Students
Current and former graduate students
Note to Prospective Students
I enjoy working with graduate students. PhD students that I collaborate with are strong in algorithms and programming or have a strong mathematical background, ideally both. They are passionate about solving challenging business problems using reinforcement learning, optimization, and high dimensional statistics. Masters students that I work with are computationally strong and self-motivated to learn new technical material and methods. Please see below for past students, their profiles, and nature of work. Before emailing me, I recommend that you do the following: • Browse through my research publications and working papers to identify any past projects or ongoing work that is of interest to you. Read such papers more carefully and include specifics of what you find interesting in your email. • I welcome new ideas outside my ongoing or past work. If you are contacting me with a new idea for collaboration, kindly indicate why my involvement would be useful (it may not be!). • If applicable, please consult with your PhD advisor and make sure they are onboard.
Current PhD Students
Mahtab Raeisdanaei
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Background: BS in Industrial Engineering, Amirkabir University
Research: Reinforcement learning, large language Models, hierarchical planning
Satender Gunwal
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Background: BS and MS in Mathematical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)
Research: grid investment and operations, machine learning simulations
Arman Amanipanah
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Background: BSc in Applied Mathematics, University of Tehran
Research: Future of education and AI, meta reinforcement learning
Former PhD Students
Alessio Trivella
Management Engineering, Denmark Technical University
Thesis: Decision making under uncertainty in sustainable energy operations and investments
Co-supervisors: David Pisinger and Stein-Erik Fleten
Graduated: Fall 2018
First Position: Post-doctoral fellow, ETH Zurich
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Operations Research, Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems, University of Twente
Bo Yang
Operations Management, Carnegie Mellon University
Background: BS in Industrial Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology; MS in Management Sciences and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univer
Thesis: A pathwise optimization approach for reinforcement learning in merchant energy operations
Co-supervisors: Nicola Secomandi
Graduated: Spring 2022
First Position: Post-doctoral fellow, Columbia University
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Danial Mohseni Taheri
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Background: BSc in Industrial Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology
Research: Energy, machine learning, operations-finance interface
Thesis: Reinforcement learning for real options: Planning under uncertainty and limited data
Graduated: Spring 2021
First Position: Senior Machine Learning Scientist, JP Morgan
Current Position: Senior Machine Learning Scientist at JP Morgan
Andreas Kleiven
Industrial Economics and Technology Management, NTNU
Background: BSc in Statistics and MSc in Applied Physics and Statistics, NTNU
Thesis: Investment and operational planning under uncertainty
Co-supervisors: Stein-Erik Fleten
Graduated: Spring 2022
First Position: Power Associate, Citadel
Current Position: Power Associate at Citadel
Parshan Pakiman
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Background: BSc in Applied Mathematics, University of Tehran
Thesis: Self-guided approximate linear programs: Randomized multi-shot approximation of Markov decision processes
Graduated: Spring 2023
First Position: Post-doctoral fellow, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Operations Management, School of Management, University of Buffalo
Former Masters Students
Akshay Balachandran
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Research: Inverse reinforcement learning and shopper marketing
Graduated: Spring 2017
First Position: Associate Data Scientist, ZS Associates
Current Position: Vice President at Alix Partners
Abhilash Chenreddy
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Research: Inverse reinforcement learning and shopper marketing
Graduated: Fall 2018
First Position: Associate Data Scientist, ZS Associates
Current Position: Applied Research Scientist, Microsoft
Karthikeyan Venugopal
Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Research: Retail operations and optimization
Graduated: Fall 2015
First Position: Supply Chain Analyst, Home Depot
Current Position: Manager of Advanced Analytics at Walmart