Gabor Virag is an Associate Professor of Economic Policy Analysis at the University of Toronto, Mississauga , with a cross-appointment to the Rotman School of Management . He serves as the PhD Coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Policy area. His research focuses on market dynamics, auction theory, and search theory, with a particular interest in decentralized market interactions and information policy. Education : PhD in Economics from Princeton University, MA from Central European University, BA from Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Research Interests : Economic Theory, Industrial Organization, Game Theory, and their applications to dynamic contests, patent markets, and labor economics. Publications : His work appears in top-tier journals such as the American Economic Journal, Games and Economic Behavior, and Review of Economic Studies, emphasizing auctions with resale, innovation prizes, and wage inequality. Collaborations : Co-author of studies with scholars from Bocconi University, Claremont McKenna College, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Mingzhou Jin is a Professor and Department Head in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, within the Tickle College of Engineering. He also directs the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE) and the FERSC Center, a DOT/UTC Tier-1 Center. Holding the John D. Tickle Professorship, he is a recognized leader in sustainability, optimization, logistics, and smart manufacturing. PhD, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Lehigh University, 2001 MS, Management Science, Zhejiang University, 1998 BS, Electrical Engineering and Mixed Class, Zhejiang University, 1995 Dr. Jin's research focuses on sustainability, climate change, transportation and logistics, supply chain engineering, additive and smart manufacturing, and energy efficiency. His work integrates operations research and systems engineering to solve complex environmental and industrial challenges. He has secured over $19 million in research funding from agencies including NSF, DOE, DOT, DHS, and industry partners like FedEx, Boeing, and Schneider Electric. His recent publications span high-impact journals such as Nature , Nature Communications , and European Journal of Operational Research , with themes in net-zero strategies, wildfire modeling, smart manufacturing, and sustainable supply chains. The research demonstrates a strong trend toward interdisciplinary, data-driven solutions for global environmental and industrial systems. 2023 Dr. Kenneth Kirby Endowed Faculty Award 2021 UTK Award for Success in Multidisciplinary Research 2020 UTK Chancellor’s Research and Creative Achievement Award 2020 TCE Research Achievement Award IISE Fellow (2018) Multiple teaching, advising, and service awards from TCE and UTK Dr. Jin has advised numerous graduate students and led large-scale research initiatives. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy , Executive Editor of Journal of Cleaner Production , and held leadership roles in IISE. His research has been supported by extensive grants from federal agencies and industry, reflecting strong collaboration and real-world impact. He also held adjunct professorships at Zhejiang University and Central South University of Forestry and Technology. He leads the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE) and the FERSC Center, fostering interdisciplinary research in sustainability, energy, and resilient infrastructure. These centers bring together experts from engineering, environmental science, and policy to address pressing global challenges through systems-level innovation.
Bing Yan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), affiliated with the Kate Gleason College of Engineering. She holds a B.S. in Information Management from Renmin University of China (2010), and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Statistics from the University of Connecticut (2012–2017). Prior to RIT, she was an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Yan’s research focuses on power system optimization , including grid integration of renewables (wind/solar), microgrid operations, distributed energy systems, and manufacturing scheduling. She has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and secured grants from the National Science Foundation (including a CAREER Award), Department of Energy, and industry partners like Brookhaven National Laboratory and ABB. Her work emphasizes mixed-integer linear programming and machine learning applications in energy systems. Notable contributions include stochastic unit commitment models for wind farms, voltage control via deep reinforcement learning, and multi-layer weather models for PV prediction. She advises on projects involving grid resilience, smart manufacturing, and data-driven optimization. Awards: National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award Multiple NSF grants, DOE grants, and industry contracts Teaching: Courses include Circuits I , Electric Power Transmission & Distribution , and Advanced Power Systems . She also mentors students through co-op programs and independent studies. Labs/Teams: Leads the Intelligent Lab of Power and Manufacturing (ILPM), focusing on multidisciplinary solutions for energy and manufacturing systems. The lab emphasizes hands-on training and innovation in smart grid technologies and sustainable energy systems.
Cathy Wu is the Class of 1954 Career Development Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, affiliated with the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). Her research bridges machine learning, optimization, and urban systems, with a focus on mixed autonomy systems in mobility. She holds degrees from MIT (B.S., M.Eng in EECS) and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley (EECS). Education: B.S. and M.Eng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT (2012-2013) Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley (2018) Research Interests: Reinforcement Learning and Machine Learning Large-scale Optimization and Control Theory Mobility Systems and Urban Infrastructure Implications of AI and Automation Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration, involving transportation, computer science, and public policy. She founded the Interdisciplinary Research Initiative within the ACM Future of Computing Academy to advance cross-disciplinary computing research. Key Projects: Includes Flow (open-source RL framework for traffic control), eco-driving incentive mechanisms, and mixed autonomy traffic optimization. Her articles address congestion mitigation, autonomous vehicle integration, and scalable supervision strategies. Awards: Recipient of fellowships, best paper awards, and teaching honors (specific names unlisted). Engagement: Collaborations with institutions like Microsoft Research, OpenAI, and Caltrans. Active in policy-oriented initiatives and education through IDSS programs.
Professor David D. Yao is a Senior Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study, City University of Hong Kong, and a full Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Columbia University , where he has held distinguished chairs since 1988. A member of the US National Academy of Engineering and Fellow of IEEE, INFORMS, and SIAM, his career spans over four decades with groundbreaking contributions to stochastic systems, supply chain optimization, healthcare operations, and financial engineering. Ph.D. (1983), M.A.Sc. (1981) from the University of Toronto Academic appointments: Assistant Professor at Columbia (1983-86), Associate Professor at Harvard (1986-88), Professor at Columbia (1988–present) Research Interests center on stochastic modeling, optimization of complex systems, and risk management , with applications to healthcare logistics, semiconductor manufacturing, internet traffic modeling, and financial networks. He has pioneered theories in polymatroid optimization, dynamic scheduling, and systemic risk analysis. Recent Trends in Publications emphasize financial systemic risk via network models , asymptotic inventory optimization , healthcare resource allocation , and multi-bottleneck stochastic networks , reflecting his interdisciplinary approach. Scientific Awards include the 2024 Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, 2015 Markov Lecture, 2015 National Academy of Engineering membership, 2005 INFORMS and IBM Faculty Awards, 2003 SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize, and 1999 Franz Edelman Award. Grant Leadership spans $302,875 NSF-CMMI-1462495 for systemic risk modeling to $20.45M Hong Kong RGC Theme-Based Grant for healthcare systems. His editorial roles and co-founding of Columbia’s Center for Applied Probability and the Financial and Business Analytics Center underscore his institutional impact. Patents cover semiconductor job configuration, warranty inspection systems, and inventory optimization, with 8 US patents. He has supervised over 15 postdoctoral fellows and advised 20+ doctoral students.
Bhuvan Urgaonkar is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State University's College of Engineering. His research centers on optimizing cloud computing systems through innovative approaches to resource allocation, cost efficiency, and energy management. Current research focuses on Burstable Instance Scaling Serverless Computing Optimization Distributed Storage Systems Multi-resource Fair Allocation Cloud Economics Recent publications highlight advancements in autoscaling techniques, serverless architecture design, and trace modeling for high-load scenarios. These works emphasize practical solutions for cost-effective resource utilization in public cloud environments. Scientific Awards: CNS: Core: Small: Consistent, Geo-Distributed Data Stores on the Public Cloud (NSF, 2022-2025) CNS Core: Small: Principled Methodologies for Automated Cost-Effective Service Blending (NSF, 2021-2024) PPoSS: Cross-Layer Design for HPC in the Cloud (NSF, 2020-2022) CSR: Burstable Instances for Cost-Efficacy (NSF, 2017-2020) CSR: Student Travel Support for SIGMETRICS (NSF, 2016-2017)
Luo Mai is an Assistant Professor at the University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics , with an upcoming promotion to Associate Professor (UK Reader) in August 2025. He leads the Large-Scale Machine Learning Systems Group and co-leads the UK EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Machine Learning Systems and an ARIA Project on Scaling AI Compute by 1000X . PhD in Computer Science (Imperial College London, 2018) MRes in Advanced Computing (Imperial College London, 2012) His research focuses on the intersection of computer systems , machine learning , and data management . Key contributions include award-winning systems like WaferLLM (wafer-scale LLM inference), Tenplex (elastic ML), and ServerlessLLM (serverless LLM serving), published at top venues (OSDI, SOSP, ICML, NeurIPS, JMLR). Recent publications demonstrate trends in GPU-based distributed systems , LLM optimization , and adaptive machine learning . His team has developed groundbreaking open-source projects including TensorLayer , TorchOpt , and ServerlessLLM . Awarded Microsoft Research StarTrack Scholar (2024) , secured ARIA grant (2024) with Imperial College & Cambridge University, and received Google Fellowship during PhD (2012-2016). As an educator, he designed Edinburgh's popular Machine Learning Systems course (150+ students). His group supervises multiple PhD students including Yao Fu (recognized as 2024 Rising Star in ML & Systems) and Leyang Xue .
Amany Farag is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing and Co-Director of the VA Quality Scholars Program (Iowa City site). Her work bridges nursing science, human factors engineering, and data science to address critical patient safety challenges, with a specific focus on medication administration practices across healthcare settings. Education: Postdoctoral Scholar, Case Western Reserve University, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing PhD, Case Western Reserve University, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing MSN, University of Alexandria, Alexandria Egypt BSN, University of Alexandria, Alexandria Egypt Dr. Farag's research centers on reactive and proactive approaches to patient safety , with dual emphasis on medication error reporting systems and nurse fatigue prevention. Her work integrates human factors engineering and machine learning to develop novel interventions. Key themes include understanding how social and system factors influence nurses' error reporting behaviors, examining fatigue as a precursor to errors, and developing self-management strategies for nurse wellness. Recent projects explore intershift recovery, sleep hygiene using consumer technology, and the impact of shift work on cognitive performance. Publication trends reveal a strong focus on interdisciplinary safety science , with consistent output in nursing, human factors, and healthcare quality journals. Her work increasingly incorporates AI methodologies while maintaining clinical relevance to frontline nursing practice. Scientific Recognition: Mary Hanna Memorial Journalism Award (Journal of Peri-Anesthesia Nursing, 2016) Author of the Year (Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2018) Junior Investigator Award (Midwest Nursing Research Society, 2018) Rogers Endowed Lectureship Award (Mississippi Medical Center, 2018) Dr. Farag secures significant funding from national agencies including the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), NIOSH-funded Healthier Workforce Center of the Midwest, CDC-funded Injury Prevention Research Center, and University of Iowa Institute for Clinical and Translational Science. Her collaborative approach spans nursing, data science, ergonomics, and public health teams. As Co-Director of the VA Quality Scholars Program, she mentors future healthcare quality leaders while advancing her research on medication safety systems and nurse fatigue mitigation strategies through interdisciplinary partnerships.
Maria Leonilde Rocha Varela is an Associate Professor with Habilitation at the School of Engineering, University of Minho, Portugal, where she also serves as a Senior Researcher at the Algoritmi Research Centre. She has been an integrated member of the Algoritmi Research Centre since 2012 and works in the Department of Production and Systems. Dr. Varela earned her degree in Production Engineering from the University of Minho in 1994, completed a Master's in Computer Integrated Production at DPS-UMinho in 1999, and received her Ph.D. in Production and Systems from the University of Minho in 2007. Her primary research focuses on Manufacturing Management, particularly Production Planning, Control and Optimization, and Collaborative Paradigms, Networks and Decision Making Models. She maintains extensive international collaborations with institutions worldwide including the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, VSB-Technick Univerzita Ostrava, University of Belgrade, and others. Her research spans Web Applications and Services for supporting Engineering and Production Management, with increasing emphasis on Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, and Industry 4.0/5.0 applications. She has made significant contributions to scheduling algorithms, optimization techniques, and decision support systems for manufacturing environments. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trend toward integrating Artificial Intelligence with traditional manufacturing processes, particularly in Robotic Process Automation applications. Her research increasingly focuses on sustainable manufacturing practices, with numerous publications addressing energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and resource optimization. There is a clear emphasis on multi-objective optimization approaches to solve complex manufacturing problems, particularly in distributed job shop scheduling. Her work demonstrates an evolution from traditional production planning methods to more advanced AI-driven approaches for Industry 4.0 and 5.0 environments. Dr. Varela has held significant academic leadership roles, currently serving as the director of the master's course in Engineering and Quality Management at DPS-UMinho. She previously coordinated the industrial management and systems subgroup from 2012 to 2021 and was part of the steering committee for the master's course in systems engineering between 2016 and 2019. She has successfully supervised more than 70 MSc projects, with over 15 currently ongoing, focusing on Production and Systems Engineering. Her supervision encompasses collaborative management models, traditional decision approaches, and web-based platforms incorporating AI techniques. She coordinates research projects including 2 concluded Ph.D. projects and 6 ongoing ones. She collaborates as a research member in several R&D projects with national and international industrial enterprises and institutions, and in international Erasmus projects. Dr. Varela is an active participant in the academic community, serving on editorial boards of several international journals and as a member of organizing and scientific committees for numerous international conferences. She is a member of several prestigious research networks including the Euro Working Group of Decision Support Systems (EWG-DSS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Industrial Engineering Network, and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE).
Weiwen Jiang is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at George Mason University (GMU), affiliated with the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC). He leads the JQub lab, focusing on hardware/software co-design for computing systems, spanning classical (FPGAs, ASICs) and quantum computing applications in AI-driven fields like medical imaging and geophysics. Prior to GMU, he held a postdoctoral position at the University of Notre Dame and earned his PhD in Computer Science from Chongqing University with a joint PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. His research emphasizes quantum computing, AI accelerators, and domain-specific computing. Notable achievements include the 2025 NSF CAREER Award, ACM Sigda Meritorious Service Award (2024), and IEEE QuantumWeek Best Paper Award (2023). His work is funded by NSF, DoE, ARO, Meta, and Leidos. He co-chaired IEEE QuantumWeek (2023–2025) and created workshops like StableQ at ESWEEK 2023. Key contributions include developing frameworks like QuPAD for quantum learning and JQub's AI-driven geophysical and medical imaging tools. His lab graduated Dr. Yi Sheng (now at University of South Florida) and Dr. Zhepeng Wang (Amazon Applied Scientist). Current research explores quantum machine learning, noise mitigation, and fairness in AI for edge devices.
Professor Amr Rizk is the Director of the Networks and Communication Systems (NCS) Lab at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where he has been serving as Professor since April 2021. Previously, he was Assistant Professor at Ulm University (2019-2021) and completed his habilitation at TU Darmstadt in 2019. His academic journey includes research positions at prestigious institutions including University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Warwick, and TU Darmstadt where he was an Athene Young Investigator. Professor Rizk's research spans multiple aspects of networking and communication systems with a particular focus on network performance analysis, stochastic modeling, and practical implementations. His work bridges theoretical foundations with real-world applications, especially in content delivery, video streaming, and network protocols. He has made significant contributions to network calculus, quality of experience optimization, and novel approaches to congestion control and caching mechanisms. His publication record demonstrates consistent high-impact contributions across top networking conferences and journals. Recent work shows a growing emphasis on programmable data planes, AI/ML applications in networking, and advanced techniques for network measurement and performance prediction. His research group at Duisburg-Essen maintains strong connections with both academic and industrial partners in the networking ecosystem. Best Paper Award at ACM MMSys Conference (2023) Distinguished TPC Member for IEEE INFOCOM (2020, 2022) Best Paper Award at ACM/USENIX Middleware Conference (2017) Athene Young Investigator Award, TU Darmstadt (2017) Professor Rizk serves as Associate Editor for Elsevier Computer Communications and has extensive experience with research funding bodies as a reviewer. His leadership extends to conference organization, including roles as PC Co-Chair for IEEE MIPR (2023) and Steering Committee member for Workshop on Network Calculus (2022). He maintains active participation in numerous top networking conferences as Technical Program Committee member, reflecting his standing within the international networking research community.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gudrun Kiesmüller serves as Full Professor holding the Chair for Operations Management at TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich, based at Campus Heilbronn since July 2019. She concurrently holds the position of Hedda Andersson Guest Professor at Lund University's Department of Industrial Management & Logistics since January 2021. Previously, she held professorial positions at Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (2013-2019), Christian-Albrechts-University zu Kiel (2010-2013), and Technical University Eindhoven (2002-2009). Her research program focuses on Operations Management with particular emphasis on the implications of digitization in Industry 4.0, especially in after-sales services. She develops analytical methods to optimize processes across manufacturing and supply chains. Her work spans three interconnected domains: stochastic manufacturing systems design (examining buffer sizing and spare parts planning), safety stock optimization under uncertain demand and supply conditions, and maintenance-reliability integration. She investigates how digitization transforms traditional operations, with growing emphasis on AI applications for supply chain optimization and inventory planning. Prof. Kiesmüller's extensive publication record reveals consistent contributions to operations research methodology with practical business applications. Her work demonstrates increasing integration of data-driven approaches, particularly in the most recent publications which explore AI applications for supply chain optimization. The research shows progression from theoretical inventory models toward more complex, integrated systems that consider multiple uncertainties simultaneously, reflecting the growing complexity of modern supply chains. Her professional recognition includes: 2022 Service Award from the International Society for Inventory Research Multiple Outstanding Reviewer Awards from OR Spectrum (2017, 2020) EURO Best Paper Award (2014) for influential review on lateral transshipments Multiple teaching awards recognizing excellence in both bachelor and master level instruction At TUM, Prof. Kiesmüller teaches a comprehensive curriculum in Operations Management, emphasizing both theoretical foundations and practical applications. Her courses equip students with skills to analyze supply chain planning problems, apply quantitative models, and solve complex operational challenges. She maintains an active research group investigating how digitization transforms operations management practices, particularly in after-sales service contexts where Industry 4.0 technologies enable new optimization possibilities.
Rémy DUPAS is an Associate Professor with HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) specializing in operations research, scheduling algorithms, and vehicle routing optimization. His work focuses on dynamic systems, genetic algorithms, and real-time logistics solutions. He has contributed extensively to the field through publications in journals like European Journal of Operational Research and International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications . His research interests include vehicle routing problems (VRP), cyclic scheduling in manufacturing systems, and metaheuristics for dynamic optimization. He has developed innovative approaches using genetic algorithms and neural networks to address real-world logistics challenges, such as time-dependent travel times and flexible time windows. He has advised four PhD students, including Xin ZHAO (2004–2008), Haiyan HOUSROUM (2002–2005), and Guillaume CAVORY (1997–2000), focusing on topics like dynamic vehicle routing and evolutionary algorithms. His HDR thesis, Amélioration de performance des systèmes de production : apport des algorithmes évolutionnistes aux problèmes d’ordonnancement cycliques et flexibles , underscores his expertise in optimizing industrial systems. Key contributions include book chapters on metaheuristics for vehicle routing in dynamic contexts and conferences on topics like the traveling repairman problem and simulation platforms for dynamic vehicle tours.
Bettina Kemme is a faculty member at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her research focuses on database systems , distributed computing , and cloud data management . She has made significant contributions to database replication, consistency models, and middleware frameworks for scalable applications. Research Themes : Database replication, distributed systems, cloud computing, and software engineering. Notable Collaborations : Jörg Kienzle, Joseph Vinish D'silva, Yunjia Zheng, and Marta Patiño-Martínez. Publications span critical areas such as graph database view management, transactional recovery in key-value stores, and latency-aware publish/subscribe systems. Her work is published in venues like VLDB , ICDE , Middleware , and SRDS .
Giuliano Casale is a Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, leading the Quality of Service Research Lab (QORE). His research focuses on performance assurance, resource management, and fault-tolerance in distributed systems. He teaches courses on Probability and Statistics and Scheduling and Resource Allocation at undergraduate and Master’s levels. Casale’s work spans cloud computing, edge AI, and machine learning applications in system modeling. Key contributions include methodologies for performance engineering, anomaly detection, and automated resource management in large-scale systems. He actively participates in international conferences, delivering keynote speeches on topics such as performance evaluation and AI-driven systems. His research integrates queueing theory, machine learning, and generative models to address challenges in distributed software systems. Casale also engages in service activities like PhD admissions tutoring and collaborates on projects involving resilience planning and cloud service optimization. His lab, QORE, emphasizes practical solutions for real-world distributed systems, including edge federations and serverless architectures. Casale’s work bridges theoretical performance analysis with industrial applications, contributing to advancements in both academia and industry.
