Join us for a session that prepares you, our Ph.D. students, for taking the qualifying exam. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome.

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There will be no Zoom link for this meeting. This will allow students to feel comfortable asking questions without being recorded.

Title

Preparing for Qualifying Exams

Biographies

Regan Richardson

Regan Richardson received her bachelor's degree in Mathematics with a minor in Data Analytics from Furman University in 2024. She is in her second year of the Ph.D. program in Operations Research. Her current area of research is in applications and methodology of causal discovery. Her advisors are Maria Mayorga and Osman Ozaltin. In her free time, Regan enjoys reading, ice skating and taking ballet classes.

Joshua Grassel

Joshua Grassel earned his Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from California Polytechnic State University in 2021. During his undergraduate studies, he completed three internships—two in manufacturing engineering and one in logistics engineering. Josh began his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering at Arizona State University in Fall 2021 and transferred to the Operations Research Ph.D. Program at NC State in Fall 2023. His research under Escobedo has spanned topics such as the wisdom of crowds and sustainable solid waste management. Currently, he is focusing on optimization algorithms with an interest in numerical precision. Outside of academia, Josh enjoys cooking, playing board games, running, cycling and exploring the outdoors with his wife and dog.

Joao Gabriel De Souza Vale

Joao Gabriel De Souza Vale is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Operations Research at North Carolina State University. He earned his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Brasilia in Brazil. He has experience with Data Science and contributed to research in simulation and machine learning. His research interests lie in combining machine learning and optimization to improve decision making.