{"id":205,"date":"2024-07-14T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/?page_id=205"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:30:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T20:30:40","slug":"tutorials","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/tutorials\/","title":{"rendered":"TutORials"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-205\" data-postid=\"205\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-205 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_y4yf801 tb_first tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col-full tb_61lm802 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_bgiy806   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p>The <em>TutORials in Operations Research<\/em> series is published annually by INFORMS as an introduction to emerging and classical subfields of operations research and management science. These chapters are designed to be accessible for all constituents of the INFORMS community, including current students, practitioners, faculty, and researchers. The publication allows readers to keep pace with new developments in the field and serves as augmenting material for a selection of the tutorial presentations offered at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"simulation-optimization\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-simulation-optimization tb_wfca364 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_sxa3365 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_wpik742   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Large-Scale Optimization via Monotone Operators<\/h3>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">This tutorial presents a unified analysis of convex optimization algorithms through<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">the abstraction of monotone operators. Through this streamlined approach, we derive<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">and analyze a wide variety of classical and modern algorithms, including: Gradient<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">Descent, Dual Ascent, Proximal Point Method, Proximal Gradient Method, Projected<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">Gradient Method, Forward-Backward Splitting, Peaceman\u2013Rachford Splitting,<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">Douglas\u2013Rachford Splitting, Davis\u2013Yin Splitting, Method of Multipliers, Proximal<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">Method of Multipliers, Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers, Alternating Minimization Algorithm, Primal-dual hybrid gradient (PDHG), PDLP, and Condat\u2013V\u0169.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<p><strong>Speakers: Ernest Ryu and Wotao Yin<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_8cro54 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-8cro54-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-8cro54-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bios<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-8cro54-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-8cro54-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_3gjn609\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_i6yr609 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_8306609   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p><strong>Ernest Ryu<\/strong> is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. His current research focus is on applied mathematics, deep learning, and optimization. Professor Ryu received a B.S. degree in Physics and Electrical Engineering with honors at the California Institute of Technology in 2010 and an M.S. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Computational and Mathematical Engineering with the Gene Golub Best Thesis Award at Stanford University in 2016. In 2016, he joined the Department of Mathematics at UCLA as an Assistant Adjunct Professor. In 2020, he joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Seoul National University as a tenure-track faculty. In 2024, returned to UCLA as an assistant professor.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Wotao Yin<\/span> is a\u00a0scientist and principal\u00a0engineer at Alibaba US DAMO Academy, directing its Decision Intelligence Lab. He works\u00a0on fast and large-scale numerical methods for optimization and builds optimization solvers and decision making\u00a0AI systems. Dr. Yin received a B.S. degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Nanjing University in 2001 and a Ph.D. degree in operations research from Columbia University in 2006. He was a professor with the Department of Mathematics at UCLA before joining Alibaba. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2008, the Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship in 2009, the Morningside Gold Medal in 2016, and the INFORMS Egon Balas Prize in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_qc1a221 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"mip-approaches-submodularity\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-mip-approaches-submodularity tb_eqvi432 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_yobf432 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_3mkg43   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Turning the Tide: Data Analytics and Optimization Approaches for Mitigating the University Mental Health Crisis<\/h3>\n<p>In this TutORial, we address the growing mental health crisis affecting university<br>campuses across the nation. Specifically, we provide a comprehensive overview of the<br>challenges faced by Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) centers and present<br>a range of data analytics and Operations Research tools aimed at mitigating these<br>issues. By posing key unresolved questions, we offer a holistic analysis that spans the<br>spectrum from individual patient outcomes to system-level operational performance,<br>highlighting the complex interdependencies between clinical effectiveness and operational efficiency. Through this lens, we present a structured and accessible framework that both summarizes and contextualizes the primary operational and clinical challenges in university mental health services. In doing so, we also showcase a variety of data-driven methodologies designed to address these challenges, offering insight into the strengths and limitations of current approaches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaker: Hrayer Aprahamian<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_plo636 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-plo636-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-plo636-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-plo636-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-plo636-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_mlu2609\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_kt5h609 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_antk609   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p><strong>Hrayer Aprahamian<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor in the Wm. Michael Barnes Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&amp;M University. He received his PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2018 and joined Texas A&amp;M in the fall of that year. His research lies at the intersection of stochastic processes and optimization, with a focus on applications in healthcare systems and public policy. His work aims to develop scalable, gradient-descent algorithmic frameworks for optimizing non-stationary stochastic systems\u2014particularly when the objective function lacks a closed-form expression and is defined implicitly as the solution to an infinite system of differential equations. His long-term vision is to advance the theoretical and computational foundations necessary to make such complex systems tractable, enabling more effective, data-driven decision-making in critical societal domains. His research has been supported by state and federal agencies\u2014including the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Texas Health Science Center\u2014as well as by industry partners. His work has been published in leading journals such as Management Science, INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS Journal on Data Science, and Stochastic Systems. He has received numerous recognitions, including the NSF CAREER Award, the IEOM Young Researcher Award, the Pierskalla Award (2017 and 2022), the JFIG Paper Competition Award, the IISE Transactions Award, the Pritsker Award, and the Paul E. Torgersen Research Excellence Award. He teaches optimization courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has received several teaching honors. These include the department-level Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, the college-level AFS Teaching Award, the university-level Montague-CTE Scholar Award, and a nomination for the university-level OER Teaching Award.<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_pcdv207 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"pharma-supply-chains\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-pharma-supply-chains tb_yx9n893 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_4xs0894 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_fxml629   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Modeling with Attack Graphs for Securing Cyber-physical Systems<\/h3>\n<p>Modern critical infrastructures consist of increasingly complex and interdependent cyber-physical systems (CPS). Securing cyber-physical infrastructure requires understanding how components interact with one another across physical, cyber, and human dimensions, as well as how threat modeling affects system components and operations. This tutorial reviews modeling techniques for CPS security, focusing on network models, threat modeling techniques, and prescriptive decision-making. Attack graphs offer a structured and systematic approach to modeling threats to a system and are crucial in cybersecurity risk management.We review three applications of operations research modeling techniques that leverage attack graphs for CPS security: allocating a security budget for cybersecurity planning, developing vulnerability metrics for securing<br>cyber-physical energy systems, and performing risk assessments for administrating<br>election systems. Through these applications, we demonstrate the potential for using<br>attack graphs for prescriptive decision-making and proactive planning to secure CPS.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaker:\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Laura A. Albert and Carmen Haseltine<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_9mi7342 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-9mi7342-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-9mi7342-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-9mi7342-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-9mi7342-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_wxq4610\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_hy0l610 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_tusz610   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p><b style=\"font-weight: bold\">Laura A. Albert, Ph.D., <\/b>is a Professor of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She served as the President of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in 2023, and she is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). Her work has been recognized with the INFORMS Impact Prize, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a Fulbright Award. She authors the engineering blogs \u201cPunk Rock Operations Research\u201d and \u201cBadger Bracketology.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Carmen Haseltine<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Morgan State University. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests are in risk analysis with application to cybersecurity and energy systems.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\u00a0<\/div>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_ls53654 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"sensitivity-analysis\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-sensitivity-analysis tb_0m7t570 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_l7b0571 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_k72z718   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>The Gittins Index: A Design Principle for Decision-Making Under Uncertainty<\/h3>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\n<p>The Gittins index is a tool that optimally solves a variety of decision-making problems involving uncertainty, including multi-armed bandit problems, minimizing mean latency in queues, and search problems like the Pandora&#8217;s box model. However, despite the above examples and later extensions thereof, the space of problems that the Gittins index can solve perfectly optimally is limited, and its definition is rather subtle compared to those of other multi-armed bandit algorithms. As a result, the Gittins index is often regarded as being primarily a concept of theoretical importance, rather than a practical tool for solving decision-making problems.<\/p>\n<p>The aim of this tutorial is to demonstrate that the Gittins index can be fruitfully applied to practical problems. We start by giving an example-driven introduction to the Gittins index, then walk through several examples of problems it solves\u2014some optimally, some suboptimally but still with excellent performance. Two practical highlights in the latter category are applying the Gittins index to Bayesian optimization, and applying the Gittins index to minimizing tail latency in queues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Speaker: Ziv Scully and Alexander Terenin<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_fzq3775 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-fzq3775-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-fzq3775-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-fzq3775-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-fzq3775-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_usye611\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_lb8x611 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_n6rh611   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Ziv Scully<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering. He completed his PhD in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in 2022, after which he was a postdoc at the UC Berkeley Simons Institute, Harvard SEAS, and MIT CSAIL. Broadly, Ziv researches the theory of decision-making under uncertainty, with a particular focus on scheduling and dispatching in queueing systems. His work has been recognized by awards from INFORMS, ACM SIGMETRICS, and IFIP PERFORMANCE.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Alexander Terenin<\/strong> is an Assistant Research Professor at Cornell University, affiliated with the Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society. Previously, he was a postdoc in the Computational and Biological Learning group in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in 2022 from Imperial College London, where he was with the Department of Mathematics. His current research focuses on decision-making under uncertainty. His work has been recognized with best-paper-type awards from INFORMS, AISTATS, and ICML.<\/div>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_6f8i483 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"stockpyl\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-stockpyl tb_f7j6514 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_4pgr514 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_mgd6654   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Five Starter Problems: Solving Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization Models on Quantum Computers<\/h3>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">This tutorial offers a quick, hands-on introduction to solving Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) models on currently available quantum computers and their simulators. We cover both IBM and D-Wave machines: IBM utilizes a gate-circuit architecture, and D-Wave is quantum annealer. We provide examples of three canonical problems and two models from practical applications. The tutorial is structured to bridge the gap between theory and practice: we begin with an overview of<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">QUBOs, explain their relevance and connection to quantum algorithms, introduce key quantum computing concepts, provide the foundations for two quantum heuristics, and provide detailed implementation guides. An associated GitHub repository provides the<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">codes in five companion notebooks. In addition to reaching undergraduate and graduate students in computationally intensive disciplines, this article aims to reach working industry professionals seeking to explore the potential of near-term quantum applications.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">As our title indicates, this tutorial is intended to be a starting point in a journey towards solving more complex QUBOs on quantum computers.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p><strong>Speakers: Sridhar Tayur and Arul Rhik Mazumder<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_qotz458 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-qotz458-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-qotz458-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-qotz458-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-qotz458-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_k33k611\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_8xfo611 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_9ou3611   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Arul Rhik Mazumde<\/strong>r is a third-year undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Computer Science, with concentrations in Machine Learning and Algorithms. His academic interests center on quantum and classical algorithm design and analysis. He has conducted research with George Mason University\u2019s Quantum Algorithms Lab and Carnegie Mellon\u2019s Quantum Technologies Group and attended the STAQ Quantum Ideas Summer School at Duke University as an NSF-funded participant. In the summer of 2025, he will conduct research at the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter as a SURF Fellow. He is also the founder and current president of the Carnegie Mellon Quantum Computing Club, where he leads workshops and organizes community outreach. He has received awards at national-level quantum hackathons, including the Yale Quantum Institute Grand Prize at YQuantum.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Sridhar Tayur<\/strong> is the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and University Professor of Operations Management at Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s Tepper School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, where he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is an INFORMS Fellow, a Distinguished Fellow of MSOM Society and has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has published in, and served on editorial positions for, several top INFORMS journals. He has received the POMS Healthcare Best Paper Award, the INFORMS Pierskalla Award (twice) for best paper in healthcare applications, the MSOM Best Paper Award, and the INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research (PSOR) Best Paper Award. In 2018, he created the field of Quantum Integer Programming (QuIP) and Quantum Technologies Group at CMU. His graduate course on QuIP is now part of NASA Feynman Academy. He has received a DARPA grant on Quantum-inspired Computing.<\/div>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_l6tv420 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"supply-chain-centric-view\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-supply-chain-centric-view tb_fu02399 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_5p7p399 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_ds215   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>The Role of Optimization in the Decarbonized Energy Systems of the Future<\/h3>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">Energy is a fundamental need of human activity. Electricity in particular is a critical<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">resource for society in the 21st century and its ubiquitous use in our houses and cities<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">makes it an essential part of our daily life. As we aim to reduce the environmental<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">impact of human activity, a historical energy transition is under way. This transition<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">raises several major challenges for electric power systems. We begin with an overview<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">of the general trends of change in power systems, followed by examples of real-world<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">success of mathematical optimization techniques in practice. We then introduce the<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">unit commitment problem and how to obtain commitment decisions that are robust in<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">the context of large-scale penetration of renewables. This is followed by an aggregator-based<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">optimization model to support the participation of so-called prosumers in the<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">electricity markets and their potential to contribute flexibility to the power system.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">Next we consider several of the recent research developments concerning charging<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">infrastructure for electric vehicles. We conclude with a summary of important future<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">research opportunities for the optimization community in electric energy systems.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p><strong>Speakers: Miguel F. Anjos<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_1qsg899 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-1qsg899-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-1qsg899-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-1qsg899-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-1qsg899-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_6oqm611\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_ksmx611 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_ivbf611   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p><strong><b>Miguel F. Anjos <\/b><\/strong>holds the Chair of Operational Research at the School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, U.K. He previously held faculty positions at Polytechnique Montreal, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Southampton. He is the Founding Academic Director of the Trottier Institute for Energy at Polytechnique Montreal. His accolades include an Inria International Chair, a Canada Research Chair, the NSERC-Hydro-Quebec-Schneider Electric Industrial Research Chair, a Humboldt Research Fellowship, INFORMS and IEEE Senior Memberships, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is a Fellow of EUROPT and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Professor Anjos carries out research in mathematical optimization and its industrial applications. He has published four books and more than 100 scientific journal articles, and has led research collaborations with companies such as EDF, Hydro-Quebec, National Grid ESO (now NESO), Rio Tinto, and Schneider Electric. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Optimization and Engineering, is currently Area Editor for the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications and for RAIRO-OR, and is Associate Editor for several other journals. Professor Anjos currently serves as Chair of the Mathematical Optimization Society, INFORMS Vice-President for International Activities, and member of the Managing Boards of the EURO Working Groups on Continuous Optimization and on Stochastic Optimization. He previously served as President of the INFORMS Section on Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment, on the Council of the Mathematical Optimization Society, as Program Director for the SIAM Activity Group on Optimization, and as Vice-Chair of the INFORMS Optimization Society.<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_srrm53   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Social Media Information Operations<\/h3>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">The battlefield of information warfare has moved to online social networks, where<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">influence campaigns operate at unprecedented speed and scale. As with any strategic<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">domain, success requires understanding the terrain, modeling adversaries, and executing<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">interventions. This tutorial introduces a formal optimization framework for<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">social media information operations (IO), where the objective is to shape opinions<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">through targeted actions. This framework is parameterized by quantities such as network<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">structure, user opinions, and activity levels\u2014all of which must be estimated<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">or inferred from data. We discuss analytic tools that support this process, including<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">centrality measures for identifying influential users, clustering algorithms for detecting<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">community structure, and sentiment analysis for gauging public opinion. These<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">tools either feed directly into the optimization pipeline or help analysts interpret the<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">information environment. With the landscape mapped, we highlight threats such as<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">coordinated bot networks, extremist recruitment, and viral misinformation. Countermeasures<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">range from content-level interventions to mathematically optimized influence<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">strategies. Finally, the emergence of generative AI transforms both offense and<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">defense, democratizing persuasive capabilities while enabling scalable defenses. This<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">shift calls for algorithmic innovation, policy reform, and ethical vigilance to protect<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">the integrity of our digital public sphere.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<p><strong>Speakers: Tauhid Zaman and Yen-Shao Chen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_b0lh514 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-b0lh514-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-b0lh514-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-b0lh514-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-b0lh514-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_fx9l612\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_r8bt612 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_zfh3612   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Tauhid Zaman<\/strong> is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at the Yale School of Management. He earned his BS, MEng, and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. His research focuses on tackling information operations challenges in social media, with topics ranging from combating online extremism and detecting bots, to designing and evaluating effective influence campaigns. His broader interests include generative AI, especially as it relates to social media content creation, as well as algorithmic sports betting. His work has garnered several academic awards, including the Sigmetrics Test of Time Award and multiple INFORMS Social Media Analytics Best Student Paper Awards. His research has been highlighted in major media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Mashable, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, and Time magazine.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Yen-Shao Chen<\/strong> is a Ph.D. candidate in Operations Management at Yale University. His research focuses on social media information operations, with an emphasis on modeling opinion dynamics and optimizing influence campaigns. His dissertation explores how opinions are shaped within online social networks, using mathematical modeling, optimal control theory, and generative AI. Before entering academia, he worked as a Senior Knowledge Analyst at McKinsey &amp; Company across the U.S. and Asia, where he led client capability-building programs and analytics initiatives in supply chain and procurement. He has also held roles in private equity and semiconductor manufacturing. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University.<\/div>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_tt6d47 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"capturing-emerging-targets\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-capturing-emerging-targets tb_14ba518 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_a7b1518 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_a5vr363   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Mitigating the Impacts of Wildfires on Electric Power Systems through Stochastic Optimization<\/h3>\n<p>Dry and windy weather conditions significantly increase the risk of wildfires, whose<br>spread exacerbates the vulnerability of the grid and results in prolonged power outages.<br>This tutorial introduces and reviews recent streams of studies on addressing<br>this challenge through stochastic optimization approaches, including static, adaptive,<br>dynamic, and distributionally robust models. In particular, we account for random<br>failures of power lines, which depend not only on the ambient environment (such as<br>temperature, wind speed, and fire) but also on the power flowing through the line,<br>introducing decision-dependent uncertainty (DDU). We introduce the modeling of<br>wildfire, power systems operations, and their interactions, as well as how stochastic<br>optimization models can characterize DDU and mitigate the impacts of wildfires on<br>electric power systems. As examples, we mention three models, ranging from long-term<br>planning to short-term and dynamic reconfiguration of a power system amidst wildfireprone<br>conditions. For each model, we provide a numerical case study to demonstrate<br>the value of modeling (e.g., DDU and dynamic reconfiguration) in mitigating the<br>impacts of wildfires.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speakers: Juan-Alberto Estrada-Garcia, Xinyi Zhao, Ruiwei Jiang, Alexandre Moreira,\u00a0 and Chaoyue Zhao<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_ix7l591 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-ix7l591-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-ix7l591-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-ix7l591-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-ix7l591-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_3tj7612\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_8gei612 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_66zh612   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <p><strong>Juan-Alberto Estrada-Garcia<\/strong> received his B.S. degree in Engineering Management from the University of Monterrey, Mexico, in 2022. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His research interests include stochastic mixed integer programming and sequential decision making.<\/p>\n<p><br><strong>Xinyi Zhao<\/strong> received the B.E. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Wuhan University, and the M.S. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research focuses on Operations Research in Smart Grid and Transportation.<\/p>\n<p><br><strong>Ruiwei Jiang<\/strong> is with the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan. He works on stochastic and integer programming and their applications.<\/p>\n<p><br><strong>Alexandre Moreira<\/strong> received the Electrical Engineering and Industrial Engineering degrees from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) in 2011 and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Imperial College London in 2019. He is currently a Research Scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research interests include decision-making under uncertainty as well as power system economics, operation, and planning.<\/p>\n<p><br><strong>Chaoyue Zhao<\/strong> received the B.S. degree in information and computing sciences from Fudan University in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida in 2014. She is currently an Associate Professor in industrial and systems engineering with the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests include distributionally robust optimization and reinforcement learning with their applications in power system scheduling, planning, and resilien<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_hwky496 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"integer-programming-games\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-integer-programming-games tb_ozk0931 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_hvxb931 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_79nc465   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Statistical and Algorithmic Foundations of Reinforcement Learning<\/h3>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">As a paradigm for sequential decision making in unknown environments, reinforcement learning (RL) has received a flurry of attention in recent years. However, the explosion<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">of model complexity in emerging applications and the presence of nonconvexity exacerbate the challenge of achieving efficient RL in sample-starved situations, where<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">data collection is expensive, time-consuming, or even high-stakes (e.g., in clinical trials, autonomous systems, and online advertising). How to understand and enhance the sample and computational efficacies of RL algorithms is thus of great interest. In this tutorial, we aim to introduce several important algorithmic and theoretical developments in RL, highlighting the connections between new ideas and classical topics. Employing Markov Decision Processes as the central mathematical model, we cover<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">several distinctive RL scenarios (i.e., RL with a simulator, online RL, offline RL, robust RL, and RL with human feedback), and present several mainstream RL approaches<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">(i.e., model-based approach, value-based approach, and policy optimization). Our discussions gravitate around the issues of sample complexity, computational efficiency,<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">as well as algorithm-dependent and information-theoretic lower bounds from a nonasymptotic viewpoint.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p><strong>Speakers: Yuejie Chi, Yuxin Chen, and Yuting Wei<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_cdyb823 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-cdyb823-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-cdyb823-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-cdyb823-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-cdyb823-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_jelj612\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_y0xq612 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_g86n612   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Yuejie Chi<\/strong> is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, and her B.Eng. (Honors) from Tsinghua University, also in Electrical Engineering. Her research focuses on the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of data science, generative AI, machine learning, and signal processing, with applications in sensing, imaging, decision-making, and AI systems. Her honors include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize, the IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award, and the inaugural IEEE Signal Processing Society Early Career Technical Achievement Award for her contributions to high-dimensional structured signal<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">processing. She is an IEEE Fellow, recognized for her contributions to statistical signal processing with low-dimensional structures.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Yuxin Chen<\/strong> is a Professor of Statistics and Data Science, and of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Penn, he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Statistics. His current research interests include high-dimensional statistics, nonconvex optimization, and the theory of machine learning. He has received several honors, including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize, the ICCM Best Paper Award (Gold Medal), and was a finalist for the Best Paper Prize for Young Researchers in Continuous Optimization. He has also been recognized with the Princeton Graduate Mentoring Award.<\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\"><strong>Yuting Wei<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in the Statistics and Data Science Department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Penn, she spent two years as an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and one year at Stanford University as a Stein Fellow. She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley. She has received several honors, including the 2025 Gottfried E. Noether Early Career Scholar Award, the Google Research Scholar Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Erich L. Lehmann Citation from the Berkeley Statistics Department. Her research interests include high-dimensional and nonparametric statistics, reinforcement learning, and diffusion models.<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_tq50442 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"efficacy-amazon-recommendations\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-efficacy-amazon-recommendations tb_t40d478 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_xf5r478 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_owlk866   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <h3>Responsible Machine Learning via Mixed-Integer Optimization<\/h3>\n<p>In the last few decades, Machine Learning (ML) has achieved significant success across<br>domains ranging from healthcare, sustainability, and the social sciences, to criminal<br>justice and finance. But its deployment in increasingly sophisticated, critical, and<br>sensitive areas affecting individuals, the groups they belong to, and society as a whole<br>raises critical concerns around fairness, transparency and robustness, among others. As<br>the complexity and scale of ML systems and of the settings in which they are deployed<br>grow, so does the need for responsible ML methods that address these challenges while<br>providing guaranteed performance in deployment.<br>Mixed-integer optimization (MIO) offers a powerful framework for embedding<br>responsible ML considerations directly into the learning process while maintaining<br>performance. For example, it enables learning of inherently transparent models that<br>can conveniently incorporate fairness or other domain specific constraints. This tutorial<br>paper provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this topic discussing<br>both theoretical and practical aspects. It outlines some of the core principles of<br>responsible ML, their importance in applications, and the practical utility of MIO for<br>building ML models that align with these principles. Through examples and mathematical<br>formulations, it illustrates practical strategies and available tools for efficiently<br>solving MIO problems for responsible ML. It concludes with a discussion on current<br>limitations and open research questions, providing suggestions for future work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speakers:\u00a0Nathan Justin, Qingshi Sun, Andr\u00e9s G\u00f3mez, and Phebe Vayanos<\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module accordion -->\n<div  class=\"module module-accordion tb_arui921 \" data-behavior=\"toggle\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n    \n    <ul class=\"ui module-accordion   orange\">\n            <li>\n            <div class=\"accordion-title tf_rel\">\n                <a href=\"#acc-arui921-0\" class=\"tb_title_accordion\" aria-controls=\"acc-arui921-0-content\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n                    <i class=\"accordion-icon\"><svg  class=\"tf_fa tf-ti-plus\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><use href=\"#tf-ti-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i>                                        <span class=\"accordion-title-wrap\">Speaker Bio<\/span>                <\/a>\n            <\/div><!-- .accordion-title -->\n            <div id=\"acc-arui921-0-content\" data-id=\"acc-arui921-0\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"accordion-content tf_hide tf_clearfix\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tb_n8fk613\">\n                <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column tb_k127613 first\">\n                    <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_nn01613   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n        <div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Nathan Justin<\/span> is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) as part of the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society. He is interested in researching optimization-based approaches to robust and interpretable machine learning for social good. His work has earned him the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the USC Department of Computer Science Best Research Assistant award. Prior to joining USC, he graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics with high distinction and departmental honors in mathematics and worked as a software engineer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Qingshi Sun <\/span>is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and operations research, with particular interest in robust optimization and mixed-integer optimization.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\n<p><strong>Andr\u00e9s G\u00f3mez<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering at USC\u2019s Viterbi School of Engineering. He conducts research in optimization theory, developing new methods for challenging problems in statistics, and machine learning. His methodological expertise lies in discrete and conic optimization, particularly in designing efficient relaxations for mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems. His work has garnered recognition and funding from prestigious institutions including the NSF, AFOSR, Google (Research Scholar Grant), among others. At USC, he teaches courses related to the interface of optimization and machine learning. Dr. G\u00f3mez is also affiliated with the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS), where he contributes to socially impactful AI research.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ewa-rteLine\">\n<p><strong>Phebe Vayanos<\/strong> is an Associate Professor of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering and of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) where she holds a Viterbi Early Career Chair in Engineering. She is also a Co-Director of CAIS, the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society at USC and a Co-Director of the ORAI Interdisciplinary PhD Certificate Program in Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence. Her research aims to advance integer, stochastic, and robust optimization, and their interface with machine learning, causal inference, and economics to enable the design of predictive and prescriptive models that are robust, interpretable, and fair, being suitable to deploy in high-stakes settings. She aims to directly apply the methods and tools she creates in her work to make a positive impact on society. Prior to joining USC, she was lecturer in the Operations Research and Statistics Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a postdoctoral research associate in the Operations Research Center at MIT. She is a TED AI speaker, a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and the Imperial College Emerging Alumni Leader Award, among others. She is an associate editor for Management Science, Operations Research, Operations Research Letters, and Computational Management Science.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;color: black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <\/div><!-- .accordion-content -->\n        <\/li>\n        <\/ul>\n\n<\/div><!-- \/module accordion -->        <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_slit383 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"lyapunov-approach\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-lyapunov-approach tb_buvp638 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_11ar638 first\">\n                            <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_6907993 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n                        <div  data-anchor=\"incorporating-AI-healthcare\" data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_has_section tb_section-incorporating-AI-healthcare tb_fd46512 tf_w\">\n                        <div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-3 tb_ot95512 first\">\n                            <\/div>\n                    <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col4-1 tb_85lx761 last\">\n                            <\/div>\n                        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The TutORials in Operations Research series is published annually by INFORMS as an introduction to emerging and classical subfields of operations research and management science. These chapters are designed to be accessible for all constituents of the INFORMS community, including current students, practitioners, faculty, and researchers. The publication allows readers to keep pace with new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-205","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TutORials - 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The TutORials in Operations Research series is published annually by INFORMS as an introduction to emerging and classical subfields of operations research and management science.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/tutorials\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TutORials\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The TutORials in Operations Research series is published annually by INFORMS as an introduction to emerging and classical subfields of operations research and management science.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/tutorials\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-02T20:30:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/files\/2025\/05\/logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/tutorials\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/tutorials\/\",\"name\":\"TutORials - 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These chapters are designed to be accessible for all constituents of the INFORMS community, including current students, practitioners, faculty, and researchers. The publication allows readers to keep pace with new developments in the field and serves as augmenting material for a selection of the tutorial presentations offered at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.<\/p>\n<h3>Large-Scale Optimization via Monotone Operators<\/h3> This tutorial presents a unified analysis of convex optimization algorithms through the abstraction of monotone operators. Through this streamlined approach, we derive and analyze a wide variety of classical and modern algorithms, including: Gradient Descent, Dual Ascent, Proximal Point Method, Proximal Gradient Method, Projected Gradient Method, Forward-Backward Splitting, Peaceman\u2013Rachford Splitting, Douglas\u2013Rachford Splitting, Davis\u2013Yin Splitting, Method of Multipliers, Proximal Method of Multipliers, Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers, Alternating Minimization Algorithm, Primal-dual hybrid gradient (PDHG), PDLP, and Condat\u2013V\u0169. \u00a0 <p><strong>Speakers: Ernest Ryu and Wotao Yin<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bios<\/h4><p><strong>Ernest Ryu<\/strong> is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. His current research focus is on applied mathematics, deep learning, and optimization. Professor Ryu received a B.S. degree in Physics and Electrical Engineering with honors at the California Institute of Technology in 2010 and an M.S. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Computational and Mathematical Engineering with the Gene Golub Best Thesis Award at Stanford University in 2016. In 2016, he joined the Department of Mathematics at UCLA as an Assistant Adjunct Professor. In 2020, he joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Seoul National University as a tenure-track faculty. In 2024, returned to UCLA as an assistant professor.<\/p> <p>Wotao Yin is a\u00a0scientist and principal\u00a0engineer at Alibaba US DAMO Academy, directing its Decision Intelligence Lab. He works\u00a0on fast and large-scale numerical methods for optimization and builds optimization solvers and decision making\u00a0AI systems. Dr. Yin received a B.S. degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Nanjing University in 2001 and a Ph.D. degree in operations research from Columbia University in 2006. He was a professor with the Department of Mathematics at UCLA before joining Alibaba. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2008, the Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship in 2009, the Morningside Gold Medal in 2016, and the INFORMS Egon Balas Prize in 2021.\u00a0<\/p><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><strong>Ernest Ryu<\/strong> is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. His current research focus is on applied mathematics, deep learning, and optimization. Professor Ryu received a B.S. degree in Physics and Electrical Engineering with honors at the California Institute of Technology in 2010 and an M.S. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Computational and Mathematical Engineering with the Gene Golub Best Thesis Award at Stanford University in 2016. In 2016, he joined the Department of Mathematics at UCLA as an Assistant Adjunct Professor. In 2020, he joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Seoul National University as a tenure-track faculty. In 2024, returned to UCLA as an assistant professor.<\/p> <p>Wotao Yin is a\u00a0scientist and principal\u00a0engineer at Alibaba US DAMO Academy, directing its Decision Intelligence Lab. He works\u00a0on fast and large-scale numerical methods for optimization and builds optimization solvers and decision making\u00a0AI systems. Dr. Yin received a B.S. degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Nanjing University in 2001 and a Ph.D. degree in operations research from Columbia University in 2006. He was a professor with the Department of Mathematics at UCLA before joining Alibaba. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2008, the Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship in 2009, the Morningside Gold Medal in 2016, and the INFORMS Egon Balas Prize in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Turning the Tide: Data Analytics and Optimization Approaches for Mitigating the University Mental Health Crisis<\/h3> <p>In this TutORial, we address the growing mental health crisis affecting university<br>campuses across the nation. Specifically, we provide a comprehensive overview of the<br>challenges faced by Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) centers and present<br>a range of data analytics and Operations Research tools aimed at mitigating these<br>issues. By posing key unresolved questions, we offer a holistic analysis that spans the<br>spectrum from individual patient outcomes to system-level operational performance,<br>highlighting the complex interdependencies between clinical effectiveness and operational efficiency. Through this lens, we present a structured and accessible framework that both summarizes and contextualizes the primary operational and clinical challenges in university mental health services. In doing so, we also showcase a variety of data-driven methodologies designed to address these challenges, offering insight into the strengths and limitations of current approaches.<\/p> <p><strong>Speaker: Hrayer Aprahamian<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><p><strong>Hrayer Aprahamian<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor in the Wm. Michael Barnes Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&amp;M University. He received his PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2018 and joined Texas A&amp;M in the fall of that year. His research lies at the intersection of stochastic processes and optimization, with a focus on applications in healthcare systems and public policy. His work aims to develop scalable, gradient-descent algorithmic frameworks for optimizing non-stationary stochastic systems\u2014particularly when the objective function lacks a closed-form expression and is defined implicitly as the solution to an infinite system of differential equations. His long-term vision is to advance the theoretical and computational foundations necessary to make such complex systems tractable, enabling more effective, data-driven decision-making in critical societal domains. His research has been supported by state and federal agencies\u2014including the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Texas Health Science Center\u2014as well as by industry partners. His work has been published in leading journals such as Management Science, INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS Journal on Data Science, and Stochastic Systems. He has received numerous recognitions, including the NSF CAREER Award, the IEOM Young Researcher Award, the Pierskalla Award (2017 and 2022), the JFIG Paper Competition Award, the IISE Transactions Award, the Pritsker Award, and the Paul E. Torgersen Research Excellence Award. He teaches optimization courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has received several teaching honors. These include the department-level Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, the college-level AFS Teaching Award, the university-level Montague-CTE Scholar Award, and a nomination for the university-level OER Teaching Award.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><strong>Hrayer Aprahamian<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor in the Wm. Michael Barnes Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&amp;M University. He received his PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2018 and joined Texas A&amp;M in the fall of that year. His research lies at the intersection of stochastic processes and optimization, with a focus on applications in healthcare systems and public policy. His work aims to develop scalable, gradient-descent algorithmic frameworks for optimizing non-stationary stochastic systems\u2014particularly when the objective function lacks a closed-form expression and is defined implicitly as the solution to an infinite system of differential equations. His long-term vision is to advance the theoretical and computational foundations necessary to make such complex systems tractable, enabling more effective, data-driven decision-making in critical societal domains. His research has been supported by state and federal agencies\u2014including the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Texas Health Science Center\u2014as well as by industry partners. His work has been published in leading journals such as Management Science, INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS Journal on Data Science, and Stochastic Systems. He has received numerous recognitions, including the NSF CAREER Award, the IEOM Young Researcher Award, the Pierskalla Award (2017 and 2022), the JFIG Paper Competition Award, the IISE Transactions Award, the Pritsker Award, and the Paul E. Torgersen Research Excellence Award. He teaches optimization courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has received several teaching honors. These include the department-level Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, the college-level AFS Teaching Award, the university-level Montague-CTE Scholar Award, and a nomination for the university-level OER Teaching Award.<\/p>\n<h3>Modeling with Attack Graphs for Securing Cyber-physical Systems<\/h3> <p>Modern critical infrastructures consist of increasingly complex and interdependent cyber-physical systems (CPS). Securing cyber-physical infrastructure requires understanding how components interact with one another across physical, cyber, and human dimensions, as well as how threat modeling affects system components and operations. This tutorial reviews modeling techniques for CPS security, focusing on network models, threat modeling techniques, and prescriptive decision-making. Attack graphs offer a structured and systematic approach to modeling threats to a system and are crucial in cybersecurity risk management.We review three applications of operations research modeling techniques that leverage attack graphs for CPS security: allocating a security budget for cybersecurity planning, developing vulnerability metrics for securing<br>cyber-physical energy systems, and performing risk assessments for administrating<br>election systems. Through these applications, we demonstrate the potential for using<br>attack graphs for prescriptive decision-making and proactive planning to secure CPS.<\/p> <p><strong>Speaker:\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Laura A. Albert and Carmen Haseltine<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><p><b style=\"font-weight: bold\">Laura A. Albert, Ph.D., <\/b>is a Professor of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She served as the President of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in 2023, and she is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). Her work has been recognized with the INFORMS Impact Prize, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a Fulbright Award. She authors the engineering blogs \u201cPunk Rock Operations Research\u201d and \u201cBadger Bracketology.\u201d<\/p> <strong>Carmen Haseltine<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Morgan State University. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests are in risk analysis with application to cybersecurity and energy systems. \u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n<p><b style=\"font-weight: bold\">Laura A. Albert, Ph.D., <\/b>is a Professor of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She served as the President of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in 2023, and she is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). Her work has been recognized with the INFORMS Impact Prize, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a Fulbright Award. She authors the engineering blogs \u201cPunk Rock Operations Research\u201d and \u201cBadger Bracketology.\u201d<\/p> <strong>Carmen Haseltine<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Morgan State University. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests are in risk analysis with application to cybersecurity and energy systems. \u00a0\n<h3>The Gittins Index: A Design Principle for Decision-Making Under Uncertainty<\/h3>\n<p>The Gittins index is a tool that optimally solves a variety of decision-making problems involving uncertainty, including multi-armed bandit problems, minimizing mean latency in queues, and search problems like the Pandora's box model. However, despite the above examples and later extensions thereof, the space of problems that the Gittins index can solve perfectly optimally is limited, and its definition is rather subtle compared to those of other multi-armed bandit algorithms. As a result, the Gittins index is often regarded as being primarily a concept of theoretical importance, rather than a practical tool for solving decision-making problems.<\/p> <p>The aim of this tutorial is to demonstrate that the Gittins index can be fruitfully applied to practical problems. We start by giving an example-driven introduction to the Gittins index, then walk through several examples of problems it solves\u2014some optimally, some suboptimally but still with excellent performance. Two practical highlights in the latter category are applying the Gittins index to Bayesian optimization, and applying the Gittins index to minimizing tail latency in queues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaker: Ziv Scully and Alexander Terenin<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><strong>Ziv Scully<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering. He completed his PhD in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in 2022, after which he was a postdoc at the UC Berkeley Simons Institute, Harvard SEAS, and MIT CSAIL. Broadly, Ziv researches the theory of decision-making under uncertainty, with a particular focus on scheduling and dispatching in queueing systems. His work has been recognized by awards from INFORMS, ACM SIGMETRICS, and IFIP PERFORMANCE. \u00a0 <strong>Alexander Terenin<\/strong> is an Assistant Research Professor at Cornell University, affiliated with the Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society. Previously, he was a postdoc in the Computational and Biological Learning group in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in 2022 from Imperial College London, where he was with the Department of Mathematics. His current research focuses on decision-making under uncertainty. His work has been recognized with best-paper-type awards from INFORMS, AISTATS, and ICML.<\/li><\/ul>\n<strong>Ziv Scully<\/strong> is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering. He completed his PhD in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in 2022, after which he was a postdoc at the UC Berkeley Simons Institute, Harvard SEAS, and MIT CSAIL. Broadly, Ziv researches the theory of decision-making under uncertainty, with a particular focus on scheduling and dispatching in queueing systems. His work has been recognized by awards from INFORMS, ACM SIGMETRICS, and IFIP PERFORMANCE. \u00a0 <strong>Alexander Terenin<\/strong> is an Assistant Research Professor at Cornell University, affiliated with the Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society. Previously, he was a postdoc in the Computational and Biological Learning group in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in 2022 from Imperial College London, where he was with the Department of Mathematics. His current research focuses on decision-making under uncertainty. His work has been recognized with best-paper-type awards from INFORMS, AISTATS, and ICML.\n<h3>Five Starter Problems: Solving Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization Models on Quantum Computers<\/h3> This tutorial offers a quick, hands-on introduction to solving Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) models on currently available quantum computers and their simulators. We cover both IBM and D-Wave machines: IBM utilizes a gate-circuit architecture, and D-Wave is quantum annealer. We provide examples of three canonical problems and two models from practical applications. The tutorial is structured to bridge the gap between theory and practice: we begin with an overview of QUBOs, explain their relevance and connection to quantum algorithms, introduce key quantum computing concepts, provide the foundations for two quantum heuristics, and provide detailed implementation guides. An associated GitHub repository provides the codes in five companion notebooks. In addition to reaching undergraduate and graduate students in computationally intensive disciplines, this article aims to reach working industry professionals seeking to explore the potential of near-term quantum applications. As our title indicates, this tutorial is intended to be a starting point in a journey towards solving more complex QUBOs on quantum computers. \u00a0 <p><strong>Speakers: Sridhar Tayur and Arul Rhik Mazumder<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><strong>Arul Rhik Mazumde<\/strong>r is a third-year undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Computer Science, with concentrations in Machine Learning and Algorithms. His academic interests center on quantum and classical algorithm design and analysis. He has conducted research with George Mason University\u2019s Quantum Algorithms Lab and Carnegie Mellon\u2019s Quantum Technologies Group and attended the STAQ Quantum Ideas Summer School at Duke University as an NSF-funded participant. In the summer of 2025, he will conduct research at the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter as a SURF Fellow. He is also the founder and current president of the Carnegie Mellon Quantum Computing Club, where he leads workshops and organizes community outreach. He has received awards at national-level quantum hackathons, including the Yale Quantum Institute Grand Prize at YQuantum. \u00a0 <strong>Sridhar Tayur<\/strong> is the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and University Professor of Operations Management at Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s Tepper School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, where he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is an INFORMS Fellow, a Distinguished Fellow of MSOM Society and has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has published in, and served on editorial positions for, several top INFORMS journals. He has received the POMS Healthcare Best Paper Award, the INFORMS Pierskalla Award (twice) for best paper in healthcare applications, the MSOM Best Paper Award, and the INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research (PSOR) Best Paper Award. In 2018, he created the field of Quantum Integer Programming (QuIP) and Quantum Technologies Group at CMU. His graduate course on QuIP is now part of NASA Feynman Academy. He has received a DARPA grant on Quantum-inspired Computing.<\/li><\/ul>\n<strong>Arul Rhik Mazumde<\/strong>r is a third-year undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Computer Science, with concentrations in Machine Learning and Algorithms. His academic interests center on quantum and classical algorithm design and analysis. He has conducted research with George Mason University\u2019s Quantum Algorithms Lab and Carnegie Mellon\u2019s Quantum Technologies Group and attended the STAQ Quantum Ideas Summer School at Duke University as an NSF-funded participant. In the summer of 2025, he will conduct research at the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter as a SURF Fellow. He is also the founder and current president of the Carnegie Mellon Quantum Computing Club, where he leads workshops and organizes community outreach. He has received awards at national-level quantum hackathons, including the Yale Quantum Institute Grand Prize at YQuantum. \u00a0 <strong>Sridhar Tayur<\/strong> is the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and University Professor of Operations Management at Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s Tepper School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, where he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is an INFORMS Fellow, a Distinguished Fellow of MSOM Society and has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has published in, and served on editorial positions for, several top INFORMS journals. He has received the POMS Healthcare Best Paper Award, the INFORMS Pierskalla Award (twice) for best paper in healthcare applications, the MSOM Best Paper Award, and the INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research (PSOR) Best Paper Award. In 2018, he created the field of Quantum Integer Programming (QuIP) and Quantum Technologies Group at CMU. His graduate course on QuIP is now part of NASA Feynman Academy. He has received a DARPA grant on Quantum-inspired Computing.\n<h3>The Role of Optimization in the Decarbonized Energy Systems of the Future<\/h3> Energy is a fundamental need of human activity. Electricity in particular is a critical resource for society in the 21st century and its ubiquitous use in our houses and cities makes it an essential part of our daily life. As we aim to reduce the environmental impact of human activity, a historical energy transition is under way. This transition raises several major challenges for electric power systems. We begin with an overview of the general trends of change in power systems, followed by examples of real-world success of mathematical optimization techniques in practice. We then introduce the unit commitment problem and how to obtain commitment decisions that are robust in the context of large-scale penetration of renewables. This is followed by an aggregator-based optimization model to support the participation of so-called prosumers in the electricity markets and their potential to contribute flexibility to the power system. Next we consider several of the recent research developments concerning charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. We conclude with a summary of important future research opportunities for the optimization community in electric energy systems. \u00a0 <p><strong>Speakers: Miguel F. Anjos<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><p><strong><b>Miguel F. Anjos <\/b><\/strong>holds the Chair of Operational Research at the School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, U.K. He previously held faculty positions at Polytechnique Montreal, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Southampton. He is the Founding Academic Director of the Trottier Institute for Energy at Polytechnique Montreal. His accolades include an Inria International Chair, a Canada Research Chair, the NSERC-Hydro-Quebec-Schneider Electric Industrial Research Chair, a Humboldt Research Fellowship, INFORMS and IEEE Senior Memberships, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is a Fellow of EUROPT and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Professor Anjos carries out research in mathematical optimization and its industrial applications. He has published four books and more than 100 scientific journal articles, and has led research collaborations with companies such as EDF, Hydro-Quebec, National Grid ESO (now NESO), Rio Tinto, and Schneider Electric. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Optimization and Engineering, is currently Area Editor for the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications and for RAIRO-OR, and is Associate Editor for several other journals. Professor Anjos currently serves as Chair of the Mathematical Optimization Society, INFORMS Vice-President for International Activities, and member of the Managing Boards of the EURO Working Groups on Continuous Optimization and on Stochastic Optimization. He previously served as President of the INFORMS Section on Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment, on the Council of the Mathematical Optimization Society, as Program Director for the SIAM Activity Group on Optimization, and as Vice-Chair of the INFORMS Optimization Society.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><strong><b>Miguel F. Anjos <\/b><\/strong>holds the Chair of Operational Research at the School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, U.K. He previously held faculty positions at Polytechnique Montreal, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Southampton. He is the Founding Academic Director of the Trottier Institute for Energy at Polytechnique Montreal. His accolades include an Inria International Chair, a Canada Research Chair, the NSERC-Hydro-Quebec-Schneider Electric Industrial Research Chair, a Humboldt Research Fellowship, INFORMS and IEEE Senior Memberships, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is a Fellow of EUROPT and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Professor Anjos carries out research in mathematical optimization and its industrial applications. He has published four books and more than 100 scientific journal articles, and has led research collaborations with companies such as EDF, Hydro-Quebec, National Grid ESO (now NESO), Rio Tinto, and Schneider Electric. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Optimization and Engineering, is currently Area Editor for the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications and for RAIRO-OR, and is Associate Editor for several other journals. Professor Anjos currently serves as Chair of the Mathematical Optimization Society, INFORMS Vice-President for International Activities, and member of the Managing Boards of the EURO Working Groups on Continuous Optimization and on Stochastic Optimization. He previously served as President of the INFORMS Section on Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment, on the Council of the Mathematical Optimization Society, as Program Director for the SIAM Activity Group on Optimization, and as Vice-Chair of the INFORMS Optimization Society.<\/p>\n<h3>Social Media Information Operations<\/h3> The battlefield of information warfare has moved to online social networks, where influence campaigns operate at unprecedented speed and scale. As with any strategic domain, success requires understanding the terrain, modeling adversaries, and executing interventions. This tutorial introduces a formal optimization framework for social media information operations (IO), where the objective is to shape opinions through targeted actions. This framework is parameterized by quantities such as network structure, user opinions, and activity levels\u2014all of which must be estimated or inferred from data. We discuss analytic tools that support this process, including centrality measures for identifying influential users, clustering algorithms for detecting community structure, and sentiment analysis for gauging public opinion. These tools either feed directly into the optimization pipeline or help analysts interpret the information environment. With the landscape mapped, we highlight threats such as coordinated bot networks, extremist recruitment, and viral misinformation. Countermeasures range from content-level interventions to mathematically optimized influence strategies. Finally, the emergence of generative AI transforms both offense and defense, democratizing persuasive capabilities while enabling scalable defenses. This shift calls for algorithmic innovation, policy reform, and ethical vigilance to protect the integrity of our digital public sphere. \u00a0 <p><strong>Speakers: Tauhid Zaman and Yen-Shao Chen<\/strong><\/p> <p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><strong>Tauhid Zaman<\/strong> is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at the Yale School of Management. He earned his BS, MEng, and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. His research focuses on tackling information operations challenges in social media, with topics ranging from combating online extremism and detecting bots, to designing and evaluating effective influence campaigns. His broader interests include generative AI, especially as it relates to social media content creation, as well as algorithmic sports betting. His work has garnered several academic awards, including the Sigmetrics Test of Time Award and multiple INFORMS Social Media Analytics Best Student Paper Awards. His research has been highlighted in major media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Mashable, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, and Time magazine. \u00a0 <strong>Yen-Shao Chen<\/strong> is a Ph.D. candidate in Operations Management at Yale University. His research focuses on social media information operations, with an emphasis on modeling opinion dynamics and optimizing influence campaigns. His dissertation explores how opinions are shaped within online social networks, using mathematical modeling, optimal control theory, and generative AI. Before entering academia, he worked as a Senior Knowledge Analyst at McKinsey &amp; Company across the U.S. and Asia, where he led client capability-building programs and analytics initiatives in supply chain and procurement. He has also held roles in private equity and semiconductor manufacturing. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University.<\/li><\/ul>\n<strong>Tauhid Zaman<\/strong> is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at the Yale School of Management. He earned his BS, MEng, and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. His research focuses on tackling information operations challenges in social media, with topics ranging from combating online extremism and detecting bots, to designing and evaluating effective influence campaigns. His broader interests include generative AI, especially as it relates to social media content creation, as well as algorithmic sports betting. His work has garnered several academic awards, including the Sigmetrics Test of Time Award and multiple INFORMS Social Media Analytics Best Student Paper Awards. His research has been highlighted in major media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Mashable, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, and Time magazine. \u00a0 <strong>Yen-Shao Chen<\/strong> is a Ph.D. candidate in Operations Management at Yale University. His research focuses on social media information operations, with an emphasis on modeling opinion dynamics and optimizing influence campaigns. His dissertation explores how opinions are shaped within online social networks, using mathematical modeling, optimal control theory, and generative AI. Before entering academia, he worked as a Senior Knowledge Analyst at McKinsey &amp; Company across the U.S. and Asia, where he led client capability-building programs and analytics initiatives in supply chain and procurement. He has also held roles in private equity and semiconductor manufacturing. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University.\n<h3>Mitigating the Impacts of Wildfires on Electric Power Systems through Stochastic Optimization<\/h3> <p>Dry and windy weather conditions significantly increase the risk of wildfires, whose<br>spread exacerbates the vulnerability of the grid and results in prolonged power outages.<br>This tutorial introduces and reviews recent streams of studies on addressing<br>this challenge through stochastic optimization approaches, including static, adaptive,<br>dynamic, and distributionally robust models. In particular, we account for random<br>failures of power lines, which depend not only on the ambient environment (such as<br>temperature, wind speed, and fire) but also on the power flowing through the line,<br>introducing decision-dependent uncertainty (DDU). We introduce the modeling of<br>wildfire, power systems operations, and their interactions, as well as how stochastic<br>optimization models can characterize DDU and mitigate the impacts of wildfires on<br>electric power systems. As examples, we mention three models, ranging from long-term<br>planning to short-term and dynamic reconfiguration of a power system amidst wildfireprone<br>conditions. For each model, we provide a numerical case study to demonstrate<br>the value of modeling (e.g., DDU and dynamic reconfiguration) in mitigating the<br>impacts of wildfires.<\/p> <p><strong>Speakers: Juan-Alberto Estrada-Garcia, Xinyi Zhao, Ruiwei Jiang, Alexandre Moreira,\u00a0 and Chaoyue Zhao<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><p><strong>Juan-Alberto Estrada-Garcia<\/strong> received his B.S. degree in Engineering Management from the University of Monterrey, Mexico, in 2022. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His research interests include stochastic mixed integer programming and sequential decision making.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Xinyi Zhao<\/strong> received the B.E. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Wuhan University, and the M.S. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research focuses on Operations Research in Smart Grid and Transportation.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Ruiwei Jiang<\/strong> is with the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan. He works on stochastic and integer programming and their applications.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Alexandre Moreira<\/strong> received the Electrical Engineering and Industrial Engineering degrees from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) in 2011 and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Imperial College London in 2019. He is currently a Research Scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research interests include decision-making under uncertainty as well as power system economics, operation, and planning.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Chaoyue Zhao<\/strong> received the B.S. degree in information and computing sciences from Fudan University in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida in 2014. She is currently an Associate Professor in industrial and systems engineering with the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests include distributionally robust optimization and reinforcement learning with their applications in power system scheduling, planning, and resilien<\/p><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><strong>Juan-Alberto Estrada-Garcia<\/strong> received his B.S. degree in Engineering Management from the University of Monterrey, Mexico, in 2022. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His research interests include stochastic mixed integer programming and sequential decision making.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Xinyi Zhao<\/strong> received the B.E. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Wuhan University, and the M.S. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research focuses on Operations Research in Smart Grid and Transportation.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Ruiwei Jiang<\/strong> is with the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan. He works on stochastic and integer programming and their applications.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Alexandre Moreira<\/strong> received the Electrical Engineering and Industrial Engineering degrees from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) in 2011 and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Imperial College London in 2019. He is currently a Research Scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research interests include decision-making under uncertainty as well as power system economics, operation, and planning.<\/p> <p><br><strong>Chaoyue Zhao<\/strong> received the B.S. degree in information and computing sciences from Fudan University in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida in 2014. She is currently an Associate Professor in industrial and systems engineering with the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests include distributionally robust optimization and reinforcement learning with their applications in power system scheduling, planning, and resilien<\/p>\n<h3>Statistical and Algorithmic Foundations of Reinforcement Learning<\/h3> As a paradigm for sequential decision making in unknown environments, reinforcement learning (RL) has received a flurry of attention in recent years. However, the explosion of model complexity in emerging applications and the presence of nonconvexity exacerbate the challenge of achieving efficient RL in sample-starved situations, where data collection is expensive, time-consuming, or even high-stakes (e.g., in clinical trials, autonomous systems, and online advertising). How to understand and enhance the sample and computational efficacies of RL algorithms is thus of great interest. In this tutorial, we aim to introduce several important algorithmic and theoretical developments in RL, highlighting the connections between new ideas and classical topics. Employing Markov Decision Processes as the central mathematical model, we cover several distinctive RL scenarios (i.e., RL with a simulator, online RL, offline RL, robust RL, and RL with human feedback), and present several mainstream RL approaches (i.e., model-based approach, value-based approach, and policy optimization). Our discussions gravitate around the issues of sample complexity, computational efficiency, as well as algorithm-dependent and information-theoretic lower bounds from a nonasymptotic viewpoint. \u00a0 <p><strong>Speakers: Yuejie Chi, Yuxin Chen, and Yuting Wei<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><strong>Yuejie Chi<\/strong> is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, and her B.Eng. (Honors) from Tsinghua University, also in Electrical Engineering. Her research focuses on the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of data science, generative AI, machine learning, and signal processing, with applications in sensing, imaging, decision-making, and AI systems. Her honors include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize, the IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award, and the inaugural IEEE Signal Processing Society Early Career Technical Achievement Award for her contributions to high-dimensional structured signal processing. She is an IEEE Fellow, recognized for her contributions to statistical signal processing with low-dimensional structures. <strong>Yuxin Chen<\/strong> is a Professor of Statistics and Data Science, and of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Penn, he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Statistics. His current research interests include high-dimensional statistics, nonconvex optimization, and the theory of machine learning. He has received several honors, including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize, the ICCM Best Paper Award (Gold Medal), and was a finalist for the Best Paper Prize for Young Researchers in Continuous Optimization. He has also been recognized with the Princeton Graduate Mentoring Award. <strong>Yuting Wei<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in the Statistics and Data Science Department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Penn, she spent two years as an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and one year at Stanford University as a Stein Fellow. She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley. She has received several honors, including the 2025 Gottfried E. Noether Early Career Scholar Award, the Google Research Scholar Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Erich L. Lehmann Citation from the Berkeley Statistics Department. Her research interests include high-dimensional and nonparametric statistics, reinforcement learning, and diffusion models.<\/li><\/ul>\n<strong>Yuejie Chi<\/strong> is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, and her B.Eng. (Honors) from Tsinghua University, also in Electrical Engineering. Her research focuses on the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of data science, generative AI, machine learning, and signal processing, with applications in sensing, imaging, decision-making, and AI systems. Her honors include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize, the IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award, and the inaugural IEEE Signal Processing Society Early Career Technical Achievement Award for her contributions to high-dimensional structured signal processing. She is an IEEE Fellow, recognized for her contributions to statistical signal processing with low-dimensional structures.\n<strong>Yuxin Chen<\/strong> is a Professor of Statistics and Data Science, and of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Penn, he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Statistics. His current research interests include high-dimensional statistics, nonconvex optimization, and the theory of machine learning. He has received several honors, including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize, the ICCM Best Paper Award (Gold Medal), and was a finalist for the Best Paper Prize for Young Researchers in Continuous Optimization. He has also been recognized with the Princeton Graduate Mentoring Award.\n<strong>Yuting Wei<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in the Statistics and Data Science Department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Penn, she spent two years as an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and one year at Stanford University as a Stein Fellow. She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley. She has received several honors, including the 2025 Gottfried E. Noether Early Career Scholar Award, the Google Research Scholar Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Erich L. Lehmann Citation from the Berkeley Statistics Department. Her research interests include high-dimensional and nonparametric statistics, reinforcement learning, and diffusion models.\n<h3>Responsible Machine Learning via Mixed-Integer Optimization<\/h3> <p>In the last few decades, Machine Learning (ML) has achieved significant success across<br>domains ranging from healthcare, sustainability, and the social sciences, to criminal<br>justice and finance. But its deployment in increasingly sophisticated, critical, and<br>sensitive areas affecting individuals, the groups they belong to, and society as a whole<br>raises critical concerns around fairness, transparency and robustness, among others. As<br>the complexity and scale of ML systems and of the settings in which they are deployed<br>grow, so does the need for responsible ML methods that address these challenges while<br>providing guaranteed performance in deployment.<br>Mixed-integer optimization (MIO) offers a powerful framework for embedding<br>responsible ML considerations directly into the learning process while maintaining<br>performance. For example, it enables learning of inherently transparent models that<br>can conveniently incorporate fairness or other domain specific constraints. This tutorial<br>paper provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this topic discussing<br>both theoretical and practical aspects. It outlines some of the core principles of<br>responsible ML, their importance in applications, and the practical utility of MIO for<br>building ML models that align with these principles. Through examples and mathematical<br>formulations, it illustrates practical strategies and available tools for efficiently<br>solving MIO problems for responsible ML. It concludes with a discussion on current<br>limitations and open research questions, providing suggestions for future work.<\/p> <p><strong>Speakers:\u00a0Nathan Justin, Qingshi Sun, Andr\u00e9s G\u00f3mez, and Phebe Vayanos<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><h4>Speaker Bio<\/h4><p>Nathan Justin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) as part of the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society. He is interested in researching optimization-based approaches to robust and interpretable machine learning for social good. His work has earned him the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the USC Department of Computer Science Best Research Assistant award. Prior to joining USC, he graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics with high distinction and departmental honors in mathematics and worked as a software engineer.<\/p> <p>Qingshi Sun is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and operations research, with particular interest in robust optimization and mixed-integer optimization.<\/p> <p><strong>Andr\u00e9s G\u00f3mez<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering at USC\u2019s Viterbi School of Engineering. He conducts research in optimization theory, developing new methods for challenging problems in statistics, and machine learning. His methodological expertise lies in discrete and conic optimization, particularly in designing efficient relaxations for mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems. His work has garnered recognition and funding from prestigious institutions including the NSF, AFOSR, Google (Research Scholar Grant), among others. At USC, he teaches courses related to the interface of optimization and machine learning. Dr. G\u00f3mez is also affiliated with the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS), where he contributes to socially impactful AI research.<\/p> <p><strong>Phebe Vayanos<\/strong> is an Associate Professor of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering and of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) where she holds a Viterbi Early Career Chair in Engineering. She is also a Co-Director of CAIS, the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society at USC and a Co-Director of the ORAI Interdisciplinary PhD Certificate Program in Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence. Her research aims to advance integer, stochastic, and robust optimization, and their interface with machine learning, causal inference, and economics to enable the design of predictive and prescriptive models that are robust, interpretable, and fair, being suitable to deploy in high-stakes settings. She aims to directly apply the methods and tools she creates in her work to make a positive impact on society. Prior to joining USC, she was lecturer in the Operations Research and Statistics Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a postdoctoral research associate in the Operations Research Center at MIT. She is a TED AI speaker, a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and the Imperial College Emerging Alumni Leader Award, among others. She is an associate editor for Management Science, Operations Research, Operations Research Letters, and Computational Management Science.<\/p> <p style=\"margin: 0in\">\u00a0<\/p><\/li><\/ul>\n<p>Nathan Justin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) as part of the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society. He is interested in researching optimization-based approaches to robust and interpretable machine learning for social good. His work has earned him the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the USC Department of Computer Science Best Research Assistant award. Prior to joining USC, he graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics with high distinction and departmental honors in mathematics and worked as a software engineer.<\/p>\n<p>Qingshi Sun is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and operations research, with particular interest in robust optimization and mixed-integer optimization.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andr\u00e9s G\u00f3mez<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering at USC\u2019s Viterbi School of Engineering. He conducts research in optimization theory, developing new methods for challenging problems in statistics, and machine learning. His methodological expertise lies in discrete and conic optimization, particularly in designing efficient relaxations for mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems. His work has garnered recognition and funding from prestigious institutions including the NSF, AFOSR, Google (Research Scholar Grant), among others. At USC, he teaches courses related to the interface of optimization and machine learning. Dr. G\u00f3mez is also affiliated with the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS), where he contributes to socially impactful AI research.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phebe Vayanos<\/strong> is an Associate Professor of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering and of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) where she holds a Viterbi Early Career Chair in Engineering. She is also a Co-Director of CAIS, the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society at USC and a Co-Director of the ORAI Interdisciplinary PhD Certificate Program in Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence. Her research aims to advance integer, stochastic, and robust optimization, and their interface with machine learning, causal inference, and economics to enable the design of predictive and prescriptive models that are robust, interpretable, and fair, being suitable to deploy in high-stakes settings. She aims to directly apply the methods and tools she creates in her work to make a positive impact on society. Prior to joining USC, she was lecturer in the Operations Research and Statistics Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a postdoctoral research associate in the Operations Research Center at MIT. She is a TED AI speaker, a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and the Imperial College Emerging Alumni Leader Award, among others. She is an associate editor for Management Science, Operations Research, Operations Research Letters, and Computational Management Science.<\/p> <p style=\"margin: 0in\">\u00a0<\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":185,"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9768,"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205\/revisions\/9768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meetings.informs.org\/wordpress\/annual2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}