Operations Research at Purdue
"Purdue IE is top notch, worldwide, and there are a lot of researchers with different backgrounds. With such diversity, collaboration can create great ideas that can solve real world challenges."
- Jun He, PhD Student
Operations Research
News
Faculty
Vaneet Aggarwal
Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Supervised Learning
Reinforcement Learning
Large Language Models
Quantum Machine Learning
Applications in Networking, Transportation, Robotics, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Biomedical, and Climate
Stephan Biller
Harold T. Amrine Distinguished Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering;
Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business Director of Dauch Center for the Management of Manufacturing Enterprises
Research Interests
Digital-Industrial Strategy, Business and Financial Models
Resilient and Sustainable Manufacturing & Supply Chains
Production Systems, Operations Management, Enterprise Systems
Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, AIoT
Digital transformation, Digital Twins
Energy Transition & Transportation
Innovation Commercialization & Go-to-Market @Scale
Hua Cai
Thomas and Jane Schmidt Rising Star Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering;
Joint Appointment with Environmental & Ecological Engineering
Research Interests
Environmental implications of emerging technologies
Urban sustainability
Production Systems, Operations Management, Enterprise Systems
Industrial ecology
Complex adaptive systems
Zaiwei Chen
Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Reinforcement Learning
Learning in Games
Applied Probability
Optimization
Control
Souvik Dhara
Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Applied Probability
Inference and Algorithms on Networks
Applied Probability
Random Graphs
Stochastic Processes
Ana María Estrada Gomez
Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Complex Systems
High-dimensional streaming data
Monitoring and diagnosis
Adaptive sampling
Probabilistic graphical models
Joaquín Goñi Cortes
Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering;
Joint Appointment with Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests
Complex Systems
Graph Theory and Network Science
Information Theory
Neuroimaging and Brain Connectomics
Harsha Honnappa
Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Queueing Theory
Statistics and Game Theory
Susan Hunter
Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Stochastic optimization
Multi-objective optimization under uncertainty
Simulation modeling and analysis
Applied probability and statistics
Liwei Jiang
Joining the Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering in Fall of 2025
Research Interests
Nonlinear Optimization
Nonsmooth Optimization
Stochastic Optimization
Data Science and Learning
David Johnson
Ravi and Eleanor Talwar Rising Star Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering;
Joint Appointment with Political Science
Research Interests
Decision-making under uncertainty, applied to climate change adaptation and environmental policy
Flood risk modeling
Sustainable agriculture
Environmental risk communication and decision support tools
Multi-criteria tradeoff analysis
Charles Robert Kenley
Professor of Practice Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Quantitative methods for systems engineering
Modeling and simulation methods for systems engineering
Programmatic risk management and risk analysis
Cost and schedule forecasting for technology development
Bayesian methods
Effectiveness of systems engineering management methods and processes
Reem Khir
Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Logistics and transportation planning
Supply chain analytics
System modeling and optimization
Robust and stochastic optimization
Machine learning for constrained optimization
Nan Kong
Professor of Biomedical Engineering;
Joint Appointment with Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Stochastic integer programming/ global optimization under uncertainty
Scheduling, resource allocation, and capacity planning in healthcare and supply chain applications
Computational modeling of disease and disease management
Computational image processing/ hyperspectral imaging/ compressive sensing
Andrew Liu
Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Interactions of optimization
Game theory and Industrial organization, with applications to model and analyze energy markets and environmental policy
Nagabhushana Prabhu
Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Nonlinear optimization and its applications
Eigenvalue computation of large sparse matrices
Computational oncology
Soliton physics
Gesualdo Scutari
Pedro and Barbara Granadillo Professor, Edwardson School Industrial Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests
Distributed and Large-scale Optimization
Computational Game Theory
Variational Inequalities
Machine Learning
Big Data Analytics
Applications in Communications, Networking, Signal Processing, and Sensor Networks
Sivaranjani Seetharaman
Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Control systems, machine learning, networks, energy, transportation, cyber-physical systems
J Shanthikumar
Richard E. Dauch Chair in Manufacturing and Operations Management;
Courtesy Appointment in Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Production system modeling and analysis
Queueing theory and applications
Reliability and probability theory
Scheduling and sequencing
Simulation methodology
Stochastic processes and modeling
Young-Jun Son
James J. Solberg Head;
Ransburg Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Real-time Control of Smart Factory and Extended Enterprises via Digital-Twin
Modeling Human Decision-Making (Extended Belief-Desire-Intention Model)
Multi-paradigm Simulations (agent, discrete event, system dynamics, virtual reality)
Modeling and Control of Emerging Applications (Emergency Evacuation, Healthcare, UAV/UGV Coordination, Social Network)
Mario Ventresca
Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Approximation algorithms
Automated design and inference
Computational science and engineering
Discrete optimization
Machine learning
Medical operations research
Network science
Miaolan Xie
Joining the Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering in Fall of 2025
Research Interests
Stochastic Optimization
Data Science
Nonlinear Optimization
Machine Learning
Algorithms
Applications in Healthcare
Zhe "Jimmy" Zhang
Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests
Stochastic Optimization
Distributed Optimization
Machine Learning
Zhe Zhang
Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Our Work
Top Employers**
| enVista | General Motors |
| PepsiCo, Inc. | Lockheed Martin |
| Procter & Gamble | Deloitte |
| Eli Lilly & Company | Ernst & Young |
| Medline Industries, Inc. | Trane Technologies |
| Amazon | Bricz |
| Caterpillar Inc. | Collins Aerospace |
| Crowe LLP | Goldman Sachs |
| Hormel Foods | Land O'Lakes, Inc. |
| McKinsey & Company | Republic Airways |
| SPACEX | Walmart Inc. |
| Whirlpool Corporation | 84.51° |
| Abercrombie & Fitch |
Top Internships/Co-Op Companies***
| Tesla | Amazon |
**These are the top employers of the IE Class of 2023 according to the Purdue Center for Career Opportunities.
***These are the top companies of the IE Class of 2022 according to the Purdue Center for Career Opportunities.
