Speakers & Presentations
Dr. Anima Anandkumar
Keynote Speaker
-
Anima Anandkumar has conducted pioneering work in AI for scientific modeling and discovery, including extreme weather forecasting, drug discovery, scientific simulations, and engineering design. She invented Neural Operators, a deep learning framework for learning multiscale physical phenomena, and used it to train the first AI-based high-resolution weather model—tens of thousands of times faster than current forecasting systems—now deployed at weather agencies. This work established the field of AI-based weather and climate modeling. Her AI algorithms have also enabled a range of scientific advances, including the design of a novel medical device, the invention of an anti-cancer drug currently in clinical trials, and safer autonomous drone flights.
Anima is currently a Bren professor at Caltech and a fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and AAAI. She has received several awards, including the Time 100 Impact Award, IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, the Schmidt Sciences AI2050 senior fellow, awards from the Guggenheim, Alfred P. Sloan and Blavatnik Foundations, the NSF Career Award, the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and best paper awards at venues such as Neural Information Processing and the ACM Gordon Bell Special Prize for HPC-Based COVID-19 Research.
She recently presented her work on AI and science to the White House Science Council (PCAST), the National AI Advisory Committee, and at TED 2024.
Anima received her B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, her Ph.D. from Cornell University, and completed her postdoctoral research at MIT. She previously served as Principal Scientist at Amazon Web Services and as Senior Director of AI Research at NVIDIA.
Dr. Anupam Datta
Featured Talk Speaker
-
Anupam Datta is a Principal Research Scientist and Snowflake AI Research Lead at Snowflake. He joined Snowflake as part of the acquisition of TruEra where he served as Co-Founder, President, and Chief Scientist from 2019-2024. Datta was on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University from 2007-2022, most recently as a tenured Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Datta’s current research focuses on Trustworthy AI, spanning evaluation, explainability, fairness, and adversarial robustness of ML models and GenAI applications. These research results have had a significant impact on products at TruEra and Snowflake. Datta obtained a B.Tech. from IIT Kharagpur, and Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University in Computer Science, where he currently teaches a course on Trustworthy AI.
Dr. Phil Kaminsky
Featured Talk Speaker
-
Phil Kaminsky received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in 1989, and his MS and PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University in 1997. Before graduate school, he worked in production engineering and control at Merck in Rahway, New Jersey. Professor Kaminsky is the faculty director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and director of the Initiative for Research in Biopharmaceutical Operations. He served as department chair of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from 2011-2016, and currently serves as Executive Associate Dean and Development in the College of Engineering.
His primary research interests are broadly focused on the analysis and development of robust and efficient tools and techniques for design, operation, and risk management in logistics systems and supply chains. This encompasses operational issues including the modeling and analysis of production and control systems, as well as more tactical and strategic concerns, including the integration of production, distribution, and pricing strategies, and more broadly the analysis of issues that arise in integrated supply chain management. From a methodological perspective, he is particularly interested in the design and analysis of algorithms to address these problems. He also works on issues related to the healthcare system.
Much of his current work is centered on two main themes: strategic, tactical, and operational issues that arise in the operation of biopharmaceutical firms; and collaborative, sustainable logistics. In addition, other current projects focus on the development of novel flexible algorithms for supply chain optimization, container terminal operations, efficient operation of operating rooms, and quantitative modeling of behavior change for personalized healthcare. His research is or has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Project Production Institute, BioMarin, Bayer, Genentech, Navis, and FICO.
Max Henrion, PhD
Featured Talk Speaker
-
Max Henrion, PhD, is Founder and CEO of Lumina Decision Systems. He has experience as a professor, decision analyst, software designer, and entrepreneur. He originated Analytica, Lumina’s visual software platform for decision analytics. He was formerly a Professor at Carnegie Mellon and Consulting Professor at Stanford. He has published 3 books and over 70 articles in decision and risk analysis, artificial intelligence, and energy and environment. He has a BA from Cambridge University, Master of Design from the Royal College of Art, and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon. His “Rigs to Reefs” project won the 2014 Decision Analysis Practice Award. He received the 2018 Frank Ramsey Medal for his contributions to the theory, practice, and dissemination of decision analysis from the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society.
Dr. Subramanian Iyer
Featured Panalist
-
Subramanian Iyer is a leader driving corporate transformations using data science and AI. He has held executive roles leading AI at QXO (building materials distribution), Albertsons (grocery), Target (forecasting in Supply Chain and Merchandizing). He has led modernization efforts in areas like Inventory Planning; digital placement and allocation; financial and budget planning; price optimization, e-commerce personalization, retail media networks. He has previously been Head of Analytics at First Republic Bank, where he led multiple efforts on quantitative analytics, AI modeling, data warehousing, web development for analytical applications and efficient data representation for analytical datasets. Prior to that he was VP of Investment Banking Strategies at Goldman Sachs where he worked on derivatives pricing and structuring in the Americas Financing Group, with a special focus on financial institutions. Prior to that he was in technical roles at Google, Synopsys and Fujitsu and holds several patents. He is an alumnus of Harvard where he did his executive education in General Management, of UT Austin where he received his doctorate in Computer Sciences in Formal Methods and of IIT Bombay where he got his Bachelors in Computer Science & Engineering.
Dr. Yu Zhang
Featured Panalist
-
Dr. Yu Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the ECE Department at UC Santa Cruz. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Dr. Zhang’s research lies at the intersection of smart power grids, optimization theory, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on enhancing the resilience, efficiency, and sustainability of modern energy systems. His work integrates data-driven decision-making, learning-augmented optimization, and stochastic control to address pressing challenges in power system operations and planning. He actively collaborates across disciplines to develop next-generation tools for energy forecasting, grid hardening, and intelligent energy management.
Dr. Zhang has received several honors, including the 2025 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the Energy Systems Division of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), the 2021 Early Career Best Paper Award from the Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment (ENRE) Section of INFORMS, and the 2019 Hellman Fellowship.
Aravind Govindarajan
Featured Panalist
-
Aravind is a Director of Data Science at Target, leading end-to-end supply chain optimization initiatives, including purchase order routing and global flow decisions, inventory network positioning optimization and end-to-end transportation capacity management.. Aravind graduated from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with a Ph.D. in Business Administration – Technology and Operations, with his thesis focused on optimization in omnichannel retail operations.
Carlos A. Zetina
Featured Panalist
-
Carlos Zetina, Ph.D. has over 10 years of experience in the field of analytics and optimization including 5 years of consulting for international banks and Fortune 500 companies. In addition to consulting, he worked as a scientist at Amazon’s Supply Chain Optimization Technologies team for 2 years before joining FICO as a senior pre-sales consultant. Carlos combines deep expertise in large-scale optimization with broad knowledge of adjacent fields such as machine learning and simulation to identify opportunities and deliver business value for companies.
Keith Dierkx
Featured Panalist
-
Keith Dierkx is a Principal at Princeton Consultants, where he leads the expansion of the firm’s Rail and Transportation Practices. He brings decades of executive experience, having served as Executive Director of Transportation and Logistics at Oracle and as IBM’s Global Industry Leader for Freight, Logistics, and Rail.
A recognized thought leader in the industry, Keith has been featured in Forbes, Railway Age, CNN, and CNBC’s Squawk Box. He has co-authored influential papers, including AI in Logistics with DHL and Cognitive Computing in Rail with IBM, and he continues to shape the future of the sector through research, advisory work, and public outreach.
In 2024 and 2025, he co-sponsored the Princeton Consultants/Northwestern University AI in Rail Survey, providing insights on the current and future role of artificial intelligence in transportation.
Keith earned his BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Duke University.
Rajat Verma
Featured Panalist
-
With over 11 years of experience at the intersection of Data Science, Product Management, and Artificial Intelligence in B2B SaaS companies, Rajat Verma specializes in building data and AI/ML products that transform data into measurable business impact. Previously at Autodesk, Rajat led the development of a data platform processing over one million daily transactions and created data products that contributed approximately $10 million in both revenue growth and cost savings. Currently at ServiceNow, Rajat is focused on building and operationalizing AI products that drive business growth and enhance enterprise decision-making. His experience spans structured data pipelines to complex AI systems and models.
Tingting Lin
Featured Panalist
-
A dynamic product leader with expertise in enterprise SaaS and AI solutions, currently driving innovation at SAP through the development of sophisticated data management and configuration platforms. Published author in prestigious IEEE conferences and industry journals, focusing on AI governance and digital transformation. Active contributor to the tech community as a conference reviewer and industry awards judge.
Fred Gardi
Lightning Talk Speaker
-
Fred Gardi is an Operations Research expert with 25 years of experience bridging research and industry applications. He founded Hexaly in 2012 to provide the market with a new kind of mathematical optimization solver. Before that, he worked for 10 years delivering OR solutions in various industries like manufacturing, transportation, airports, telecom, advertising, banking, and energy. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and has won several awards in Operations Research.
Yadong (Jeff) Zhang
Lightning Talk Speaker
-
Mr. Zhang is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Vanderbilt University majoring in Civil Engineering. His research interest spans a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplinaries, including probabilistic modeling, statistical inference, machine learning, stochastic and discrete optimization. He is particularly interested in developing advanced algorithms to solve problems that are computationally challenging. He has extensive experience in Bayesian inference, computational modeling, uncertainty quantification (sensitivity analysis, uncertainty propagation, reliability and risk assessment), and so on. His work has potential applications in the broader area of infrastructure and energy systems, including power grid, transportation, water distribution, geothermal energy, and beyond.
David Nnamdi
Lightning Talk Speaker
-
David Nnamdi is a Senior Data Scientist at Intuit, where he applies AI/ML and Bayesian modeling to optimize marketing strategies and drive business acquisition. With nearly a decade of experience spanning energy, supply chain, and tech, he brings a cross-disciplinary lens to solving complex problems.
David began his career as a reservoir engineer, applying machine learning to simulation and forecasting. He later worked on optimization initiatives at Pioneer Natural Resources and supported platform safety at LinkedIn. He holds dual master’s degrees in Data Science & Analytics and Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, where he also contributed to a landmark DOE-funded carbon storage project. An author of six technical papers and an open-source contributor, David is passionate about bridging science, engineering, and AI to create lasting impact.
Dmitrii Timoshenko
Lightning Talk Speaker
-
Applied Scientist at AWS with experience across diverse roles in data science and analytics. Graduated from UC Berkeley with MA in Statistics in 2023 and currently working on attribution models to improve marketing and business decision-making
Dr. Ed Klotz
Lightning Talk Speaker
-
Dr. Ed Klotz has over 30 years of experience in the mathematical optimization software industry. He is a technical expert who, over the course of his career, has worked with a wide array of customers to help them solve some of world’s most challenging mathematical optimization problems. In his role as a Senior Mathematical Optimization Specialist on the Gurobi R&D team, Dr. Klotz works closely with our customers to support them in implementing and utilizing mathematical optimization in their organizations. He also interacts heavily with the R&D team based on his experiences with the customers.
Prior to joining Gurobi, Dr. Klotz was a member of the CPLEX development team of IBM. He was involved in product development, customer training, product documentation, and numerous other tasks, with a primary focus on delivering CPLEX customer support and leveraging his experiences with customers to help inform the R&D team about customer needs and product improvements. Dr. Klotz has extensive knowledge in linear programming, integer programming, and numerical linear algebra for finite precision computing. Using this knowledge, he was able to investigate customer support issues at the source code level and identify potential improvements in CPLEX, both in terms of performance and accuracy of computation.
Before joining IBM, Dr. Klotz was a principal technical support engineer at ILOG, Inc., and a mathematical programming specialist at CPLEX Optimization, Inc.
Dr. Klotz has presented at numerous conferences, workshops, and web seminars and published numerous papers on mathematical optimization. His interests are in all aspects of mathematical programming, with a primary interest in research that can impact mathematical programming software. He obtained a BA in Math and Economics from Oberlin College and a PhD in Operations Research from Stanford University.
