COMPUTATIONAL IE

Computational IE at Purdue

Opportunity lies at the intersection of data, networks, and algorithms, or programs. Where we once built programs optimized for a single processor, we will soon design new technologies to optimize systems still unimaginable.

Today we are in the midst of a revolution built on AI, machine learning, connected systems, and automation. In a Purdue lab today, a student team is building the next emerging, transformative tech revolution.

Learn more about operations research at Purdue's School of Industrial Engineering from a student perspective by watching this quick video.

News

IE's Liu co-hosts Purdue Grid of Tomorrow Consortium

Faculty

CompIE 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

Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Carbon, water and material footprint of digitalization

Supply chain sustainability and resilience

Life cycle environmental impacts of emerging technology/system/service

System of systems (e.g., industry-agriculture-transportation-water-energy nexus)​

Integrated system modeling at different scales​

Souvik Dhara

Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Applied Probability

Inference and Algorithms on Networks

Random Graphs

Stochastic Processes

Ana Maria Estrada Gomez

Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Modeling, Monitoring, and Diagnosis of Multistage Manufacturing Processes Collecting High-dimensional Streaming Data:

- Adaptive Sampling Strategies for Online Monitoring​
- Directed Graphical Models for Root Cause Analysis​​

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

Syed Ahmad Helmi

Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering;
Joint Appointment with School of Engineering Education
Research Interests

Operations and Supply Chain Strategy

Smart Manufacturing and Process Optimization

Digital Twin and Predictive Simulation (Discrete Events and System Dynamics

Engineering Learning Innovation and Pedagogy

Harsha Honnappa

Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Queueing Theory

Applied Probability

Statistics and Game Theory

Susan Hunter

Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Methods for simulation optimization - optimization when the objective functions are defined implicitly through a Monte Carlo simulation model and can only be observed with stochastic error.​

Methods for multi-objective simulation optimization​

Methods for two-stage multi-objective linear programs

Cost-effectiveness analysis

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 Systems Planning and Design:

- Developing optimization-based technology for dynamic decision making
- Enhancing and streamlining operations using real-time analytics​
- Supporting planner-in-the-loop environments to facilitate human-AI interaction for effective decision-making​

Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chains:

- Performance and risk analysis of critical networks such as food supply chains in the defense industry​
- Designing transportation systems that tradeoff economic, environmental, and social goals​

Methodology: System Modeling, Robust & Stochastic Optimization, Machine Learning for Optimization

Andrew Liu

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 & 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

Related Work

The Digitization of The Build@Scale Lab in Gateway

The Gavriel Salvendy International Symposium on Frontiers in Industrial Engineering (PQAI 2025)

eXcellence in Manufacturing and Operations (XMO) Initiative

Digital Twin - Industrial Operations (DigiT-IO)

Dauch Center for the Management of Manufacturing Enterprises (DCMME)

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