BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Operations Research Graduate Program - ECPv6.18.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://or.ncsu.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Operations Research Graduate Program REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261012T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261012T173000 DTSTAMP:20261014T200307Z CREATED:20261002T121659Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T200307Z UID:10000132-1791822600-1791826200@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Jorge Mejia DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Jorge Mejia\, associate professor in the Poole College of Management here at NC State\, as he discusses the role of sourcing channels in the Opioid epidemic. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nDon’t worry\, you can watch it now. \nPasscode: w+?.=0as \nTitle and Abstract\nTurning a Blind Eye: Role of Pharmacy–Supplier Sourcing Channels in the Opioid Epidemic \nProblem definition: In regulated supply chains\, public agencies often rely on firms within the supply chain to monitor trading partners\, given these firms’ access to information that external regulators may lack. However\, such delegated monitoring often proves challenging because firms with commercial ties to those they monitor may have weaker incentives to report suspicious behavior. This challenge raises the question of how ties formed through sourcing channels shape the effectiveness of delegated monitoring. We examine this question in the U.S. prescription opioid supply chain\, where pharmaceutical suppliers are legally required to monitor pharmacy orders and report suspicious activity to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)\, by studying how sourcing-channel characteristics are associated with pharmacy over-dispensing. \nMethodology/results: Using the DEA’s ARCOS database and the 2010 OxyContin reformulation as a quasi-experimental shock to the opioid market\, we analyze hundreds of millions of opioid transactions from 2006 to 2014. We examine two sourcing channels that may provide suppliers with more information about the pharmacies they supply while weakening their incentives to report suspicious activity\, namely small-supplier sourcing and vertically integrated sourcing. Among independent pharmacies\, a 10-percentage-point higher small-supplier share is associated with 2.2% greater over-dispensing\, with a stronger association when suppliers are more financially dependent on their pharmacy customers. Among chain pharmacies\, a 10-percentage-point higher self-distribution share is associated with 11.8% greater over-dispensing\, with a stronger association when distribution and dispensing are less organizationally separated. Greater county-level reliance on these channels is also associated with higher prescription opioid-related mortality. \nManagerial implications: Our findings highlight an important tension in delegated monitoring. Sourcing channels that give monitors more information may not produce stronger oversight when financial dependence or limited organizational separation weakens their incentives to report. Effective monitoring systems should therefore account for both the information available to delegated monitors and their incentives to act on it. Regulators can use sourcing-channel characteristics\, such as customer dependence and vertical integration\, to identify where additional scrutiny or independent oversight may be warranted\, and firms can strengthen compliance by insulating monitoring functions from commercial management. \nBiographies\nJorge Mejia is an associate professor of information technology\, analytics and operations at NC State’s Poole College of Management. An interdisciplinary scholar at the intersection of information systems\, operations management and data science\, he studies how information\, transparency and analytics shape behavior and resource allocation on digital platforms and in operational systems\, including how they can improve performance and expose hidden costs or inequities. Combining experiments and econometrics\, his research spans digital-platform governance\, service operations\, public health and supply chains\, and humanitarian operations. His work has appeared in Management Science\, MIS Quarterly\, Information Systems Research\, Production and Operations Management\, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management\, Nature Communications and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He was recognized by the INFORMS Information Systems Society with the Gordon B. Davis Young Scholar Award and the Bapna-Ghose Social Justice Best Paper Award. Before joining NC State\, he was an associate professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He holds a Ph.D. in information systems from the University of Maryland and M.S. and B.S. degrees from Georgia Tech. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-jorge-mejia-10-12-2026/ LOCATION:2331 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2331\, Raleigh\, North Carolina\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/10/seminar-series-jorge-mejia-10-12-2026-featured-image-10-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260928T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260928T173000 DTSTAMP:20260929T145314Z CREATED:20260807T185626Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260929T145314Z UID:10000123-1790613000-1790616600@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Foot Locker DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Devon Person\, ISE alumnus and VP of Supply Chain Operations\, and his team from Foot Locker\, as they discuss data-driven supply chains. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nDon’t worry\, you can watch it here. \nPasscode: t&x50EfU \nTitle and Abstract\nLeading Data-Driven Supply Chains \nOperations research can tell you what an optimal supply chain looks like. Getting a large organization to build it is a different problem\, and it mostly comes down to people. Devon Person will draw on experience leading major supply chain changes to talk about managing teams across departments\, explaining data to executives\, and ensuring improvements last after the project ends. \nThis session will be a discussion built around audience questions\, focusing on leadership and professional skills. Please submit your questions for the speaker using this form. \nBiographies\nDevon Person serves as Vice President of Supply Chain Operations for Foot Locker. Throughout his career\, he has led complex global supply chain organizations and major business transformation projects. Before joining Foot Locker\, Person held executive leadership roles at Hanesbrands Inc.\, Eaton\, SPX Flow and GE. In addition\, he participated in GE’s executive development program and gained broad industry experience. \nPerson also serves on the NC State Industrial and Systems Engineering Advisory Board. Previously\, he served on the United Way of Forsyth County Board. Throughout his career\, Person has supported recruiting and retaining minority talent. For example\, he helped create several global employee resource groups for African American employees. \nPerson earned bachelor’s degrees in industrial engineering and textile engineering from NC State. Later\, he earned a master’s degree in supply chain management from Penn State University. Additionally\, he completed executive leadership training with McKinsey and earned several professional certifications. Because of his achievements\, NC State honored him with Outstanding Young Alumni awards in 2021 and 2023. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-foot-locker-09-28-2026/ LOCATION:2331 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2331\, Raleigh\, North Carolina\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/08/seminar-series-foot-locker-09-28-2026-featured-image-08-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260921T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260921T173000 DTSTAMP:20260922T204020Z CREATED:20260807T175839Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T204020Z UID:10000122-1790008200-1790011800@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: ORGSA Panel DESCRIPTION:Join the Operations Research Graduate Student Association (ORGSA) as they discuss current topics of interest to new and current students\, including how to prepare for your upcoming qualifying exam. All OR alumni and friends are welcome. \nJoin Zoom Meeting\nhttps://ncsu.zoom.us/j/98145617839?pwd=ACJseKz0ZMW1iHEZfiyv3XYxA25iMV.1 \nMeeting ID: 981 4561 7839\nPasscode: 424214 \nPanelist Biographies\nKyle Polage is a second year PhD student in Operations Research. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Washington State University and a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington. He is working with George List from Civil Engineering exploring logistics in transportation and aviation. His hobbies include traveling\, tennis and chess.\nRegan Richardson received her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with a minor in Data Analytics from Furman University in 2024. She is in her third year of the Operations Research PhD program. 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\, Richardson enjoys reading\, watching hockey and taking ballet classes.\nMady Pennino is a third-semester (non-thesis) master’s student in Operations Research. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2025\, earning a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and licensure to teach secondary math (grades 4-12). In addition to coursework\, she currently works as both a GA in the College of Engineering and a Process Analyst intern for a food/pharma machine manufacturing company. While not in class or at one of her “main jobs\,” you can find Pennino listening to music\, riding her motorcycle\, or at her “fun job”–Event Security for the Carolina Hurricanes.\nCamryn Deames is a second year Ph.D. student in Operations Research. She has a Bachelors of Science in Economics from United States Air Force Academy and a Master’s of Science in Operations Research from the Air Force Institute of Technology. Camryn is working with Seb Heese and Tim Kraft in the business school on research relating to tariffs\, sourcing decisions and ESG initiatives. She is also working with Benjamin Rachunok on a topic in adaptive relocation and managed retreat. Outside of school Deames enjoys reading\, tennis and finding new coffee spots in town. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-orgsa-panel-09-21-2026/ LOCATION:2331 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2331\, Raleigh\, North Carolina\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-orgsa-panel-11-03-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260914T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260914T173000 DTSTAMP:20260915T131459Z CREATED:20260807T174733Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T131459Z UID:10000121-1789403400-1789407000@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: David Rasmussen DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming David Rasmussen\, associate professor in the Entomology and Plant Pathology Department at NC State\, as he discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDo You Miss It? \nWatch it Now \nPasscode: gqP%0?9m \nTitle and Abstract\nDynamically optimizing pathogen genomic surveillance to inform the management of antimicrobial resistance \nGenomic surveillance of infectious pathogens provides many insights into their epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics not available from other sources of data. Yet it is generally unclear how to design surveillance strategies that maximize information gain while minimizing costs. By adopting a sequential decision making framework\, we previously showed how Markov decision processes (MDPs) can be applied to optimize genomic surveillance. However\, this framework only considered the statistical information gained from surveillance; not the value of this information to disease control efforts. Using antimicrobial resistance (AMR) management as a case study\, we extend our MDP framework to consider how to jointly optimize both surveillance and control (i.e. disease treatment). This creates a challenging optimization problem because there is both a resource allocation trade-off and a trade-off between the short-term benefits of antimicrobial use to reduce near-term disease prevalence and the long-term costs of antimicrobial use due to resistance evolution. To find optimal strategies\, we take advantage of reinforcement learning methods based on Deep Q-Learning to predict the long-term expected rewards (future healthy patient days) of different surveillance and treatment strategies. Learning to predict these long-term rewards allows us to find surveillance strategies that that can be leveraged to improve AMR management through acquiring information about the evolutionary dynamics of AMR. \nBiographies\nDavid Rasmussen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at NC State. He leads the Phylodynamics Research Group\, which develops new computational and statistical methods for genomic epidemiology\, population genomics and phylogenetics. https://phylodynamics.wordpress.ncsu.edu/ URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-david-rasmussen-09-14-2026/ LOCATION:2331 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2331\, Raleigh\, North Carolina\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/08/seminar-series-david-rasmussen-09-14-2026-featured-image-08-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260831T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260831T173000 DTSTAMP:20260901T120706Z CREATED:20260801T182042Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260901T120706Z UID:10000120-1788193800-1788197400@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: NC State Libraries DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Kristy Borda and Alp Tezbasaran\, NC State Librarians\, as they discuss using library spaces\, services and AI tools. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid you Miss it?\nDon’t worry\, you can watch it now.\nPasscode: z8q5Kt$6 \nTitle and Abstract\nResearch 101: Libraries Spaces\, Services and AI Tools \nIn this session\, you will learn about the Libraries spaces and services that exist to support graduate student learning and research. You will also learn about AI tools that can support your research process at various stages\, including literature searching\, citation management\, data cleaning and preparation and coding. \nBiographies\nKristy Borda is a Research Librarian for Sciences & Instructional Strategy at NC State University Libraries. She holds a Masters of Library and Information Science from Kent State University and a Bachelors of Science from The College of William & Mary. Kristy collaborates with faculty and students across STEM disciplines through instruction and outreach. She is currently focused on integrating AI literacy into research and learning. \nAlp Tezbasaran is a Data Science Librarian in the Data Science Services Department at the NC State University Libraries. In his role\, Alp leads instruction on AI and Python programming topics\, provides consultation on data science topics and tools\, and manages the Data Labs (Dataspace and Data Experience Lab) to provide specialized hardware and software to patrons. Alp is a PhD student in Nuclear Engineering\, Research Adjunct in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences\, and a Research Affiliate at Coastal Carolina University. His research is on High Performance Computing\, AI\, and ML applications in Nuclear Engineering Probabilistic Risk Assessment. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-nc-state-libraries-08-31-2026/ LOCATION:2331 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2331\, Raleigh\, North Carolina\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/08/seminar-series-nc-state-libraries-08-31-2026-featured-image-08-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260824T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260824T173000 DTSTAMP:20260827T184208Z CREATED:20260801T164628Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260827T184208Z UID:10000118-1787589000-1787592600@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:Fall 2026 Welcome Back Orientation DESCRIPTION:This seminar session is devoted to welcoming everyone back and introducing the new graduate students. All OR students and faculty are invited to attend. After the introductions\, an orientation session is held to review requirements for new students and to answer questions. \nCan’t make it in person?\nZOOM URL: https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/98145617839?pwd=ACJseKz0ZMW1iHEZfiyv3XYxA25iMV.1\nMeeting ID: 981 4561 7839\nPasscode: 424214 URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/fall-2026-welcome-back-orientation/ LOCATION:2331 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2331\, Raleigh\, North Carolina\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/operations-research-leadership-maria-mayorga-1500x844-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260817T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260817T173000 DTSTAMP:20260827T184003Z CREATED:20260801T165736Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260827T184003Z UID:10000119-1786984200-1786987800@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:Fall 2026 OR Meet and Greet DESCRIPTION:Kick off the new semester by connecting with the Operations Research community at the Operations Research Meet and Greet. Whether you are a new or returning student\, this event offers a relaxed way to meet fellow students\, faculty and staff before classes get into full swing. \nEnjoy free food\, lawn games and casual conversations while building connections that can support you throughout the year. You can learn more about the Operations Research Program\, meet classmates across degree levels and get to know the faculty outside the classroom. It is also a great opportunity to ask questions\, share experiences and welcome new members of the OR community. \nThe event is open to all Operations Research students and faculty and will be held on Tuesday\, August 18\, from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. at Angel Plaza\, outside Fitts-Woolard Hall. We look forward to welcoming you and helping you start the semester with new connections and a strong sense of community. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/fall-2026-or-meet-and-greet/ LOCATION:Angel Plaza\, 915 Partners Way\, 2nd Floor Entrance\, Raleigh\, North Carolina\, 27606 CATEGORIES:OR Program Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/08/operations-research-fall-2026-meet-and-greet-featured-image-08-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260508T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260508T100000 DTSTAMP:20260217T165248Z CREATED:20260106T184522Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260217T165248Z UID:10000019-1778230800-1778234400@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:Spring 2026 Graduation Ceremony DESCRIPTION:The ISE\, OR and MEM Spring 2026 Graduation Ceremony begins at 9 am with a reception right after the service. This semester’s speaker is ISE Distinguished Alumnus Tim Trainor. The ceremony will be live-streamed (https://go.ncsu.edu/isegraduation) starting at 8:45 am for friends and families to enjoy. The event will be held at the McKimmon Center in Room 2 on NC State’s campus\, and parking is FREE. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/spring-2026-graduation-ceremony/ LOCATION:McKimmon Center\, 1101 Gorman Street\, Raleigh\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Program Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/graduation-ceremony-default-feature-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260428T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260428T210000 DTSTAMP:20260218T190727Z CREATED:20260108T150925Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260218T190727Z UID:10000029-1777399200-1777410000@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:4th Annual Alumni Reunion DESCRIPTION:Join us for a special night of food and drinks as we celebrate another alumni reunion at Trophy Brewing on April 28th\, 2026! Don’t miss this opportunity to socialize with fellow OR faculty and students\, as well as OR alums and their families. We will also celebrate student achievements\, and your families are welcome to attend. \n\nMaria Mayorga\, OR Director\, will welcome you and share updates on the program’s latest developments and future plans.\nEnjoy a delicious dinner with entrees\, appetizers\, desserts\, and a selection of beer and wine.\nHear a special address from the Outstanding Alumni Award recipient.\nCelebrate the achievements of our newest graduates.\nWatch as the Salah E. Elmaghraby Distinguished Student Award is presented.\nGrab some free swag or goodies at various points throughout the event! URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/annual-alumni-reunion-04-28-2026/ LOCATION:Trophy Brewing\, 827 W. Morgan Street\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27603 CATEGORIES:OR Program Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/spring-2026-or-alumni-reunion-04-28-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260420T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260420T173000 DTSTAMP:20260421T131719Z CREATED:20260107T193213Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260421T131719Z UID:10000027-1776702600-1776706200@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Thiago Serra DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Thiago Serra\, assistant professor at the University of Iowa\, as he discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDi You Miss It?\nDon’t worry\, you can watch it now \nPasscode: G7C+KUy! \nTitle and Abstract\nOptimization over Trained Neural Networks: Going Large with Gradient-Based Algorithms \nWhen optimizing a nonlinear objective\, one can employ a neural network as a surrogate for the nonlinear function. However\, the resulting optimization model can be time-consuming to solve globally with exact methods. As a result\, local search exploiting neural network structure has been employed to find good solutions within a reasonable time limit. For such methods\, a lower per-iteration cost is advantageous when solving larger models. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First\, we propose a gradient-based algorithm with lower per-iteration cost than existing methods. Second\, we further adapt this algorithm to exploit the piecewise-linear structure of neural networks that use Rectified Linear Units (ReLUs). In line with prior research\, our methods become competitive with—and then dominant over—other local search methods as the optimization models grow. \nJoint work with Jiatai Tong (Northwestern)\, Yilin Zhu and Sam Burer (University of Iowa). \nBiographies\nThiago Serra is an assistant professor of business analytics at the University of Iowa. His scholarship focuses on the theory\, practice\, and integration of machine learning and mathematical optimization. Previously\, he was an assistant professor at Bucknell University\, a visiting research scientist at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs\, and an operations research analyst at Petrobras. He has a Ph.D. in operations research from Carnegie Mellon University\, from which he received the Gerald L. Thompson Doctoral Dissertation Award in Management Science. He also has a master's degree in computer science from the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and a computer engineering degree from the University of Campinas (Unicamp). He has served as vice chair (2022-2023) and chair (2024-2025) of the INFORMS Computing Society. He also serves as an associate editor for the journals INFORMS Journal on Computing and INFORMS Journal on Data Science. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-thiago-serra-04-20-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-thiago-serra-04-20-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260413T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260413T173000 DTSTAMP:20260414T121310Z CREATED:20260107T192734Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260414T121310Z UID:10000026-1776097800-1776101400@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Maged Dessouky DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Maged Dessouky\, Tryon Chair in ISE at Southern California University\, as he discusses models for facilitating ridesharing. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDID You Miss It?\nDon’t worry. You can watch it NOW. \nPasscode: qEg!0BJy \nTitle and Abstract\nModels for Facilitating Ridesharing \nAlthough ridesharing can provide a wealth of benefits\, such as reduced travel costs\, reduced congestion and\, consequently\, less pollution\, there are a number of challenges that have restricted its widespread adoption. In fact\, even at a time when improving communication systems provides real-time\, detailed information that could facilitate ridesharing\, the share of work trips that use ridesharing has decreased by almost 10% over the past 30 years. In this seminar\, Dessouky presents a classification and taxonomy to understand the key aspects of ridesharing systems and models\, thereby facilitating their widespread use. The objective is to present a framework to help identify key challenges in the widespread adoption of ridesharing and to foster the development of effective formal ridesharing mechanisms that overcome these challenges and promote its adoption. \nBiographies\nMaged M. Dessouky is Tryon Chair in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Professor and Chair in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. His research area is transportation system optimization where he has authored over 115 refereed publications. His paper “Optimal Slack Time for Schedule Based Transit Operations” was awarded the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Best Paper Prize. He is a Fellow of IISE and INFORMS and serves as Associate Director of METRANS\, a center focused on solving important urban transportation problems. He is currently associate editor of Transportation Research Part B: Methodological and on the editorial board of Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review\,\nand previously served as area editor of the ACM Transactions of Modeling and Computer Simulation\, department editor of IISE Transactions\, area editor of Computers and Industrial Engineering\, and associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. He has won numerous teaching awards including USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of California\, Berkeley\, and M.S. and B.S. degrees from Purdue University. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-maged-dessouky-04-13-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-maged-dessouky-04-13-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260406T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260406T173000 DTSTAMP:20260330T143708Z CREATED:20260107T174558Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260330T143708Z UID:10000025-1775493000-1775496600@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Preparing for Qualifying Exams DESCRIPTION: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. \nJoin Zoom Meeting\nThere will be no Zoom link for this meeting. This will allow students to feel comfortable asking questions without being recorded.\nTitle\nPreparing for Qualifying Exams \nBiographies\nRegan Richardson\n\nRegan 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.\nJoshua Grassel\n\nJoshua 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. \nJoao Gabriel De Souza Vale\n\nJoao 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. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-preparing-qualifying-exams-04-06-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-preparing-for-qualifying-exams-04-06-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260330T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260330T173000 DTSTAMP:20260330T154235Z CREATED:20260116T135705Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260330T154235Z UID:10000031-1774888200-1774891800@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:[CANCELED] OR Seminar: David Rasmussen DESCRIPTION:NOTE: There has been a cancellation. Therefore\, no seminar will be held today. \nJoin Zoom Meeting\nhttps://ncsu.zoom.us/j/98859624475?pwd=6ei7OBEGOYXJEoMyujk1tVj4OBsVem.1 \nMeeting ID: 988 5962 4475\nPasscode: 655269 \nTitle and Abstract\nDynamically optimizing pathogen genomic surveillance to inform the management of antimicrobial resistance \nGenomic surveillance of infectious pathogens provides many insights into their epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics not available from other sources of data. Yet it is generally unclear how to design sampling strategies that maximize the amount of epidemiological useful information when finite resources limit sampling to only a small fraction of all cases. By adopting a sequential decision making framework\, we recently showed how Markov decision processes (MDPs) can be applied to optimize genomic sampling. However\, this framework only considers the statistical information gained from genomic surveillance and not the value of this information to disease control efforts. While it is clear that control strategies require reliable up-to-date information\, it is less clear how to optimize surveillance to inform control strategies. Using antimicrobial resistance (AMR) management as a case study\, we consider how to jointly optimize both surveillance and control (i.e. treatment). This creates a challenging optimization problem because there is both a resource allocation trade-off and a trade-off between the short-term benefits of antimicrobial use to reduce near-term disease prevalence and the long-term costs of antimicrobial use due to resistance evolution. To find optimal strategies\, we take advantage of reinforcement learning methods based on Deep Q-Learning to predict the long-term expected rewards (future healthy patient days) of different surveillance and treatment strategies. Learning to predict these long-term rewards allows us to find surveillance strategies that can be leveraged into improved AMR management strategies through acquiring information about the evolutionary dynamics of AMR. \nBiography\nDavid Rasmussen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at NC State. He leads the Phylodynamics Research Group\, which develops new computational and statistical methods for genomic epidemiology\, population genomics and phylogenetics. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-david-rasmussen-03-30-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-david-rasmussen-03-30-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260323T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260323T174500 DTSTAMP:20260324T121611Z CREATED:20260108T145327Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260324T121611Z UID:10000028-1774283400-1774287900@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: High Performance Computing DESCRIPTION:Join us for a session that enhances your high-performance computing skills. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It\nDon’t worry. Watch it Now\nPasscode: 0Ucg2+*A \nTitle and Abstract\nResearch Computing Resources: HPC\, VCL and Beyond \nAre you working on research and running into the limitations of your desktop? Are you wondering what else is available? That’s the subject of this seminar! Operations Research and the\nISE department have resources available to you right now through the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) and remote desktops. We’ll also have representatives from NC State’s High-Performance\nComputing (HPC) cluster show you how to request access to and begin running your code on our world-class computing network. Finally\, we’ll leave you with helpful resources to get started and the steps you’ll need to log in and use the Linux-based systems they run on. \nDuring this seminar\, we will be discussing the following topics: \n\nScaling Up: How to know when your project needs more power.\nAvailable Tools: Navigating the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) and remote desktops.\nHPC Live Demo: A guided walkthrough of NC State’s High-Performance Computing cluster.\nStudent Case Studies: Learn how senior PhD students scale computational tools for their research.\nExpert Q&A: Direct access to HPC experts for your specific use cases.\n\nReach out to us with any questions and if you’d like to be granted access to the HPC to try the demo yourself or test your own examples. \nBiographies\nJustin Lancaster\nAs a 2004 graduate of NC State\, Justin Lancaster returned to his Alma mater in 2007 as an employee of The College of Engineering. He specializes in systems administration and manages the ISE department’s day-to-day IT functions\, including the IT and Design Center\, research computing and endpoint management. \nAndrew Petersen\nAndrew Petersen is a Computer Scientist at NC State University High Performance Computing (HPC) and the Principal Investigator for a 2023–2025 NSF award focused on expanding campus GPU capacity for AI and data-intensive research. He leads university efforts to deploy local LLM services and scalable RAG infrastructure. Additionally\, he is a lecturer for the Data Science & AI Academy\, where he works to democratize large-scale analytics by deploying Apache Spark and MATLAB MPS for use across all academic disciplines. \nWill Kirschenman\nWill Kirschenman has served 15 years in the U.S. Army\, first as an Engineer and now as an Operations Research / Systems Analyst (FA49). He is in his final year of the Operations Research (OR) Ph.D. program at NC State University and will subsequently join the OR department faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey\, California. His doctoral research focuses on multi-level prioritized packing for both general and military applications\, developing efficient metaheuristic and matheuristic algorithms to solve these problems. He received his M.S. in Operations Research from George Mason University and his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He and his wife have three children and enjoy fitness\, the outdoors\, and spending time together as a family. \nCameron Lisy\nCameron Lisy is a 6th year Ph.D. student who has experience with research applying linear programming to natural gas commodity market clearing. His primary tools are the open-source modeling library Pyomo\, developed at Sandia National Laboratory\, and Gurobi. He has made use of both the ISE VCL computing resources and written scripts to run many parallel instances of his model together on NC State’s high performance computing cluster. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-high-performance-computing/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-high-performance-computing-03-23-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260309T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260309T173000 DTSTAMP:20260310T120057Z CREATED:20260107T172028Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260310T120057Z UID:10000024-1773073800-1773077400@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Karla Hoffman DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Karla Hoffman\, professor at George Mason University\, as she discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nDon’t worry\, watch it now\nPasscode: @q9VuQJ# \nTitle and Abstract\nSuccessful OR Consulting: A Case in Telecommunications \nIn this presentation\, we present how the optimization team at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been using mathematical optimization to: \n\nAssist in the design and running of the highly successful Incentive Auction that resulted in revenues of close to $20 Billion.\nSchedule the reassignment of over 1000 broadcast TV stations to new channels for over-the-air broadcasting in the United States and Canada in order to free up spectrum for mobile use and 5G and\nDescribe our continued work for the FCC for both auctions and spectrum availability mapping. We will present “lessons learned” and provide advice on applying optimization and operations research in government and industry settings.\n\nBiographies\nKarla Hoffman works at the Research Department of the School of Engineering and Computing of George Mason University\, where she had been Chair for five years ending in 2001. She is past President of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and served on the Board of the International Federation of Operations Research Societies (IFORS). Previously\, she worked as a mathematician in the Operations Research Department of the Center for Applied Mathematics of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). \nDr. Hoffman has received multiple awards including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Jacob Rabinow Applied Research Award\, the Commerce Department Silver Medal\, and multiple faculty and professional society awards. She is a Fellow of both INFORMS and the International Federation of OR Societies (IFORS). She was part of a team that won the 2018 Edelman Prize for their work on the FCC Spectrum Incentive Auction\, as well as part of the team that received the 75th Annual Technical and Engineering Emmy® Awards of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences for the Incentive Auction and the Repacking of the TV Stations after the auction. \nDr. Hoffman’s primary areas of research are combinatorial optimization and auction theory\, design\, and testing. She consults with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on auction design and testing. Her consulting activities include working with federal agencies\, including DOT\, DOE\, NASA\, and the DOD. She has also consulted to a variety of corporations including U.S. Airways\, Delta Airlines\, Northwest Airlines\, and American Airlines on fleet assignment and crew-scheduling problems. She has worked with the Disney Corporation\, Florida Rock Industries\, and GrubHub on real-time scheduling. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-karla-hoffman-03-09-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-karla-hoffman-03-09-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260302T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260302T173000 DTSTAMP:20260303T143626Z CREATED:20260115T211859Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260303T143626Z UID:10000030-1772469000-1772472600@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Cranos Willilams DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Cranos Williams\, Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Analytics at NC State\, as he discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDID You Miss It?\nDon’t worry. You can Watch it Here!\nPasscode: 2JaK%+U3 \nTitle and Abstract\nHarnessing the Ag data revolution for modeling plant and agronomic systems across scale \nThe next revolution in precision agriculture solutions will require an improved understanding of the complex regulatory mechanisms that are instrumental in plant growth\, development\, and adaptation. Key in these efforts is the ability to acquire and analyze data across biological scales (from molecular to phenotypic scales). High-throughput data that have been collected across biological scales include molecular data such as gene expression profiles and confocal imaging to data capturing plant physiology such as hyperspectral imaging and remote sensing. The diversity of these datasets (in combination with the complexity of plant systems) has created opportunities to develop novel computational intelligence and machine learning approaches that are capable of modeling plant systems within and across biological scales. In this presentation\, we provide a brief overview of approaches for analyzing various types of high-throughput biological data. These approaches address the many challenges associated with analyzing biological data\, including the need to mitigate high variation and/or uncertainty in data\, the need for novel segmentation and feature extraction\, and the integration of disparate datasets for making causal inferences across scale. The application of these approaches has led to scientific contributions such as the modeling of key gene regulatory mechanisms involved in plant stress response\, the identification of emergent properties that link molecular activity to phenotypic outcomes\, and the development of automated high-throughput phenotyping approaches for early detection of plant diseases. The continued acquisition of high-throughput data across scale and the continued development of novel machine learning and modeling tools will provide opportunities to further push the boundaries of our understanding of plant systems and will be key to a better understanding of how plants respond to complex environments. \nBiographies\nCranos Williams is the Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Analytics at North Carolina State University with primary and secondary appointments in the electrical and computer engineering and plant and microbial biology departments\, respectively. Dr. Williams also serves as the Platform Director of the Data-Driven Plant Sciences research platform of the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative and is the head of the EnBiSys Research Laboratory. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University in 2001\, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University in 2002 and 2008\, respectively. Dr. Williams has developed a highly collaborative\, multidisciplinary research program focused on understanding biomolecular pathways associated with plant growth\, development\, and adaptation. His research lab develops methodologies familiar to other areas of electrical and computer engineering (e.g.\, computational intelligence\, system identification\, nonlinear systems analysis and control\, and signal processing) to model and predict the impact that genetic and environmental perturbations have on overall plant response. The results from these works will have direct implications on key challenges associated with engineering plants for efficient biofuel production\, increased adaptability to changing environments\, and improved defense to biotic and abiotic stresses. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-cranos-williams-03-02-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-cranos-williams-03-02-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260223T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260223T173000 DTSTAMP:20260224T134653Z CREATED:20260107T144439Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260224T134653Z UID:10000023-1771864200-1771867800@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Will Kirschenman DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming OR’s own Will Kirschenman\, Ph.D. candidate\, as he discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss it?\nDon’t woory. You can watch it here.\nPasscode: 5rgjapU+ \nTitle and Abstract\nA Multi-Level Prioritized Packing Framework for Spatial Optimization \nClassical two-dimensional bin packing problems focus on spatial efficiency but overlook operational priorities such as placement sequencing\, item grouping\, and access point\nproximity—critical considerations in military combat loading. This dissertation introduces a prioritization-driven packing framework integrating concepts from facility layout planning. \nThe core contribution is a flexible weighted-distance objective function that manages both item-to-item cohesion and item-to-access-point proximity. A matheuristic solution approach substantially outperforms monolithic optimization in computational efficiency while producing high-quality prioritized layouts. The framework is then extended to incorporate load balancing—a global constraint coupling all item placements—requiring novel matheuristic adaptations including in-stride balancing and post-processing strategies. \nThe research expands to multi-vessel assignment\, developing a genetic algorithm tailored to this problem and guided by a lower-bound-derived proxy objective. Comprehensive factorial experiments enable trade-off analysis of vessel preferences under varying operational conditions\, identifying when and why certain vessel types are preferred. \nThis work advances the integration of operational prioritization into spatial optimization\, balancing utilization with tactical priorities. The framework offers direct applicability to military logistics and broader industrial contexts including warehousing and humanitarian relief operations. \nBiographies\nWill Kirschenman has served 15 years in the U.S. Army\, first as an Engineer and now as an Operations Research / Systems Analyst (FA49). He is in his final year of the Operations Research (OR) Ph.D. program at NC State University and will subsequently join the OR department faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey\, California.\nHis doctoral research focuses on multi-level prioritized packing for both general and military applications\, developing efficient metaheuristic and matheuristic algorithms to solve these problems. He received his M.S. in Operations Research from George Mason University and his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He and his wife have three children and enjoy fitness\, the outdoors\, and spending time together as a family. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-will-kirschenman-02-23-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-will-kirschenman-02-23-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260216T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260216T173000 DTSTAMP:20260217T155054Z CREATED:20260107T135047Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260217T155054Z UID:10000021-1771259400-1771263000@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Charles Nunn DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Charles Nunn\, professor and Director of the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine at Duke\, as he discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nDon’t worry. You can watch it now\nPasscode: BU8Z*%cj \nTitle and Abstract\nOne Health Network Epidemiology in Northeast Madagascar \nThe zoonotic disease “pandemic life cycle” captures spillover of a pathogen from animals into people\, transmission among people locally\, and inter-community transmission\, with the pathogen eventually connecting into global transportation networks. I use data from Madagascar to show how the early stages of this life cycle can be investigated using network modeling from human movement data and survey instruments\, coupled with biological sampling for parasites and pathogens. With these methods\, we map the transmission pathways involved in disease spillover and subsequent transmission in human populations\, and importantly\, identify the socio-demographic drivers of connectivity on epidemiological networks. \nBiographies\nCharles Nunn is the Gosnell Family Professor of Global Health and Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. He is also the Director of the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM). Nunn uses evolutionary approaches to understand and improve human and animal health. He and his research group investigate the ecology and evolution of infectious disease\, climate change and health\, and evolutionary medicine. Nunn addresses these questions using phylogenetic methods\, mathematical modeling\, and through fieldwork in Madagascar. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-charles-nunn-02-16-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-charles-nunn-01-26-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260209T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260209T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T201856Z CREATED:20260107T140758Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T201856Z UID:10000022-1770654600-1770658200@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Hana Chmielewski Long DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Hana Chmielewski Long\, research assistant professor at NC State\, as she discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nWatch it NOW \nPasscode: ?=$7iQM1 \nTitle and Abstract\nApplications of AI and Machine Learning in Civil and Environmental Engineering \nResearchers have successfully applied optimization and machine learning methods for decades in various civil and environmental problems; but\, there is often a disconnect between the advanced techniques applied in journal papers\, and the methods that can benefit practicing engineers and the public—and that disconnect is often data availability and quality. I will discuss ongoing research in applying AI/ML in urban flash flood prediction\, reservoir control\, and risk prediction of environmental contaminants\, as well as using AI/ML to address data limitations. \nBiographies\nHana Chmielewski Long serves as research faculty in the Department of Civil\, Construction\, and Environmental Engineering and the Operations Research program\, and as the Coordinator for Data and AI at Work for the Data Science and AI Academy. Her work bridges data science and machine learning\, engineering and workforce development—focusing on how AI and data tools can strengthen infrastructure resilience\, inform environmental decision-making\, and impact engineering practice\, ethics\, and public health. Drawing on research experience in both academia and public-sector engineering\, Long currently leads interdisciplinary projects on AI-augmented flood warning\, water security\, and how data and AI transform professional training in engineering and management. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-hana-chmielewski-long-02-09-2026/ LOCATION:2341 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way Fitts-Woolard Hall\, Room 2341\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2026/01/seminar-series-hana-chmielewski-longnunn-02-09-2026-featured-image-01-2026-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251211T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251211T150000 DTSTAMP:20250827T141902Z CREATED:20250827T133422Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250827T141902Z UID:10000012-1765458000-1765465200@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:Fall 2025 Graduation Ceremony DESCRIPTION:The Fall 2025 Graduation Ceremony begins at 1 pm with a reception right after the service. The ceremony will be live-streamed (http://go.ncsu.edu/isegraduation) starting at 12:45 pm for friends and families to enjoy. The event will be held at the McKimmon Center in Room 2 on NC State’s campus\, and parking is FREE. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/fall-2025-graduation/ LOCATION:McKimmon Center\, 1101 Gorman Street\, Raleigh\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Program Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/graduation-ceremony-default-feature-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251201T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251201T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T202146Z CREATED:20250827T131227Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T202146Z UID:10000011-1764606600-1764610200@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Brian Lunday DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Brian Lunday\, retired colonel at AFIT\, as he discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nJoin Zoom Meeting\nhttps://ncsu.zoom.us/j/99989048564?pwd=p24TVn1pdVDUBJCvPfWKOCsDcyRblQ.1\nMeeting ID: 999 8904 8564\nPasscode: 638150 \nTitle and Abstract\nMotivating Your Research Pursuits: Iter Meum\, Iter Tuum (My Journey\, Your Journey) \nWhat motivates you to pursue your research? What will influence your development and pursuit of future\, compelling research threads? This talk shares one approach to identify your own research journey\, both in and beyond graduate studies. In doing so\, the speaker will share elements of his experiences that individually and collectively informed his past\, current\, and future research pursuits. Additionally\, this presentation will motivate and share recent research to model and optimally solve instances of a two-player\, adversarial location problem\, heretofore unexamined in the literature: the location set covering disruption problem. \nBiographies\nBrian J. Lunday is a Professor of Operations Research at the Air Force Institute of Technology\, where he teaches linear and nonlinear programming\, networks\, and game theory; advises graduate-level student research; and manages the Master of Science in Operations Research program. His research and advising have yielded six graduated PhD students and 36 graduated master’s students to date\, along with 65 peer-reviewed technical publications related to over $2M of research supporting nine sponsoring agencies. He is also a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel\, having served over 20 years in various leadership positions as both a combat engineer and an operations analyst. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-brian-lunday-12-01-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-brian-lunday-12-01-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251124T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251124T173000 DTSTAMP:20250827T130200Z CREATED:20250827T130200Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250827T130200Z UID:10000010-1764001800-1764005400@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Thanksgiving Celebration DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming all OR students\, faculty\, staff and alumni to a warm Thanksgiving celebration of community\, gratitude and Wolfpack spirit. All alumni and friends of the OR Program are invited. \nThe Importance of Thanksgiving Celebration\nThanksgiving is more than a holiday. It is a time when you reflect\, show gratitude\, and build connections. You pause from busy routines and appreciate the people and opportunities around you. As a result\, you see how even small blessings can shape your life. \nFor students\, faculty\, staff\, and alumni\, Thanksgiving also strengthens community. When you gather\, you feel part of something larger. Therefore\, you remember that you share experiences\, values\, and purpose with others. Through a shared meal\, you connect across generations and backgrounds. \nIn addition\, Thanksgiving highlights generosity. You practice kindness\, offer support\, and give back in meaningful ways. For example\, you might volunteer\, share your time\, or encourage a friend. These actions extend the holiday’s spirit beyond one day. \nMost importantly\, Thanksgiving reminds you of togetherness. When you celebrate\, you grow stronger as a community. Moreover\, you recognize that gratitude can guide your actions all year. In this way\, Thanksgiving becomes more than a tradition. \nUltimately\, the holiday encourages you to reflect\, give thanks\, and act with kindness. By doing so\, you carry its meaning forward. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-2025-thanksgiving/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Program Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-thanksgiving-celebration-11-24-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T202627Z CREATED:20251103T140811Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T202627Z UID:10000014-1763397000-1763400600@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Umut Dur DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Umut Dur\, Truist Distinguished Professor of Economics\, as he discusses improving access to quality Chinese education. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid you Miss It?\nDon’t worry\, Watch it Now!\nPasscode: p@*ZEr4U \nTitle and Abstract\nWho Gets the Bonus? High School Admission Reforms in China \nChina implements reforms to improve access to quality high school education for students from underperforming middle schools by awarding bonus points to a select group of students. Our study reveals significant flaws in practice due to challenges in determining how bonuses should be distributed. We propose a choice rule that “endogenously’’ identifies bonus-recipients and show that it is the unique acceptant and fair choice rule that efficiently assigns the bonus. Embedded in the deferred acceptance (DA) mechanism\, it ensures stability\, strategy-proofness\, and constrained optimality among the mechanisms assigning bonuses efficiently and fairly. Empirical analysis shows that our proposal significantly improves representation for underperforming schools and effectively assigns the bonus to the “right’’ students. \nBiographies\nUmut Dur is a Truist Distinguished Professor of Economics and an Operations Research Graduate Program faculty member at NC State University. He is a University Faculty Scholar and an Academy of Outstanding Teachers member. His research is on market design\, focusing on school choice\, college admissions\, and affirmative action policies. He has been involved in the design of public school admission procedures in Wake County\, and his research played key roles in the redesign of public school admission procedures in Boston and Chicago. He is an academic advisor for the Measuring\, Selection\, and Placement Center (OSYM) in Turkey\, the organization that runs the centralized college placement procedure for more than 2 million students annually. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-umut-dur-11-17-20205/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251110T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251110T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T202729Z CREATED:20250827T125151Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T202729Z UID:10000009-1762792200-1762795800@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Nasser Salmasi DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Nasser Salmasi\, Principal Operations Research Scientist at Simple Rose\, as he discusses current operations research topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nJoin Zoom Meeting\nCan’t make it in-person?Watch it Here\nMeeting ID: 999 8904 8564\nPasscode: 638150 \nTitle and Abstract\nOptimal Scheduling Solutions through Constraint Enhancement for Minimizing Breaks in Round Robin Sports Competitions \nIn this study\, we examine the compact single round-robin sports scheduling problem to minimize the number of breaks. Because this goal differs from reducing travel distances or costs\, it introduces unique scheduling challenges. Furthermore\, we focus on break reduction because consecutive home or away games can create unfair advantages and reduce excitement. By limiting breaks\, we aim to ensure fairness\, boost fan engagement\, and simplify team logistics. \nAlthough the problem is not NP-hard\, we use the classical Circle Method to find an optimal break solution. However\, this method often yields schedules with poor practical quality due to a high carry-over effect. Moreover\, it becomes ineffective when real-world constraints arise. Until now\, only one mathematical model has addressed break minimization in general form. Unfortunately\, that model struggles with problems involving more than 14 teams. \nIn contrast\, we develop a highly efficient mathematical model that optimally solves instances with up to 30 teams. Additionally\, our model addresses common practical constraints commonly found in real-world scheduling scenarios. To demonstrate its effectiveness\, we apply it to the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League preliminary round. Remarkably\, our model produces a schedule with only four breaks\, which improves upon the official schedule’s 62 breaks. Finally\, its performance is confirmed by solving several benchmark single-round-robin problems that were previously unsolved in the literature. \nBiographies\nNasser Salmasi serves as a principal operations research scientist at SimpleRose\, a software development company in the United States. Due to his strong background in operations research\, he contributes to solving complex optimization problems across various industries. Previously\, he spent eight years as a senior operations research scientist at Corning Incorporated\, a company specializing in the manufacture of optical fiber and cable. During that period\, he developed advanced models that improved production efficiency and resource allocation. \nBefore joining Corning\, Salmasi worked as an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran\, Iran. Moreover\, he supervised over 50 graduate students and published more than 40 papers in international\, peer-reviewed journals. His academic work demonstrated consistent innovation in applied research and quantitative analysis. \nSalmasi earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Oregon State University. Additionally\, he holds both an MSc and a BSc degree in Industrial Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. His main research areas include applied operations research\, scheduling\, and simulation. Through this expertise\, he continues to bridge academic theory with industrial application. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-nasser-salmasi-11-10-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-nasser-salmasi-11-10-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T203626Z CREATED:20250826T205512Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T203626Z UID:10000008-1762187400-1762191000@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: ORGSA Panel DESCRIPTION:Join the Operations Research Graduate Student Association (ORGSA) as they discuss current topics of interest to new and current students\, including how to prepare for your upcoming qualifying exam. All OR alumni and friends are welcome. \nJoin Zoom Meeting\nhttps://ncsu.zoom.us/j/99989048564?pwd=p24TVn1pdVDUBJCvPfWKOCsDcyRblQ.1 \nMeeting ID: 999 8904 8564\nPasscode: 638150 \nPanelist Biographies\nWill Kirschenman\nWill Kirschenman has served 15 years in the U.S. Army\, first as an Engineer and now as an Operations Research / Systems Analyst (FA49). He is in his final year of the Operations Research (OR) Ph.D. program and will subsequently join the OR department faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey\, California. His research focuses on multi-level prioritized packing for both general and military applications\, developing efficient metaheuristic and matheuristic algorithms to solve these problems. He and his wife have three children and enjoy fitness\, the outdoors\, and spending time together as a family. \nCameron Lisy\nCameron is a 6th year PhD student in Operations Research whose research and career interests include fossil fuel market dynamics and how they impact the cost and reliability of the power grid. \nAndrew Shaeffer\nAndrew Shaeffer is 23 years old from Cleveland\, Ohio. He graduated from the US Air Force Academy with a Bachelors of Science in Operations Research at US Air Force Academy in 2024. Additionally\, he graduated with a Masters of Science in Operations Research at NC State in December 2025. He was then assigned at JB Langley-Eustis in Hampton\, VA where he worked as an Operations Research Analyst providing support to Air Combat Command. His thesis involves using Simulation to Optimize Batting Lineups in Major League Baseball. His hobbies include running\, playing sports\, watching sports\, lifting\, movies\, trivia\, and painting. \nElizabeth Harris\nElizabeth Harris is a third year Ph.D. student in Operations Research. She has a bachelors of science in Mathematics and Chemistry from Furman University. Elizabeth is working with Dr. Rachunok and her research interests are developing\, however she’s currently looking into the interactions between power and cell outages after natural disasters. Outside of school Elizabeth enjoys singing and is even in an a capella group at NC State! URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-informs-11-03-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-orgsa-panel-11-03-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251020T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251020T173000 DTSTAMP:20251021T121803Z CREATED:20250826T204428Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251021T121803Z UID:10000007-1760977800-1760981400@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: INFORMS Practice Talks DESCRIPTION:Come out and support OR Ph.D. Students as they practice their talks for the upcoming INFORMS Annual Conference. \nDid You Miss It?\nDon’t worry. You can Watch it here.\nPasscode: #2%kENkQ \nStudents\n\nJoshua Grassel\nRegan Richardson\nHou-An Chen\nCameron Lisy\n\nTalk Title\, Abstract and Biographies\nJoshua Grassel\n\nStress Testing the Numerical Stability of LP and MIP Solvers \nModern solvers for linear programming (LP) and mixed-integer programming (MIP) are indispensable tools in optimization\, yet they can yield incorrect results due to roundoff errors from floating-point arithmetic. These errors\, such as reporting suboptimal solutions as optimal or misidentifying problems as infeasible\, cast doubt on solver reliability. Their impact is particularly acute in domains requiring high numerical precision\, such as biochemical modeling\, astrophysics simulations\, compiler optimization\, and mathematical proofs. To mitigate these issues\, various strategies have been developed\, including presolve scaling\, algorithm tuning\, and exact arithmetic subroutines. However\, current evaluation practices rely heavily on standard problem libraries\, which may not expose numerical weaknesses in a consistent or generalizable way. This research proposes a novel framework for generating synthetic LP instances that systematically stress test solvers’ numerical robustness. Inspired by worst-case complexity constructions\, the framework allows control over key parameters\, such as variable count and coefficient precision\, enabling exploration of solver behavior under varying numerical stress. Each generated problem is guaranteed to have an exactly representable input data in floating-point\, ensuring that any observed errors originate from solver internals rather than input encoding. This approach provides a systematic method for testing solver reliability and benchmarking numerical stability. The presentation showcases results from applying this framework to a range of commercial and open-source solvers\, highlighting both their strengths and limitations when facing numerically challenging LP instances. \nJoshua 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 with defense subcontractors and one in logistics engineering with a wine and spirits bottling and distribution company. Joshua began his PhD in Industrial Engineering at Arizona State University in Fall 2021 and transferred to the Operations Research PhD program at NC State in Fall 2023. His research has spanned topics such as the wisdom of crowds and sustainable solid waste management. Currently\, he is focusing on optimization algorithms with a special interest in numerical precision. Outside of academia\, Joshua enjoys cooking\, playing board games\, running\, cycling\, and exploring the outdoors with his wife and dog.\n \nRegan Richardson\n\nExamining the Unintended Impacts of Disruptions to the Illicit Drug Market on Violent Crime and Overdose Death \nThe use of illicit substances remains an ongoing and widespread part of society\, with the illegal drug market estimated to be 1% of the total global trade. The true scale of this market is unknown because it is an illicit underground trade that is poorly understood\, dynamic\, and complex. While there have been trends towards decriminalization or legalization of marijuana in the United States\, the overarching policy and strategy has been consistently been to allocate large amounts of resources to law enforcement agencies to disrupt and dismantle illicit distribution networks. Therefore\, the purpose of this project is to utilize national integrated data to develop an understanding of the impact of law enforcement disruptions to the illicit drug supply on both public health (e.g. overdoses) and public safety (e.g. violent crime) outcomes. In the present study\, we utilize multivariate granger-causality to investigate the relationships between police drug seizures and violent crime rates\, and between police drug seizures and overdose death rates using data from the National Incident Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National Center for Health Statistics Mortality Data from CDC WONDER. \nRegan Richardson received her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with a minor in Data Analytics from Furman University in 2020. She is in her second year of the Operations Research PhD program. Her current area of research is in applications and methodology of causal discovery. Her advisors are Dr. Maria Mayorga and Dr. Osman Ozaltin. In her free time\, Regan enjoys reading\, watching hockey\, and taking ballet classes.\n \nHou-An Chen\n\nBilevel Formulation for Share Allocation in Food Distribution Auctions \nChoice system is a food donation distribution mechanism operated by Feeding America. In Choice\, a specialized currency called “shares” is distributed to food banks\, and is used to bid on food bundles in auctions. Currently\, shares are distributed proportionally to a food bank’s service area population\, which often results in smaller food banks receiving fewer shares and being less likely to win auctions. We study the allocation of shares that leads to a better participation\, using a multi-follower bilevel model to capture the hierarchical and decentralized nature of this decision process. Feeding America\, acting as the leader\, seeks to maximize the minimum food bank utilities. The followers consist of multiple food banks that compete for the goods. Each food bank places bids to win allocations and earn utilities\, which they seek to maximize. This interdependency between food banks is modelled as a generalized Nash equilibrium problem at the lower level. A single-level reformulation is derived and solved by the cut-and-column generation algorithm. Extensive computational experiments provide managerial insights on the operations of Choice. \nHou-An Chen is a Ph.D. student in the Operations Research Program at North Carolina State University. His research centers on game theory\, with a particular focus on applications in food bank operations. In particular\, he employs methodologies such as market design and bilevel programming to address complex decision hierarchies and improve resource allocation in humanitarian logistics.\n \nCameron Lisy\n\nModelling Extreme Weather Risks to Daily US Natural Gas Markets Under Near-term Growth in Electric Power and LNG Export Demand \nRecent steady growth in the production of U.S. domestic natural gas has kept up with rising demand in the power sector\, and prices have remained stable despite rising geopolitical headwinds from conflict and uncertainty in trade relationships. But this balance of fundamentals may shift in the near term as more LNG export terminals have begun operations and hyperscale datacenter growth encourages the building of more gas turbines by utilities to meet their 24/7 demand for electricity. Simultaneously\, natural gas infrastructure vulnerability to extreme winter storms\, most recently experienced from weakened polar vortex events in 2019\, 2021\, 2023\, 2024 and 2025 have raised concerns about the potential for disruption at critical times of year when customers and grid operators rely on natural gas deliveries for space heating. To understand the impacts these events may have on the price and availability of natural gas\, we develop a daily market clearing model of U.S. production and state-to-state transmission infrastructure. \nCameron is a 6th year PhD student in Operations Research whose research and career interests include fossil fuel market dynamics and how they impact the cost and reliability of the power grid. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-informs-10-20-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-phd-students-informs-10-20-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251006T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251006T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T203804Z CREATED:20250826T203750Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T203804Z UID:10000006-1759768200-1759771800@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Kristy Borda and Alp Tezbasaran DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Kristy Borda and Alp Tezbasaran\, NC State Librarians\, as they discuss using library spaces\, services and AI tools. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. NOTE: Due to the hands-on nature of this event\, it is in-person ONLY. \nTitle and Abstract\nResearch 101: Libraries Spaces\, Services and AI Tools \nIn this session\, you will learn about the Libraries spaces and services that exist to support graduate student learning and research. You will also learn about AI tools that can support your research process at various stages\, including literature searching\, citation management\, data cleaning and preparation and coding. \nBiographies\nKristy Borda is a Research Librarian for Sciences & Instructional Strategy at NC State University Libraries. She holds a Master’s of Library and Information Science from Kent State University and a Bachelor’s of Science from The College of William & Mary. Kristy collaborates with faculty and students across STEM disciplines through instruction and outreach. She is currently focused on integrating AI literacy into research and learning. \nAlp Tezbasaran is a Data Science Librarian in the Data Science Services Department at NC State University Libraries. In his role\, Alp leads instruction on AI and Python programming topics\, provides consultation on data science topics and tools and manages the Data Labs (Dataspace and Data Experience Lab) to provide specialized hardware and software to patrons. Alp is a Ph.D. student in Nuclear Engineering\, a research adjunct in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and a research affiliate at Coastal Carolina University. His research focuses on high-performance computing\, AI and ML applications in nuclear engineering\, specifically in probabilistic risk assessment. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-kirsty-borda-alp-tezbasaran-10-06-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-kristy-borda-alp-tezbasaran-10-06-2025-featured-image-10-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250929T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250929T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T203930Z CREATED:20250826T201207Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T203930Z UID:10000004-1759163400-1759167000@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Gal Mendelson DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming ISE’s own Gal Mendelson\, assistant professor\, as he discusses efficient\, scalable and sustainable computing. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nDon’t worry. You can watch it here.\nPasscode: 6zHW0&j6 \nTitle and Abstract\nLoad Balancing using Sparse Communication \nLoad balancing across parallel servers remains a central challenge in service systems. For example\, servers need accurate\, real-time congestion information. However\, obtaining this data often requires heavy communication. Therefore\, this step can be impractical in fast-changing settings like data centers or energy-saving wireless networks. \nIn his talk\, Mendelson will explain how sparse communication improves resource use in parallel servers. First\, he will present a new load-balancing framework. Next\, he will show how it separates communication\, information\, and routing decisions. Consequently\, this approach allows algorithms to perform well even with limited communication. \nThe presentation will also highlight both theory and numerical results. Specifically\, Mendelson will show that sparse communication can approximate queue lengths. Moreover\, he will demonstrate that these approximations maintain strong performance while reducing communication by more than 90 percent. \nFinally\, he will connect this research to his broader agenda. In particular\, he aims to ensure energy is used efficiently and sustainably during the rise of artificial intelligence and the energy revolution. \nBiographies\nGal Mendelson joined the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State University in 2025. His research focuses on applied probability\, data science\, and operations research. In particular\, he studies how energy systems can use resources more efficiently. As a result\, his work helps manage complex systems more effectively. \nBefore NC State\, Mendelson taught at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology from 2023 to 2025. He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion in 2020. Then\, in 2022\, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. These experiences shaped his current research path. \nIn addition\, Mendelson brings industry expertise. He worked at IBM Research from 2017 to 2018. Later\, he joined NVIDIA from 2020 to 2021. In both roles\, he tackled scalability challenges in data centers. Furthermore\, he earned several honors\, including the INFORMS Applied Probability Society Best Student Paper Award in 2019. He also received recognition from the INFORMS George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award and the Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-gal-mendelson-09-29-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-gal-mendelson-09-29-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250922T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250922T173000 DTSTAMP:20250923T123959Z CREATED:20250826T202406Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250923T123959Z UID:10000005-1758558600-1758562200@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Renran Tian DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming ISE’s own Renran Tian\, assistant professor\, as he discusses human–AI driving interactions. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nDon’t worry\, you can watch it here.\nPasscode: dLQ*2Dj8 \nTitle and Abstract\nArtificial Social Intelligence in Automated Driving \nAutonomous vehicles (AVs) must operate as technical systems and as active participants in complex social traffic environments. \nFocus\nThis seminar introduces Artificial Social Intelligence as a foundation for enabling AVs to interpret\, predict\, and engage in social interactions with human road users. \nResearch Highlights\nGrounded in explainable AI\, cognitive AI\, and human computation\, my work on human–AI interaction addresses: \n\nOn the road: pedestrian behavior prediction and intention modeling.\nInside the vehicle: transparent and interpretable decision-making for passengers.\n\nLooking Ahead\nThe seminar concludes with open questions on how to incorporate dual-process decision-making and metacognition into AVs and approaches for developing user-centered AI explanations. \nBiography\nRenran Tian is an Assistant Professor in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University in 2013\, after completing his master’s and bachelor’s degrees at Tsinghua University in Beijing\, China. \nTian has published more than 70 refereed research papers. His research focuses on Human-Centered Computing\, Human–AI Interaction\, Cognitive Psychology\, and Deep Learning. \nHonors and Awards \n\nInstitutional Lead Award\, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (2025)\nNSF CAREER Award (2022)\nBest Paper Award\, HCI International (2019) URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-renran-tian-09-22-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-renran-tian-09-22-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250915T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250915T173000 DTSTAMP:20260210T204049Z CREATED:20250825T174552Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T204049Z UID:10000003-1757953800-1757957400@or.ncsu.edu SUMMARY:OR Seminar: Archis Ghate DESCRIPTION:Join us in welcoming Archis Ghate\, ISE department head at the University of Minnesota\, as he discusses Inverse Markov Decision Processes. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome. \nDid You Miss It?\nThat’s okay. You can Watch it Here.\nAccess Password: ^CRm8^B@ \nTitle and Abstract\nInverse Markov Decision Processes \nInverse optimization seeks parameter values that make the chosen decision variables optimal. In contrast\, forward optimization computes optimal decision variables from given parameters. This talk will focus on inverse optimization in Markov decision processes (MDPs). Specifically\, we will study how to impute rewards and transition probabilities that make a policy optimal. \nTo start\, we will review prior work on imputing rewards. After that\, we will formulate the problem of imputing transition probabilities. While both issues rely on mathematical programming forms of Bellman’s equations\, they differ in difficulty. In particular\, imputing rewards is easier because the problem is linear. However\, imputing transition probabilities is harder since the issue is bilinear. Therefore\, we will present exact and approximate methods for solving versions of this bilinear challenge. \nNext\, we will show how to use uniformization to extend these methods to continuous-time MDPs. Finally\, we will also describe an extension to semi-Markov decision processes. \nBiographies\nArchis Ghate is a professor and the department head of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Minnesota. Previously\, he worked as a professor of industrial engineering and held the Fluor Endowed Chair at Clemson University. \nBefore joining Clemson\, Ghate was an industrial and systems engineering professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. During that time\, he worked as associate chair for six years. In addition\, he held a College of Engineering endowed professorship for five years. \nHe began his career at the University of Washington as an assistant professor. He earned a Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan in 2006. He also received an M.S. in management science and engineering from Stanford in 2003. Moreover\, he completed his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology\, Bombay\, in 2001. \nGhate has received many honors. For example\, he earned the NSF CAREER Award. He also won an excellence in teaching operations research award and a best paper award from IISE. Furthermore\, he has received several teaching accolades from the University of Washington. His students have also excelled by winning the Dantzig Dissertation Award and the Bonder Scholarship in healthcare operations research from INFORMS. \nIn addition\, Ghate has served on the editorial boards of several journals. He also held leadership roles\, including general chair of the INFORMS 2019 Annual Meeting and program co-chair of the 2021 IISE Annual Conference. URL:https://or.ncsu.edu/event/or-seminar-archis-ghate-09-15-2025/ LOCATION:4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall\, 915 Partners Way\, Raleigh\, NC\, 27606\, United States CATEGORIES:OR Seminar Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://or.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2025/08/or-seminar-series-archis-ghate-09-15-2025-featured-image-08-2025-01.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="OR Program":MAILTO:operationsresearch@ncsu.edu END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR