Shows
Optimizing YouDr. Evelyn Gong: Reinforcement Learning Algorithms for Business ProblemsSend us a textEvelyn Xiao-Yue Gong is an Assistant Professor of OM at Tepper. She has a PhD from the ORC at MIT, where she was advised by David Simchi-Levi and Jim Orlin. She spent summers at Google Research, Microsoft, HelloFresh, and DE Shaw. Her main research pertains to AI for supply chain and sustainability. She also works on assortment optimization and data-driven decision making.In the first half of the episode, we discuss her journey from being a PhD student to an assistant professor.In the second half of...2024-04-0845 minOptimizing YouDr. Mariana Escallon Barrios: Teaching, Scheduling Volunteers at Nonprofits, and Harvesting Operations at an Oil Palm PlantationSend us a textMariana Escallon Barrios is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Information Systems at CMU in our Heinz College. She earned her PhD in IEMS from Northwestern where she was advised by Karen Smilowitz. She worked on modeling and solution approaches to logistics problems in nonprofit settings. She is an active member of INFORMS and WORMS.We discuss her decision to become a teaching professor at CMU, her research on scheduling volunteers at a nonprofit, her research on harvesting operations at an oil palm plantation, and her teaching philosophy.Check...2024-03-0158 minOptimizing YouDr. Woody Zhu: Generative Models for Public Policy MakingSend us a textWoody (Shixiang) Zhu is an Assistant Professor of data analytics at Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. He received his PhD in Machine Learning at Georgia Tech in ISyE. He develops models for spatio-temporal data and dynamic networks, and decision making under uncertainty. He was a finalist for the 2021 INFORMS Wagner prize and won second place in the 2019 INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR.First 1/2:We discuss Woody's decision to pursue a PhD in ML at Georgia Tech, and we discuss Woody's decision to become a professor at...2023-07-2358 minOptimizing YouDr. Jourdain Lamperski - Linear Programming and Calibrating Model Parameters using OptimizationSend us a textJourdain Bernard Lamperski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh, and a PhD in Operations Research from the Operations Research Center at MIT where he was advised by Robert M. Freund. His research interests include optimization, machine learning, and healthcare.We discuss Jourdain's career:- Why did he choose to go to MIT ORC?- How did he choose what to work on and his advisor?- Why...2023-05-061h 09Optimizing YouDr. Bryan Wilder - ML/Optimization: Decision Making in Social SettingsSend us a textBryan Wilder is an Assistant Professor in the Machine Learning Department at CMU. He received a B.S. in computer science at University of Central Florida, and then started a PhD in computer science at the University of Southern California with advisor Milind Tambe, and then they transferred over to Harvard together. His research focuses on AI for equitable data-driven decision making in high-stakes social settings, and integrating methods from machine learning, optimization, and social networks. He has won loads of awards including a Schmidt AI2050 Early Career Fellowship and Siebel Scholar...2023-04-0147 minOptimizing YouDr. Michael Hamilton: Pricing Loot Boxes and Opaque GoodsSend us a textMichael Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Business Analytics and Operations at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business. He received his PhD in 2019 in OR from Columbia University advised by Adam Elmachtoub. Before that he studied math at Rutgers. He studies pricing, prescriptive analytics, and market design.We discuss how Michael decided to study OR, reasons why he enjoys his position as a professor, his research on pricing with Loot boxes and Opaque goods, and his work on a project to help black-owned businesses in Pittsburgh called 412Connect....2023-01-2450 minOptimizing YouDr. Oliver Hinder: Gradient Descent for Solving Linear ProgramsSend us a textOliver Hinder is an Assistant Professor in Industrial Engineering Department at University of Pittsburgh. Before that he was a visiting post-doc at Google in the Optimization and Algorithms group in New York and received his PhD in 2019 in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford working with professor Yinyu Ye. He studies local optimization, gradient descent, both convex and nonconvex problems, etc.We chat about Oliver moving to the U.S. from New Zealand to start his PhD at Stanford; we talk about some of his recent work on gradient descent methods...2022-06-1840 minOptimizing YouDr. Yash Puranik: Working at Aimpoint Digital / Research on BARONSend us a textYash graduated in 2016 from a PhD program in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University where he was advised by Dr. Nick Sahinidis . He now works as a Senior Data Scientist as Aimpoint Digital.We discuss Yash's experience as a PhD student, some of his research on BARON, his transition to a full-time job, and his current role at Aimpoint. Yash also has some great life advice for PhD students.Check it out!2022-06-0154 minOptimizing YouDr. Destenie Nock: Impacts of COVID on Energy ConsumptionSend us a textDr. Nock is an Assistant Professor of Engineering & Public Policy and Civil & Environmental Engineering at CMU. She received her PhD in IEOR in 2019 from UMass Amherst, and she does a lot of cool research on energy systems, sustainability, and equity.We talk about building a strong advisor-student relationship where Dr. Nock advises students to over-communicate, set SMART goals, and pursue passions outside of work. Dr. Nock gives some great advice for working as a PhD student.Then, we discuss her research on the impacts of COVID on energy consumption...2022-03-0349 minOptimizing YouChris Villi: Working at FedEx Ground / Shipping ProblemsSend us a textChris Villi has worked at FedEx Ground over the past 21 years. Chris currently holds the role of Operations Research Principal - providing technical leadership surrounding coordination of OR efforts, investment in OR professionals, and advancement of OR.We chat about Chris' background, difficulties around solving problems in practice versus theoretically, and a current OR project that Chris is working on to optimize some of the shipping done by FedEx Ground.Enjoy!2022-02-141h 15Optimizing YouDr. Andrew Li: Active Sequential Hypothesis TestingSend us a textDr. Andrew Li is an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University.In this episode, we start by chatting about his background. We discuss his decision to enter a PhD program in Operations Research, experience and thoughts on the academic job market, and some advice for current students.We delve into his transition from student to advisor, and discuss the responsibility of an advisor to provide interesting projects to students. From here, we also discuss the soft skills of giving good academic presentations and how one can improve their academic...2022-01-291h 20Optimizing YouDr. Ben Moseley: Learning Augmented AlgorithmsSend us a textDr. Ben Moseley - professor at CMU - discusses his research and his work with Relational AI. His research includes learning-augmented algorithms, which combines machine learning based predictions with algorithms for common problems like maximum matchings. He also works on scheduling related problems. Dr. Moseley gives some insights into why he enjoys being a professor in Operations Research, and how he enjoys working on theoretical problems with practical applications. We also play a couple fun games - "Name That Algorithm" and "This or That".2021-11-1935 min
The Richard Syrett ShowThe Richard Syrett Show - June 4, 2021 - Ford Govn't Lacking Clarity, Uncovered Fauci Emails, Color Us United & Alliance Canada Hong KongCatch up on what you missed on an episode of The Richard Syrett Show. Richard Syrett kicks off the show with a good friend of the show, Lou Schizas. NewBlue Party of Ontario Co-Founder and Cambridge MPP Belinda Karahalios on the Ford Government's lack of clarity on re-opening. Author & Chairman of Freedom Watch, Larry Klayman speaks on the uncovered Anthony Fauci emails. Lim Riddler riddles you a new one. Author of: “An Inconvenient Minority,” Kenny Xu talks about his new initiative: Color Us United - Advocates for a color-blind America. Plus, Harry of Alliance Canada Hong Kong discusses the...2021-06-051h 30