Kong LabOur People
Principal Investigator
Nan Kong
Education:
- Ph.D., Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
- Major Advisor: Andrew J. Schaefer
- M.Eng., School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University
- B.S., Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, China
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
Contact:
Graduate Students
Laia Vancells Lopez
PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering, expected graduation: 2027
I am a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, advised by Dr. Nan Kong and Dr. Leopold Green. I earned my B.S. in Biochemistry from Wake Forest University and my M.S. in Data Science from Fairfield University. My research brings together computational and experimental approaches to understand and control how biological components interact. I develop immune digital twins to study the conditions that enable coordinated antitumor responses, and computational design tools to program the assembly of DNA and protein-DNA structures. These projects reflect my broader interest in connecting biological mechanisms with predictive models and molecular engineering to advance programmable immunotherapy. I have received academic honors including the Harold Dawes Parcell Award for Excellence at Wake Forest and the Excellence in Data Science Achievement Award at Fairfield. Beyond research, I am a former Division I field hockey player and remain actively involved in student mentorship, STEM outreach, and community health initiatives.
Shen Chang
Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, expected graduation: 2027
I am a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science at Purdue University, with an expected graduation in 2027. I received my M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from National Tsing Hua University. My core research focuses on human performance understanding, using multimodal and agentic AI to interpret how people perform complex tasks, identify errors or uncertainty, and support better decision-making. My broader interests include healthcare AI, video understanding, precision medicine, and clinical decision support. I have received several academic and research recognitions, including an NSF-IEEE EMBS Fellowship. Outside of research, I enjoy photography, cooking, traveling, and exploring new technologies.
Haopeng Zhou
Ph.D. Student in Industrial Engineering, expected graduation: 2030
Haopeng Zhou is a Ph.D. student in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University, with an expected graduation in 2030. His research interests lie at the intersection of healthcare systems and machine learning. He is particularly interested in developing data-driven methods for real-world healthcare data, including longitudinal patient records, incomplete or imperfect clinical labels, and heterogeneous health information. His current work focuses on healthcare risk prediction, positive-unlabeled learning, and AI-assisted community health decision support. Before joining Purdue, he received both his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Sichuan University.
Oluwatobi Idowu
Ph.D. Student in Biomedical Engineering, expected graduation: 2030
My name is Oluwatobi Idowu, and I am a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, specializing in Computational Biomedicine (expected graduation: 2030). I hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mathematics from Tai Solarin University of Education, Nigeria, where I graduated as the Overall Best Master’s Student, and a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Purdue University. My research interests include cancer-risk prediction, uncertainty quantification, machine learning, and mathematical modeling. I have published 24 papers and received awards. Outside research, I enjoy dancing, playing instruments, and community service through Kingdom Emissaries, an NGO I founded in Nigeria.
Xinyue Yu
Ph.D. Student in Industrial Engineering
I am a second-year PhD student in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University, co-advised by Dr. Nan Kong and Dr. Yuehwern Yih. Before joining Purdue, I graduated from The University of Hong Kong (HKU) with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Mathematics. My research focuses on algorithm design in bilevel mixed integer programming problems. More broadly, I am interested in applications of bilevel mixed integer programming problems in resource allocation, evacuation problems, and layout design. I am also exploring data-integrated stochastic optimization. I was awarded the Ross Fellowship from the College of Engineering at Purdue University. In my spare time, I enjoy TV series, music (hip-hop, R&B, popular), and handcrafts.
Yixuan Long
Ph.D. Student in Industrial Engineering, expected graduation: 2030
I am a PhD student in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. Before joining Purdue, I earned my M.S. in Operations Research from Georgia Tech and my B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. My research interests are in healthcare operations research, with a particular focus on decision-making, simulation, optimization, and data-driven healthcare applications.
James Altham
Master's Thesis Student
I am a Master's Thesis Student at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering working in Dr. Kong's lab. I completed my undergrad at Northeastern University in Bioengineering and Biochemistry. Here, my research pertains to digital twin and computational modeling of physiological systems. From ODE systems to regression models to graph networks, I try to do it all, in hopes of enabling personalized medical decision making in healthcare.
Former Ph.D. Students
Xiaoquan Gao
Winter 2024. Industrial Engineering.
Dissertation: Improving Community-based Service Operations with Reinforcement Learning
Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University.
Shujin Jiang
Winter 2023. Industrial Engineering.
Dissertation: Sequential Staff Planning under Non-Stationary Demand Uncertainty
Operational Analyst, American Airlines.
Juan Paz
Spring 2023. Industrial Engineering.
Dissertation: Operational Decision Tools for Smart Emergency Medical Services
Assistant Professor, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali Branch, Colombia.
Zhouyang Lou
Spring 2023. Industrial Engineering.
Dissertation: Three Essays of Healthcare Data-Driven Predictive Modeling
Senior Associate, Axtria, a global provider of cloud software and data analytics to improve patient outcomes.
Carolina Vivas-Valencia
December 2021. Biomedical Engineering.
Dissertation: Essays on the Health Claims Data-Enabled Combat of Current Opioid Epidemic
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, University of Texas – San Antonio.
Xinxin Guo
June 2021. School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. Co-supervised with Dr. Haiyan Wang.
Dissertation: Pricing Mechanism of Personal Health Data Transaction under Information Asymmetry
Associate Professor, School of Management, Jiangsu University.
Wei-An Chen
December 2019. Chemical Engineering.
Dissertation: Supply Chain and Trial Design Optimization for Adaptive Clinical Trial
Data Scientist, Amazon Inc.
Aditya Sai
April 2018. Biomedical Engineering.
Dissertation: Modeling and Optimization of Dynamical Systems in Epidemiology Using Sparse Grid Interpolation
Senior ML Engineer, Carbon Health.
Mu Du
December 2017. School of Economics and Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China. Co-supervised with Dr. Xiangpei Hu.
Dissertation: Two-stage Optimization for Integrated Production-distribution Planning under Vehicle Operational Restrictions
Associate Professor, School of Economics and Management, Dalian University of Technology.
Hambisa Keno
April 2017. Industrial Engineering.
Dissertation: Patient Flow Modeling in the Long-term Care Network
Lead Research Scientist, STR.
Yan Li
August 2014. Biomedical Engineering.
Dissertation: Rural Health, Long-Term Care, and Chronic Disease: Three Essays on System Design for Population Health
Professor and Chair, Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China.
Previously, Associate Professor at the Mount Sinai Medical School and recipient of multiple NIH R01 grants as PI.
Zhen Zhu
December 2012. Industrial Engineering.
Dissertation: Optimal Financing Structure Mechanism Design for Traumatic Brain Injury Patients
Head of Research and Analytics, Oneworld Alliance.
Yu Teng
May 2012. Biomedical Engineering.
Dissertation: Optimal Screening Strategy Design for Chlamydia Infection in Young Women: A Hybrid Dynamic System Control Approach
Initial placement after Ph.D. graduation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Senior Analyst and Modeler, Avenir Health.
Wen-Hsin Feng
December 2011. Industrial Engineering.
Dissertation: Simulation-based Analysis and Optimization on Recipient Prioritization for Cadaveric Liver Allocation
Deputy Director, Pou Sheng International (Holdings) Limited, Taipei City.
Current and Former Undergraduate Research assistants
Mikaela Meyer(Statistics), Aug. 2015- July 2016
Feature selection and classification development of blood sample mass spectrometer data
Sameer Manchanda(Computer Science and Applied Statistics), Aug. 2015- July 2016
Classifying mass spectrometer measurements of blood samples to indicate how long it has been since the blood was drawn
Genmao Shi(Automation, Tsinghua University), Summer 2015
Mass spec time-series data clustering
Yuxuan Liu(Industrial Engineering) and Yikang Li(Automation, Tsinghua University), Summer 2015
Feature Extraction in Analyzing Communication Sequence Data in Shared Medical Decision Making Processes for Better Predicting Patient Satisfaction
Christine Zhang(Applied Statistics), August 2014 – December 2015
Predicting the Readmission Risks in an Acute Care Hospital
Rei Rutkowski(Mechanical Engineering), August 2014 – July 2015
Time-Series Data Analysis for Fall Detection
Apoorv Sanjay Gaur (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Mo Li (Automation, Tsinghua University), Summer 2014
Plaque Vulnerability Characterization for Acute Coronary Syndrome using Photoacoustic Imaging Data
Kelsey Wasilczuk(Biomedical Engineering) and Shuguang Peng (Automation, Tsinghua University), Summer 2014
Feature Extraction in Analyzing Communication Sequence Data in Shared Medical Decision Making Processes for Better Predicting Patient Satisfaction
Zhouyang Lou (Statistics), Summer 2014
Feature selection in Efficient and Effective Analysis of Photoacoustic Imaging Data for Plague Vulnerability Characterization in Acute Cardiovascular Syndrome
Wenting Shi (Statistics) and Shuai Fang (Statistics), August 2013 – April 2014
Mining Patient-Physician Communication Sequence Data to Understand the Casual Factors in Shared Decision Making
Eckart(Mathematics) and Kehao Zhu (Statistics), January 2013 – December 2013
Predicting the Readmission Risks in an Acute Care Hospital
Maggie Neff (Biomedical Engineering) and Jiali Zhou (Automation, Tsingha University, China), May 2013 – December 2013
Statistical Analysis and Data Mining for Likelihood, Timing, and Diagnosis Associated with Acute Hospital Readmission
Qi Jin (Statistics), May 2012-August 2012
A Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Age-specific Screening Strategies for Chlamydia infection
Duanyi Wei (Biomedical Engineering), May 2011-August 2011
Agent-based Simulation Study for Understanding How Initial Public Opinion on Vaccination Affects Vaccination Adherence during Infectious Disease Outbreak
David Yeung (Biomedical Engineering), May 2010-August 2010
Parameter Estimation of Chlamydia Trachomatous Transmission Dynamics
Xiaochang Li (Industrial Engineering), January 2008 – December 2008
Patient/Physician Scheduling in a Distributed Outpatient Specialty Care Delivery Network
Optimal Resource Allocation for Publically Funded Long-Term Care Provision
Xueyao Chen (Statistics), May 2008-December 2008
Mining of the U.S. Organ Transplantation and Allocation Data
Irene Brian (Statistics) and Emmanuel Jefferson (Industrial Engineering), January 2008-May 2008
Mining of the U.S. Organ Transplantation and Allocation Data