Senior Design Projects increasingly sponsored by ISyE Alumni, and they are leaders in our student organization and support recruitment efforts across campus. The ISyE master’s programs (the IE, SE, and Analytics tracks) have had a record high total enrollment in the past academic year. In the meanwhile, eight new Ph.D. students joined ISyE this year – yet another record number on that front.

At ISyE we believe that artificial intelligence is a modern means to achieving human intelligence, where the latter powers societal developments for the better. In this issue, you will read stories about how Operations Research and Data Science methodologies contribute to intelligent learning and decision-making. In the newly founded Therapy Modeling and Design Center (TMDC), Professor Kevin Leder applies data-based mathematical modeling and optimization in cancer treatment and drug design. You will read how Machine Learning – a key tool in Artificial Intelligence – can be used to predict properties of nanomaterials, as Professor Zhaosong Lu’s research reveals. You will also read how Professors Yiling Zhang and Bill Cooper reimagined using tools such as vehicle routing and assortment planning to mitigate food insecurity problems via mobile grocery markets.

There are a lot of exciting developments going on here at ISyE. This spring, for example, marked a series of events in the wake of the 10th anniversary of ISyE, among which was a thorough 2-day external program review conducted by a team of top-notch leaders in our field. The final remark of the review team in their exit report reads, “The University of Minnesota is to be congratulated on building a prominent department in just ten years, admired by its peer institutions.” Investing in ISyE and its future has proven to be a great idea for all partners involved. I look forward to receiving your feedback, comments, and suggestions; I am only an email away.

Fall 2023 • 7

NEW FACULTY

I

Kathryn Wust ASSISTANT TEACHING PROFESSOR

n Fall 2023, the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering welcomed Kathryn Wust as its newest faculty member. Wust joins the department as an Assistant Teaching Professor, bringing a unique background and expertise in Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics. She is passionate about designing and improving healthcare systems to optimize patients’ outcomes and well-being, as well as training a new generation of industrial engineers to design systems tailored for people.

Wust received her Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctorate degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Having grown up in Minneapolis, she is happy to return to her home state and join the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, despite remaining an unwavering fan of Bucky the Badger.

Wust’s research and teaching interests center on Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics (HFE).

The International Ergonomics Association defines HFE as “. . . the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance” (IEA, 2000). Wust, however, describes HFE as the science of designing for people.

Wust details a classic example in HFE that involves a door handle: Imagine walking up to a building, reaching out to pull the door handle, and the door does not open. You look down and notice a sign next to the door handle with the directive to “Push.” You think to yourself, I hope nobody saw me pull on a door that I was supposed to push! If the door had a flat plate, however, the intuitive action would have been to push, saving both time and embarrassment. While simple, the door handle example illustrates how poor design for people can result in suboptimal outcomes. HFE engineers (re)design these “door handles” across various aspects of our lives.

The specific domain of HFE that Wust specializes in is macroergonomics. Macroergonomics designs sociotechnical systems, such as workplaces, military teams, and construction sites, to operate efficiently and safely, and to achieve desired outcomes. Her research has focused on macroergonomics in the healthcare system.

Healthcare is a complex sociotechnical system with interactions between individuals who perform tasks – using tools and technology within a physical environment – under organizational constraints. Interactions between these system elements affect processes, which result in outcomes (e.g. patient safety or clinician burnout). Wust’s research has focused on redesigning emergency departments (EDs) for older adult patients; she has worked on developing a tool to help older adult patients understand what is going to happen to them in the ED (i.e., ED patient journey map), studied how older adults and ED clinicians collaborate during the discharge process, and worked with multidisciplinary and community-based teams to redesign ED discharge instructions to be easier for older adults to use.

8 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

“

I think about Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics as design for people.

”

BACKGROUND: University of Wisconsin – Madison

Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering University of Wisconsin – Madison M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering University of Wisconsin – Madison B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS: Human Factors Engineering Macroergonomics Socio-Technical Systems Health Care Quality and Patient Safety Collaboration

Wust’ s expertise provides a unique perspective to the ISyE department, as well as contributes to the larger Human Factors community at UMN. Nichole Morris, Director of the HumanFIRST laboratory at UMN and adjunct faculty in ISyE concurs: “I am thrilled to have Prof. Wust join UMN to further strengthen our human factors education and research programs with her unique expertise. The immense demand for human factors professionals will continue to grow across every field where people and systems interact. Having Wust join the UMN faculty will help advance our students to be better prepared to meet industry needs.”

During her first semester in the department, Wust is teaching classes in project management and systems engineering, where she applies HFE theories and principles to engineering education. Leveraging her research expertise on helping older adults communicate, coordinate, and learn in the ED, she is focusing on helping engineering students do the same in the classroom. She is excited to expand the set of HFE-based courses offered in the department in the future, and to help ISyE students broaden their understanding of what it means to be an industrial and systems engineer for years to come.

Fall 2023 • 9

FEATURE

F

Dr. Kevin Leder: A JOURNEY TO

Building a Legacy

or Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) professor Kevin Leder, the last few semesters have been filled with successes and achievements. He is actively engaged in the design and implementation of precision drug treatments for cancer patients thanks to the support of a recently obtained National Science Foundation (NSF) grant; he is playing a pivotal role in the creation of the new Therapy Modeling and Design Center within the College of Science and Engineering; and he will soon take on the role of Director of Graduate Studies in the department. These accomplishments mark the culmination of Leder’s twelve-year journey within the department. Having recently been promoted to the rank of full professor, Leder is enthusiastic about leveraging his achievements in research, teaching, and service to shape an even brighter future at the University of Minnesota (UMN).

Leder earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University in 2008, with a focus on stochastic systems. He was fascinated by the potential to understand diverse systems – from grocery store queues to cellular processes – by capturing the probabilities they have of changing. His dissertation focused on designing and analyzing algorithms for simulating the evolution of such systems, with the goal of estimating the likelihood of rare events. During this period, he also met his future wife, Jasmine Foo, who has become one of his closest research collaborators.

Post-graduation, Leder continued his exploration of rare event simulation algorithms during a postdoctoral stay at Columbia University. His work encompassed designing and analyzing algorithms for networks of queues, among other subjects. While Leder cherished this research, he also saw a chance to blend his expertise with his passion for evolutionary biology. He joined a research group at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which eventually relocated to Harvard School of Public Health, where he delved into evolutionary models of cancer. During this time, he investigated drug resistance in leukemia, cancer initiation, cell plasticity, driver mutations, and optimal radiotherapy schedules. This experience profoundly reshaped his research outlook, compelling him to harness the power of mathematics to understand and fight cancer.

In 2011, Foo and Leder both assumed assistant professor roles at the University of Minnesota: Foo in the mathematics department and Leder in the newly transformed independent department, ISyE. Leder was part of the small cohort of faculty in the department at the time, and played a pivotal role in launching the program. Consequently, he taught a diverse array of courses at undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. Leder is now poised to further burgeon as he assumes the role of Director of Graduate Studies in the department starting in January 2024.

One of Leder’s greatest joys is forging connections and collaborating on interesting problems. Since joining UMN, he has worked alongside faculty from various disciplines including the medical school, statistics, mathematics, and ISyE. Leder is particularly proud of the body of work they have developed on spatial models

10 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Jasmine Foo and Kevin Leder collaborate on their latest project.

of cancer evolution. In a collection of seven papers, they have established fundamental theoretical results on this topic, as well as applied their theory to answer questions such as how age affects treatment modalities for head and neck cancer patients. Leder has recently become interested in the analysis of in vitro drug screen data, and was recently awarded an NSF grant in collaboration with Foo and ISyE Professor Shuzhong Zhang to solve inverse problems that arise when analyzing the data from drug screens.

An exciting new initiative Leder engages in is the creation of the Therapy Modeling and Design Center (TMDC), a joint initiative of the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) and the medical school at UMN. This center will be headed by Foo and Biomedical Engineering professor David Odde. Of the center, Foo says, “The mission of the TMDC is to help propel the development of new cancer therapies, through the innovative use of mathematical and computational models of disease progression and therapy response. Leder’s expertise in knowledge- and datadriven modeling approaches, along with his experience in cancer biology and therapy optimization, will be critical in our work.” Leder is looking forward to the challenge and to his new responsibilities as an Associate Director of the Center. He envisions many ways of employing mathematical modeling to facilitate the design of cancer treatments and clinical trials, aiming to enhance success rates. Leder’s involvement in the center illustrates his commitment to research that positively impacts the world.

This fall, Leder will embark on his inaugural year as a full Professor in the ISyE department. Leder’s positive influence on the department and his contributions in advancing the development of sophisticated analytical tools for battling cancer have already left an indelible mark. His growth at the University of Minnesota closely mirrors that of the department since 2011, and his contributions are bound to solidify his legacy.

Fall 2023 • 11

Mitigating Food Insecurity with

Mobile Grocery Markets

FEATURE

F

Photo Credit: The Food Group

ood insecurity—inconsistent access to nutritious food to meet daily needs—has been a persistent problem in the United States for years. In 2020, the U.S. witnessed an alarming increase in food insecurity, affecting millions, including vulnerable children. Food insecurity gives rise to numerous challenges and can be a cause of unhealthy eating habits and diet-related diseases. In Minnesota, where approximately 900,000 people, including 200,000 children, lack sufficient access to healthy food, the issue of food insecurity poses a significant concern. One cause of food security is a lack of nearby full-service grocery stores. This is a particular concern in Minnesota, which has fewer grocery stores per capita than most other states.

Over the past decade, mobile markets have emerged as a means for mitigating food insecurity. A mobile market comes in many models, including a full service grocery store in the form of a bus, truck, semi-trailer, or other vehicle, typically outfitted with refrigeration equipment, that brings affordable, healthy food directly to communities in need. Mobile markets can be particularly helpful for people who do not live close to a full-service brick-and-mortar grocery store and who do not have consistent access to a car. For such individuals, travel to a grocery store may be prohibitively difficult. Mobile markets now operate in dozens of cities across the country.

Since 2015, the non-profit Twin Cities Mobile Market (TCMM), a program of The Food Group, has operated in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Its impact has been remarkable, with TCMM serving 8,500 customers in 2019 and continuing to make 24 scheduled stops throughout the Twin Cities area. Recognizing the diverse needs of the community, TCMM goes beyond providing fresh produce.

12 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

The market also offers culturally connected foods, aimed at Indigenous, Latino, African, and Asian communities, so TCMM ensures that residents from different backgrounds have access to familiar and nutritious food options.

Many mobile markets are non-profits, and it is important that they operate efficiently to maintain financial viability.

ISyE Assistant Professor Yiling Zhang and Professor William Cooper recognized that the tools and approaches of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Operations Research could be of great value in helping mobile markets improve their operational efficiency while maintaining focus on the core goal of improving food access. With support from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies, Professors Zhang and Cooper have been engaging with TCMM to understand some of the challenges faced by TCMM and by mobile markets in general.

Professor Zhang noted that “When I first heard about mobile market programs, I thought they were a great idea.

I suspected that mobile markets faced interesting and important operations research questions. As I learned more about mobile markets, I found out that was indeed the case.”

Professors Zhang and Cooper are now working with a team of ISyE students that consists of undergraduate students Connor Salsbury and Tina Son, and Ph.D. student Can Yin to employ the quantitative and analytical methods of ISyE to study mobile markets.

One interesting question within their study involves deciding which mobile market stops should be served on a single route while also determining what assortment of products to load onto the vehicle before it departs from its depot. Often, a vehicle will operate on a different route on each day of the week. Depending upon the population demographics near the stops on a particular route, different types of food might be more or less suitable for stocking on the vehicle. “Vehicle routing and assortment planning are classical operations research problems. They intersect in a fascinating and unique way in mobile markets,” notes Professor Cooper.

Photo Credit: The Food Group

Decisions about what locations to visit should be informed by estimates of the demand from the nearby community. Several factors may influence that demand, including populationwide measures of demographics, mobility, and income; distances to nearest grocery stores; and availability of community partners to help publicize mobile market services and schedules. How such factors affect demand could be estimated using techniques from statistics and machine learning.

Another interesting question centers on the environmental impacts of mobile markets. A mobile market vehicle emits carbon as it traverses its route. Some customers who make purchases at a mobile market would have otherwise traveled to a store by some other means, including possibly taking a car ride. The replacement of those trips by a visit to the mobile market then reduces emissions, but the question to consider is: What are the net effects and how would they change if a less efficient diesel mobile market vehicle were replaced by a more efficient propane or electric mobile market vehicle? The team has been working on using various ISyE tools to address this question. Connor Salsbury commented that “I found it really interesting that I can use techniques I have learned in Industrial Engineering not just to make a process more efficient, but to show the environmental benefit of a decision.”

Mobile grocery markets represent a powerful response to the challenge of food insecurity. Methodologies from ISyE and Operations Research hold great potential to aid mobile markets in their commitment to serving community needs.

Fall 2023 • 13

TURBO-CHARGING

AI

For Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) Professor Zhaosong Lu the art of designing algorithms to tackle complex optimization problems has always held a profound intellectual allure. One aspect of these techniques that fascinates him is that they can be applied virtually anywhere – enhancing systems, boosting performance, optimizing production, and reducing costs. Discovering the most effective methods that lead to the best possible solutions has been a driving force in his research and an enduring presence in his academic journey.

M

ore than ten years ago, Lu foresaw the burgeoning

FEATURE

impact of machine learning (ML) models as a fertile ground where his technical optimization

skills could play a vital role. His journey into the realm of ML commenced with collaborations with experts from various domains, particularly in sparse

and low-rank learning. Together with his collaborators, he developed innovative optimization models and methods for dimension reduction and variable selection.

These advancements have found extensive applications in prediction, a central theme in ML. A pivotal point came when he embarked on a sabbatical at the ML division of Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA in 2013. This experience solidified his interests in ML and laid the foundation for his current research.

For Lu, ML and optimization are inherently intertwined. ML often begins by creating models that need precise calibration, and optimization provides various avenues for designing efficient methods to perform this calibration. For example, imagine designing a model to differentiate between pictures of gophers and chipmunks (a tool that could have been helpful when Goldy was first drawn). The model consists of a series of calculations, each making use of some parameters. By altering these parameters, a model can be created that is better or worse at identifying the critters.

To determine these parameters, pictures of gophers and chipmunks can be added into the model, and adjust the parameters when the model does not make a correct prediction. As more and more pictures are used (a process often called training), the model progressively becomes better at recognizing gophers and chipmunks. Adjusting the parameters to produce the best resulting models is an optimization problem, and this is where Lu’s expertise in optimization comes into play. One facet of his research aims at designing methods that find higher quality solutions to models in order to make sure optimality conditions are satisfied. These optimality conditions are more stringent and can be guaranteed to correspond to the best solution to the problem.

14 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Another facet of Lu’s work aims to improve the robustness of the process of selecting model hyperparameters so that minor changes in training do not significantly alter the calibrated model’s results. To address this issue, Lu collaborates with a doctoral student to develop innovative solution algorithms for bilevel optimization problems. Using these algorithms, the ML community can create more accurate and reliable predictive models by performing training in a way that considers the possibility of adversarial entities making slight modifications to the data.

Turbocharged by powerful optimization methods, AI techniques can solve a wide array of global challenges. In a project recently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Lu collaborates with colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers to explore how AI can be used to predict properties of nanomaterials – tiny materials with versatile applications, including nanomedicine. His expertise is crucial in designing the very optimization techniques that power these models. Armed with these tailored tools, the team works on predicting the properties and behavior of nanostructures with the goal of discovering some that minimize side effects, while ensuring safe design and therapeutic effectiveness. Lu envisions many more applications for his work, especially in healthcare and precision medicine.

For the immediate future, Lu plans to incorporate elements of stochastic optimization into his approach to ML problems. Reminiscing on his days in graduate school, Lu warmly recalls: “I took many courses in probability during my PhD. I enjoyed them tremendously and always thought I would make use of them, after I was happy with how well I had explored deterministic algorithms. I think the time has come.”

Lu plans to leverage the power of stochastic methods to tackle issues arising from vast datasets and large samples. Additionally, he is actively researching how these algorithms can be applied in federated learning and in decentralized optimization.

With an expanding and ambitious research agenda on the horizon, Lu is driven by an unwavering desire to push the boundaries of what optimization algorithms can do to speed up AI advancements across a multitude of fields. His work embodies the benefits of establishing synergies between optimization and ML, offering pathways to more accurate, reliable, and impactful AI models.

“

I took many courses in probability during my PhD. I enjoyed them tremendously and always thought I would make use of them, after I was happy with how well I had explored deterministic algorithms. I think the time has come.

– ZHAOSONG LU

”

Fall 2023 • 15

THE NEW

ISyE Space

in Lind Hall

FEATURE

“

Here is what some have to say about the space: Whether a discussion among classmates and friends or a session of productive study, Lind Hall fosters an aura of community and well being, but also an immense yearning for knowledge. I believe a space similar to that of the ISyE department’s Lind hall is imperative in creating an embodiment of the shared values and goals that we all have.

”

– NOAH EBNER BORST

“

As of November 2022, the Industrial and Systems Engineering department has been able to call 2nd floor of Lind Hall home. Since its completion, the space has been actively used by students and faculty alike to foster a positive learning environment, as well as a place that inspires collaboration and motivated discussion.

Undergraduate student, May 2025

My favorite spots in Lind are the 2nd floor collaboration rooms; it is definitely my go-to study spot.

– CARSON HILL

”

Undergraduate student, May 2025

16 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

“

It is wonderful having the whole department in one place! Our new location is so bright and inviting. We have so many great spaces for faculty, staff, and students and it is nice being able to see everyone often. It was definitely worth the wait!

– TERESA NIESZNER

”

ISyE Faculty Affairs Coordinator and Assistant to Department Head

“

It’s important to offer a space like the one in Lind Hall because it creates a space where most people in it can recognize that they’re all working in similar fields and can feel like they’re seen.

– QUELIA YANG

”

Sophomore Undergraduate Student, Graduating May 2026

“

I love seeing groups of ISyE students working together in the many study spaces in the 2nd floor of Lind Hall. I love getting to know ISyE students outside of the classroom, and the Lind Hall space provides so many opportunities for casual interactions.

“

”

– LISA MILLER

“

– DARIN ENGLAND

”

Teaching Associate Professor, ISyE Faculty

”

learning the same things. It looks great!

Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies

It now feels like ISyE has a home. It is important to have a home for the ISyE community.

I love the counter/bar that overlooks trees with charging [capability]. The counter is a great size to have homework and a computer open at. It’s a great feature of the program to have a communal space for students

“

– JOHANNA KNAEBLE Masters candidate in ISyE, expected graduation 2025

I like the open space with the big white boards on the opposite side of the professor corridor. It is a good functional place to work with people on stuff. And [the new space] gives people places to study.

– CALVIN ROTH Ph.D. Student, 2024

”

Fall 2023 • 17

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

2023 ISyE Alumni Event: A GRADUATE’S PERSPECTIVE

I

completed my Bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering in 2015 as part of the first class of ISyE undergraduates. After graduation, I immediately moved to California to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California and, eventually, accepted my current position as Product Manager of Digital Health at Boston Scientific. As luck would have it, I was in Minnesota visiting family during the ISyE Alumni event in April 2023. I was excited to attend the event with my brother, Cole, who is also an ISyE alumnus (class of 2019). Neither of us had visited campus since our own commencements, and we were both astonished by the dedicated ISyE space, all of the new faculty, and the size of class enrollments in recent years.

It makes me smile to see the growth the department has experienced over the last 8 years. During that first year, there were only 12 students, including me, and a small collection of offices in a walkway between buildings, but we all knew the ISyE department had great potential.

At the Alumni event, I was especially excited to see the new dedicated ISyE space in Lind Hall. When I started taking ISyE classes in 2013, they were scattered all over campus; my classmates and I constantly sent group messages to plan where to meet to study around campus.

Sometimes we tried to sneak into the Mechanical Engineering student lounge or the medical library, but often it was just easiest to meet outside of lecture halls before or after class. Upon returning to Lind Hall for the alumni event I instantly felt jealous seeing all the student work and meeting spaces. It is exactly what the 12 of us were looking for 10 years ago. I was happy to see that ISyE students now had a home base on campus. The ISyE community is one of my best memories as an undergraduate student, and I am

18 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Story by OLIVIA EVANSON

pleased to see that the department is prioritizing space to continue to foster strong relationships between its students, faculty, and staff.

When I asked my brother what made the biggest impact on him when returning to campus, he said he realized how much he missed taking classes and that he enjoyed reconnecting with peers. I had to agree with him; I also missed being able to take classes and seeing what other alumni were up to. It was also fun to meet many of the students from other graduating classes, and to learn about their careers and how they have applied ISyE in many different industries.

This visit to campus reaffirmed my belief that the ISyE department still has great potential. I’m excited to see how the ISyE department will continue to evolve, and to learn about all the great things future UMN ISyE alumni will go on to do.

ISyE Spring 2023 alumni event attendees

ISyE Senior Project:

Improving the Procurement Process Photo by PixPro Media

For their senior project, Jacob Bechtold, Natalie Shea, Matthew Berg, E. Sorenson, and Nolan Krause worked in sponsorship and collaboration with Renewable Energy Partners (REP), Minnesota’s only Black-owned solar energy developer, to develop a tool that would improve the procurement process for REP with the overall goal of improving lead times, and increasing company capacity and overall net cost savings.

The project team focused on the procurement process with the understanding that this process, when ideal, will “benefit client relationships, increase net margins on each project, improve project workflow for employees, and allow the company to do more projects by shortening the time from project initiation to completion.”

Considering REP is a growing company with a 6-person team, the project team and REP collaboratively developed a tool for immediate future use that would assist in a cost-effective and reliable way to procure solar equipment. Thus, the project team created a database using Microsoft Excel, which was carefully chosen in collaboration with REP because of their existing spreadsheets consisting of project pricing, budgets and accounting. This database was created into a dashboard, and developed and customized using limited existing datasets and projected simulations to fit the needs and wants of REP. Ultimately, as it states in the students’ final report, this tool will allow “. . . the user to input the wattage requirement, acceptable lead time, and equipment type, and the procurement tool then generates a list of acceptable material options within the given constraints.”

Additionally, the budgeting section of the procurement tool is linked to the dashboard after the list of materials are generated with the intention of maximizing efficiency and no longer requiring some calculations to be done by hand. Upon completion, the project team estimates savings for REP could be between 5-10 percent with the procurement tool.

ISyE Project Team and REP Sponsors

The team expresses that much was learned throughout the course of the project. They explain that defining achievable objectives is key to timeliness, as well as a meaningful projection for all involved. The team explains that, had they spent more time on developing clear objectives with REP in the beginning, more time could have been spent on creating the desired project without unnecessary elements in a more efficient manner.

“Learning to have open and honest conversations about priorities with the sponsors was an important learning experience for the entire team,” say the students in their final report.

Equally, the project team emphasized their ability to excel in internal management. By honing in on each member’s specific strengths, the team was able to effectively divide the work in ways that would most benefit the team and overall quality of the project.

With the rapidly growing demand for solar energy supplies, the project team and REP understand the continued struggle for suppliers, and in the end, the team was able to turn over file ownership to REP with the intention that they will continue to adapt, customize, and utilize the dashboard to address climate change through continued cost-effective solar energy development.

Fall 2023 • 19

ISyE Project team

ISyE Senior Project: Work Cell Layout for Stratasys Photos by PixPro Media

Industrial Systems and Engineering (ISyE) seniors Brandon Blank, Kayla Klemz, Sarah Nord, Madelyn Traynor, and Trishia Vu focused their final project on work cell layout and optimization. Sponsored by Stratasys, one of the largest 3D printing companies in the world located in Eden Prairie, MN, students worked with Jeromy Knapp and Geoffrey Dybicz – both ISyE graduates and employees of Stratasys – to optimize work cell layouts to create “. . . more efficient production processes, double production capacity, and seat more employees without increasing available floor space.”

With consideration of Stratasys’ needs, the students optimized the Finishing and Water Works areas of the facility, and developed a Work-In-Progress (WIP) Inventory Tracking System. To effectively produce the deliverables, the team focused on human factors, lean tools, production and inventory management, and data analysis as a means of methodological analysis.

After the data was collected, the students worked with the AutoCAD program to develop several different floor layouts for the Finish and Water Works areas.

20 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

“

We learned that working on an ISyE senior design project may require skills outside of the traditional ISyE profession, and we were required to learn the necessary skills to successfully deliver to the sponsor.

– ISYE SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT TEAM

After discussing different aspects of each layout, the students combined each layout’s most beneficial aspects, and combined them in order to create one layout that would meet all of the requirements of Stratasys, as well as optimize each area.

To create the final deliverable, the students took into account the understanding that Stratasys had a high volume of moving parts throughout the facility each day, and a system to prioritize which work to focus on would greatly improve employee productivity, as well as reduce late orders and optimize coordinators’ time. Utilizing a color-coded system, as well as an Excel document to begin the process, the team developed a tracking system that could be used to optimize and prioritize the day-to-day requirements of the company. This system, however, does require daily critical ratio information and manual updates.

At the time, the team was unable to observe the results of implementation, but the team determined that, based on the approved floor plans and systems ideas

for tracking Work-in-Progress items, production could increase as much as 50%. Stratasys, however, provided an update in September 2023, and the work completed by the students contributed to the fact the site was able to successfully reach their revenue targets (100% growth) in Q3.

In the end, the team learned many lessons including the importance of fully defining the project summary and scope in the beginning. In their final project report, the team expressed, “This would have made the project timeline and direction easier to plan for . . . and maintain a better vision for what the end goal was, but it is also important to be flexible as project changes occur.”

Equally, the team learned new skills such as AutoCAD and working under the constraints of an NDA. Ultimately, the students reflected: “We learned that working on an ISyE senior design project may require skills outside of the traditional ISyE profession, and we were required to learn the necessary skills to successfully deliver to the sponsor.”

Fall 2023 • 21

My ISyE Story:

Jonathan Cubero Story by JONATHAN CUBERO

ISyE junior Jonathan Cubero shares how Puerto Rico’s history directly connects to his present at ISyE and his future.

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Director of Undergraduate Studies, Lisa Miller, and previous Department Head Saif Benjaafar with the 2023 ISyE Community Scholarship recipients Rushali Desai and Jonathan Cubero.

s a student starting my third year at the University of Minnesota, it is common to hear fellow students within my major discuss their path toward the Industrial Engineering and Systems Engineering (ISyE) degree. The story usually involves having started in some other major and then learning about ISyE from a current student who eventually convinced them that the field of industrial engineering was an interesting and exciting field. I sympathize with these stories, especially because I know that the ISyE degree is not particularly well-known beyond the field of science and engineering. It is for this reason that many peers are surprised when I tell my story and the long trajectory that has led me to the industrial engineering major. From an early age, a lifetime of exposure to economic crisis, dysfunctional financial management, inefficient response to disaster, and the discovery of different ways of handling economic and business matters has, in a certain way, reared me to the industrial engineering field and its emphasis on optimization, effectiveness, and functional application of knowledge to the real world.

My story begins in Puerto Rico, the island I was born and raised on. As a Puerto Rican, I am an inheritor of five centuries of, to say the least, problematic economic institutions, which deeply altered the economic growth trajectory of the island. As a colony of the Spanish Empire, the island developed a highly extractive economy based on the growth of sugarcane

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and coffee, characterized by the maintenance of large latifundia at the expense of the island’s peasantry.

When the United States acquired Puerto Rico in 1898, the American government did little to alter this established economic system until prompted to do so in 1959, following the Fidelista revolution in Cuba.

Under the leadership of President John F. Kennedy and Governor Luis Muñoz Marín, the island launched “Operation Bootstrap”, a program seeking to prove to other Latin American and Caribbean nations that free-market economic development could provide an increase to the quality of life of average citizens.

For many decades, the program proved successful: investment into the industry sector, the provision of favorable tax conditions, and the establishment of welfare programs based on an increased tax pool meant that quality of life in Puerto Rico soared above all other Caribbean and Central American countries from the 1960s to the 1990s. Indeed, my grandparents were direct beneficiaries of the island’s new educational, healthcare, and welfare projects that lifted them out of poverty, and my parents were able to go to college with the hope of getting good-paying jobs in the island’s thriving industrial sector.

A series of factors at the turn of the 21st century intersected to undo decades of progress, and deeply influenced my outlook on economic and business affairs. The end of the Cold War meant that the American government shifted its Latin

American priorities, thus putting an end to Operation Bootstrap; the end of tax protections, the imposition of higher tariffs, and the limiting of financial incentives has severely limited the willingness of American companies to operate in the island. Local politics also grew dependent on infinite growth, displayed in the rise of corruption, the unsustainable and financially unsound growth of welfare programs, and a general lack of incentive to produce local entrepreneurship and industry. The financial collapse of 2008 proved the death knell of the Puerto Rican economy: for fifteen years now, Puerto Rico has had to deal with unsustainable levels of debt, severe austerity, economic decline, and a diminishment of the middle class. I am a product of impoverished education and healthcare, of economic stagnation and its effect on my family, and of the general deterioration of the quality of life of average Puerto Ricans in the 2000s and 2010s.

For this reason, I have been interested from an early age in studying economics and business. I devoured books on these topics dreaming of spending my professional years fixing Puerto Rico’s economic dysfunctionality with more effective and productive approaches to economic development. I knew I wanted to do industrial engineering before I even knew what this term even meant.

Following the devastating effects of Hurricane María on the island in 2017, a poor federal and local response coupled with poor outlooks for economic recovery anytime soon prompted my family to move to Minnesota where my dad could continue working for the company he has been a part of for over twenty years. As a high schooler, I knew that I had to begin planning my academic future, a task I took very seriously. While trying to decide how my plans, my dreams, and the available career options aligned, I discovered industrial engineering from my cousin, who had chosen that major some years back. After learning about ISyE and its emphasis on the continual improvement of systems, processes, and operations, I immediately knew that this is what I wanted to do as a professional, and after learning more about the University of Minnesota’s (U of M) ISyE program, I did not hesitate to apply. I could not have been more excited when that acceptance letter arrived in my mailbox, and to this day I am happy to have chosen this career path.

As a current student at the university, I have learned about the many opportunities provided for students and can proudly say I have made the best use of these to grow within and outside my major. During my first year, for example, I worked with the local chapter of Engineers Without Borders on an aqueducts project in Guatemala, and since January 2022, I have worked with the university’s Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence (MCAE) as an academic consultant, a peer tutor, and an advocate for students whose first language is not English. I continue rooted in ISyE hoping to get an internship and later a job within the field of manufacturing; I hope to pursue a master’s degree in supply chain and operations management sometime in the future.

Beyond my plans, I dream of a day when my skills and experience could be put to beneficial use in Puerto Rico, and I remain optimistic that, through good administration and economic planning, Puerto Rico can return to an era of sustainable economic growth that uplifts the standard of living for future generations on the island.

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After learning about ISyE and its emphasis on the continual improvement of systems, processes, and operations, I immediately knew that this is what I wanted to do as a professional.

– JONATHAN CUBERO

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Fall 2023 • 23

2023 ISyE Graduation: A Collective Effort

On May 12, 2023, the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) department celebrated the Ph.D., M.S., and undergraduate students as they received their degrees via an intimate, but highly attended, graduation ceremony and reception.

This joint ceremony and reception was the first time that both the graduate and the undergraduate degree recipients celebrated this important event together.

and receiving their diploma cover from a faculty member – ISyE Undergraduate Student Services Professional, Katie Sharpe, immediately started researching alternative venues for the event. She quickly landed on the McNamara Alumni Center, the site of the 2021 pandemic-impacted undergraduate commencement.

This event would also honor the 10th anniversary of the ISyE department, as well as the past graduates who did not receive a traditional graduation because of the COVID pandemic. Sharpe explains that “The college had made a comment about how several grad students would want to come back to participate because they did not have the experience to participate in the ’21 or 2022 ceremony because of COVID, so they came back to participate in the 2023 departmental event. It made sense to do everything in one big ceremony, and that really speaks to the culture of our department.”

Though traditionally done in separate ceremonies, the 2023 graduation ceremony came about when the University announced that the traditional commencement venue, 3M Arena at Mariucci, would not be available due to construction. In order to honor the students by making sure that they still would experience the full ceremony – having their names called as they walk across the stage,

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Graduating ISyE senior Will Titus gave a moving speech before the bachelor recipients crossed the stage, and doctoral candidate PA Nguyen spoke before the masters and doctoral recipients received their hoods from their faculty advisors. This ceremony gave undergraduates, especially those in the ISyE integrated program, a chance to see the hooding ceremony of the masters and doctoral students, giving them a glimpse into their near and potential future. Sharpe explains, “The students feel so connected to ISyE, and this ceremony and reception allowed them to celebrate and be recognized with their faculty and their classmates and their department.”

ISyE Undergraduate class of 2023

John Farrell, parent of ISyE graduate, Sean Farrell, and rising senior, Erin Farell, reflected: “It was a wonderful experience and done with the respect and class that the event warranted. The last few years have not been easy for everyone involved and we felt the ceremony was exactly what the students needed.”

The class of 2023 can be viewed as a resilient group, especially with their college career marked with the COVID pandemic. Sharpe emphasizes: “ . . . seeing students and meeting their families when they graduate pulls the whole picture together of what we provide for

them in the ISyE department. In the end, we see their development and growth over time, and the students know they are ready to launch into their careers. But with this ceremony, the department really got to see this change collectively and hear the students’ stories from their families and loved ones, and all of that really emphasizes the collective pride for the [ISyE program] and graduates.”

The department is excited celebrate the Graduate and Undergraduates of 2024 in the returned traditional format.

ISyE Ph.D. graduates of 2023

Fall 2023 • 25

GRADUATE PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

ISyE at the Mayo Clinic M.S. graduate Sabrina Albertson is helping to study treatments for congenital heart conditions As an undergraduate mathematics major at South Dakota State University, Sabrina Albertson excelled in math and statistics, leading her to take a position as a statistical programmer at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. At Mayo Clinic, Albertson soon became involved in projects that kindled her interest in an exciting new area: Industrial Engineering. That interest led her to enroll in the M.S. program in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Minnesota, and to, ultimately, receive her M.S. degree in ISyE, which helped open doors for her to move into a new position at Mayo Clinic where she applies ISyE skills to help study and develop life-saving new treatments.

After initially joining Mayo Clinic, Albertson knew that she wanted to go back to school for a graduate degree, but did not know what area she would pursue. At Mayo Clinic, she began working on projects with an internal Industrial Engineering (IE) group and soon realized that the IE work was helping bring meaningful, applicable health benefits to people; this piqued her interest. Looking back, she notes: “I realized that the IE work was very translational. I met a lot of people with Industrial Engineering degrees at Mayo, but before that I didn’t know that there was such a thing as an IE degree.”

Albertson subsequently looked into the University of Minnesota’s ISyE M.S. program, and learned that her background in mathematics made her a great fit to pursue her M.S. in ISyE. She was also drawn to the possibility of pursuing her degree while simultaneously continuing to work at Mayo Clinic. She joined the M.S. program shortly before the onset of the COVID pandemic, and got a chance to meet faculty members and other fellow students in person during her first few semesters in the program. After the pandemic started, she continued taking courses remotely from Rochester, MN. She especially enjoyed her IE courses in Decision Analysis and Project Management, and emphasizes that they were indicative of the breadth of topics covered in IE, ranging from the mathematical (Decision Analysis) to the managerial (Project Management).

Shortly after completing her M.S. degree in ISyE, Albertson moved into a new position as a Senior Data Science Analyst at Mayo Clinic. In that position she has been deeply involved in trials of experimental new treatments for pediatric patients with a particular type of congenital heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). The condition is treated with a series of three open heart surgeries. The experimental new treatments involve taking blood from a child’s own umbilical cord at birth. Stem cells are extracted from that blood, cleaned, and then injected back into the heart during one or two of the surgeries. In these clinical trials, Albertson has taken on many IE-related responsibilities such as process improvement, managing projects and research teams, and analyzing data on the The M.S. program set me up outcomes of the experimental treatments.

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Moving forward, Albertson hopes to continue to contribute to high-impact translational projects.

Whatever direction she takes, her ISyE skillset will certainly come in handy.

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for every unique role that I fill at my current job.

– SABRINA ALBERTSON

Exploring the Intersection of Optimization and Machine Learning

ISyE Ph.D. student Chuan He studies optimization algorithms that can improve machine learning models

While pursuing his Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at Xiamen University in China, Chuan He became especially interested in the area of optimization. When still an undergraduate, he got involved in optimization research, working with a faculty member at Xiamen to study optimization algorithms that arise in the context of Lasso regression, a technique from statistics and machine learning that can help improve a statistical model.

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With his interest piqued, He decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Operations Research with a focus on optimization.

He was particularly excited about the possibility of doing The ISyE Department allowed research at the intersection of optimization and machine me to build experience in learning. Machine learning has countless applications optimization and gives me in areas such as recommendation systems, image recognition, natural language processing, computer confidence to explore other vision, and many others. Optimization plays an important areas and applications. role in machine learning where the question of how best to fit a machine learning model to data can be posed as – CHUAN HE an optimization problem. After considering a number of universities for graduate studies, He decided to enroll in the Ph.D. program in Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at the University of Minnesota because of its outstanding reputation for research in optimization. Looking back, he commented that “One reason I found Minnesota to be such a good place is that the faculty have a very strong theoretical background. This appealed to me because I used to study math.”

After joining ISyE at University of Minnesota, He dove into coursework in optimization and machine learning from ISyE as well as from the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments. Soon, he joined ISyE Professor Zhaosong Lu’s research group and began studying complexity theory of algorithms that are used to find what is called a second-order stationary point of a non-convex optimization problem. Such problems are prevalent in machine learning applications and are typically very difficult to solve, necessitating the development of specially designed algorithms to ensure high quality solutions. Roughly speaking, complexity theory seeks to describe the computational speed of an algorithm. Under Professor Lu’s supervision, He made important advances that have greatly improved our understanding of such algorithms and problems. Some of this work was published in the prestigious SIAM Journal on Optimization, which is a publication of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).

As he nears the completion of his Ph.D., He hopes to pursue a career in academia. As a step in that direction, he plans to take a position as a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Ju Sun in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. In that position, he will build on his Ph.D. work and will study distributed optimization approaches that can be applied when data for a machine learning problem resides in separate locations.

Fall 2023 • 27

ISyE GRADUATE APPLIES

Operations Research at Netflix Ph.D. graduate Hamidreza Badri helps Netflix manage its portfolio of movies and programs Badri joined Netflix in Los Angeles in 2018 as part of the Content Data Science and Engineering team, and has worked on many exciting projects using optimization, machine learning, and observational causal inference. For example, he has recently been addressing questions about how Netflix should divide its spending to acquire different genres of content.

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he popular streaming service Netflix offers its subscribers countless movies and a wide variety of television programs such as Queen’s Gambit, Bridgerton, and Stranger Things.

Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) Ph.D. graduate Hamidreza Badri is employed as a Staff Data Scientist at Netflix where he uses operations research to help decide what sorts of movies and programs to offer, and when they should come and go from the service.

Badri was always interested in using mathematics to address practical real-world problems. This drew him to the field of industrial engineering, and more specifically, to operations research. After completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Sharif University in Iran, Badri joined the Ph.D. program in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Under the supervision of ISyE Professor Kevin Leder, Badri’s Ph.D. dissertation focused on how to use stochastic models and optimization to create radiation and chemotherapy treatment plans for cancer patients. Along the way, he took many courses in optimization, stochastic models, and machine learning to support his dissertation research. The foundation laid with that coursework has turned out to be remarkably useful in his job at Netflix, even though he is working in an application domain far from the cancer therapy planning that was at the center of his dissertation research.

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How much should it spend to acquire dramas? How much for comedies? How much for science fiction? Answering such questions is essential for Netflix so that it can present an appealing collection of programming to its existing customers and also attract new customers. To tackle this issue, Badri developed content portfolio optimization models that seek to balance the risk and return associated with various types of programs. Netflix uses the output from those models to make high-level budgeting decisions that, ultimately, help inform its decisions about acquiring or developing individual movies or programs.

When commenting on what he likes best about his work, Badri notes, “Being able to use optimization and machine learning to help the business improve its decision making is super rewarding.” As he follows his passion for applying mathematics, Badri is sure to continue to use operations research to address challenging practical problems in the future.

I came to the U of M because a lot of faculty were working on optimization and stochastic modeling. I saw an opportunity to learn those skills.

– HAMIDREZA BADRI

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT NEWS AND UPDATES

Jean-Philippe Richard awarded NSF and AFORS grants Dr. Richard has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) award to develop data-driven methods for helping counties allocate budgets to combat the opioid epidemic. Collaborating with experts from various fields, including public health, sociology, criminology, and political science at West Virginia University, as well as industrial engineering at SUNY Binghamton, Dr. Richard’s project aims to link county expenditure data with relevant public health and public safety data. By utilizing recent advances in machine learning and utility theory, the project seeks to provide county policymakers with decision support models for effective resource allocation in the battle against the opioid epidemic, using data collected from the state of West Virginia (which has been severely impacted) for validation.

Dr. Richard also received a grant from (Air Force Office of Scientific Research) AFOSR to address optimization challenges encountered by the Air Force due to uncertain operational conditions and adversarial elements.

The problems in question incorporate machine learning components inside of more traditional optimization models, broadening their applicability. By leveraging the unique structures of these machine learning models, the project seeks to develop novel solution methods, focusing on both efficiency and scalability.

Kathryn Wust wins New Investigator - Clinical Care Award Dr. Wust won the New Investigator - Clinical Care Award through the Institute on Aging - University of Wisconsin - Madison for exemplary research in clinical care research for older adults. She was able to present her research to older adults in the community, which extends the reach of ISyE research beyond the university.

ISyE Upcoming Conferences • Network Science and Economics • April 19-21, 2024 • Conference Hosts: Ankur Mani (ISyE), Krishnamurthy Iyer (ISyE), and David Rahman (Economics) • Network science applications can succinctly represent interactions among friends and colleagues in social settings, economic and financial linkages among firms and businesses, adoption of new products via word-of-mouth, and the spread of epidemics. Their prevalence has led to extensive cross-disciplinary research in recent years, combining expertise from operations research, economics, marketing, and computer science. This conference will feature recent research on these social and economic networks.

• INFORMS Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Conference • June 30-July 2, 2024 • Conference Chair: Saif Benjaafar (University of Michigan), Conference Co-Chairs: William Cooper (ISyE) and Kris Iyer (ISyE), Organizing Committee Members: Nick Arnosti (ISyE), Tony Cui (UMN CSOM), Karen Donohue (UMN CSOM), Sherwin Doroudi (ISyE), Ankur Mani (ISyE) • The University of Minnesota will host the INFORMS MSOM Conference in summer 2024.

The conference is sponsored by the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society (MSOM) of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

As the premier conference in the area of operations management, it will bring together about 500 attendees and will feature roughly 15 parallel tracks of talks by leading academics and practitioners.

Fall 2023 • 29

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT NEWS AND UPDATES

Recent Seminars FALL 2022

SPRING 2023

September 28 Kaisa Taipale, C.H. Robinson “Time Series Forecasting in Logistics”

February 22 Martin Zubeldia, University of Minnesota “Concentration of Contractive Stochastic Approximation and Applications to Reinforcement Learning”

October 5 Nishith Pathak, Wargaming “Using Deep Networks and Transfer Learning for Player Experience Management in Online Games” October 12 Paul Milgrom, Stanford University “Long-run Performance of Approximation Algorithms” October 26 Mike Bailey, Core State Science, Meta “The Role of Social Networks in Economic Mobility” November 2 Jorge Ramos-Mercado, University of Minnesota “Reasons for Peace: Negotiations and the Holding Principle” November 9 Xiaotang Yang, University of Minnesota “Human in the Loop Automation: Ride-hailing with Remote (Tele-) Drivers” November 16 Ashish Kapoor, Microsoft Research “NextGen Robotics with Simulation and Pretraining” November 30 Yoni Acriche, Bravado “Finding the Perfect Salesperson: Advanced Job Matching Models in Bravado” December 7 Laura Albert, University of Wisconsin-Madison “On Designing and Operating Resilient Voting Systems”

March 15 Rajan Udwani, University of California Berkeley “Submodular Order Functions and Assortment Optimization” March 22 Yongjia Song, Clemson University “Multi-stage Stochastic Programming Models and Approaches for Hurricane Relief Logistics Planning” March 29 Mark Newman, University of Michigan “Message Passing Methods for Networks” April 5 Frank E. Curtis, Lehigh University “Stochastic Algorithms for Solving Constrained Optimization Problems” April 12 Lei Ying, University of Michigan “Mean Field Approximation, Stein’s Method, and State Space Concentration: A Trident for Understanding Large-scale Stochastic Systems” April 14 Russell Allgor, Amazon.com “Automating and Optimizing: Behind Amazon’s Workforce Planning Systems April 19 Illya V. Hicks, Rice University “May the Force Be With You” April 26 Stefanus Jasin, University of Michigan “Revenue Management Meets Inventory Management” April 27 Sven Leyffer, Argonne National Laboratory “Topological Design Problems and Integer Optimization”

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Recent Publications N. Arnosti and W. Ma, “Tight Guarantees for Static Threshold Policies in the Prophet Secretary Problem,” Operations Research, 2022.

S. Benjaafar and S. Shen, “Pricing in On-Demand (and One-Way) Vehicle Sharing Systems,” forthcoming in Operations Research, forthcoming.

O. Jouini, S. Benjaafar, B. Liu, S. Li, and B. Legros, “Appointment-Driven Queueing Systems with NonPunctual Customers,” Queueing Systems, 2022.

J. Anunrojwong, K. Iyer, and D. Lingenbrink, “Persuading Risk-Conscious Agents: A Geometric Approach”, Operations Research, 2023.

E. Gunnarsson, J. Foo, and K. Leder, “Statistical Inference of the Rates of Cell Proliferation and Phenotypic Switching in Cancer,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2023.

J. Foo, E. Gunnarsson, K. Leder, and D. Sivakoff, “Dynamics of Advantageous Mutant Spread in Spatial Death-Birth and Birth-Death Moran Models,” Communications on Applied Mathematics and Computation, 2023.

Z. Lu and S. Mei, “Accelerated First-Order Methods for Convex Optimization with Locally Lipschitz Continuous Gradient,” SIAM Journal on Optimization, 2023.

C. He and Z. Lu, “A Newton-CG Based Barrier Method for Finding a Second-Order Stationary Point of Nonconvex Conic Optimization with Complexity Guarantees,” SIAM Journal on Optimization, 2023.

M. Ito, Z. Lu, and C. He, “A Parameter-Free Conditional Gradient Method for Composite Minimization under Holder Condition,” Journal of Machine Learning Research, 2023.

Y. Zhu and A. Mani, “Investigating Churn in Physical Activity Challenges: Evidence from a US Online Social Network,” Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, 2023.

N. Mirzavand Boroujeni, J.-P. P. Richard, D. Sterling, and C. Wilke, “A Linear Optimization Model for High Dose Rate Brachytherapy using a Novel Distance Metric,” Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2023 A. Estes and J.-P. P. Richard, “Smart Predict-thenOptimize for Two-Stage Linear Programs with Side Information,” INFORMS Journal on Optimization, 2023.

A. Dunbar, S. Sinha, and A. J. Schaefer, “Relaxations and Duality for Multiobjective Integer Programming,” Mathematical Programming, forthcoming.

I. Tsaknakis, M. Hong, and S. Zhang, “Minimax Problems with Coupled Linear Constraints: Computational Complexity, Duality and Solution Methods,” SIAM Journal on Optimization, forthcoming.

C. Garner and S. Zhang, “Linearly-Convergent FISTA Variant for Composite Optimization with Duality,” Journal of Scientific Computing, 2023.

D. Zhu, L. Zhao, and S. Zhang, “A First-Order Primal-Dual Method for Nonconvex Constrained Optimization Based on the Augmented Lagrangian,” Mathematics of Operations Research, 2023.

A. Goyal, Y. Zhang, and C. He, “Decision Rule Approaches for Pessimistic Bilevel Linear Programs Under Moment Ambiguity with Facility Location Applications,” INFORMS Journal on Computing, 2023 D. Gamarnik, J. Tsitsiklis, and M. Zubeldia, “Stability, Memory, and Messaging Tradeoffs in Heterogeneous Service Systems,” Mathematics of Operations Research, 2022 D. Rutten, M. Zubeldia, and D. Mukherjee, “Distributed Rate Scaling in Large-Scale Service Systems”, ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review, 2023.

M. Choraria, I. Ferwana, A. Mani, and L. Varshney, “Learning Optimal Features via Partial Invariance,” AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2023.

Fall 2023 • 31

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32 • Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering