UC Berkeley Ph.D. Student Yuchen Fang Receives 2026 Simons Dissertation Fellowship

Yuchen Fang and Javad Lavaei,

Yuchen Fang, a UC Berkeley doctoral student co-advised by UC Berkeley IEOR Professor Javad Lavaei, has been named a recipient of the 2026 Simons Dissertation Fellowship in Mathematics. Fang is pursuing his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at UC Berkeley and is co-advised by Lavaei and Professor James Demmel. His research focuses on stochastic nonlinear optimization…

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UC Berkeley IEOR and EECS researchers earn INFORMS award for power systems research

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As renewable energy reshapes the electric grid, researchers are rethinking how power systems can remain reliable without sacrificing efficiency. Wind and solar generation can vary from forecasts, forcing grid operators to make decisions under uncertainty. A new optimization method developed by UC Berkeley researchers offers a more precise way to account for that risk, potentially…

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$20M NSF Renewal Supports New Frontiers in AI and Optimization

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As artificial intelligence takes on increasingly complex decisions, UC Berkeley researchers are helping rethink the mathematical foundations that make those systems possible. The National Science Foundation has awarded $20 million to renew the National Science Foundation Artificial Intelligence Institute for Advances in Optimization, or AI4OPT, for five years through 2031. Under the cooperative agreement, researchers…

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Ying Cui Receives NSF CAREER Award for Optimization Research

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Ying Cui, an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at University of California, Berkeley, has received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER Award is among the NSF’s most prestigious honors for early-career faculty. It will provide approximately $631,492 over five years to…

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UC Berkeley researchers tackle bidder collusion in high-stakes auctions

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In recent years, economists and regulators have begun examining how artificial intelligence is being used to set prices and bids across a range of markets. In some sectors, including housing, companies rely on automated pricing systems that analyze market conditions and competitors’ data to recommend prices in real time. Supporters argue such tools improve efficiency,…

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Professor Xin Guo’s Research Selected Among 50 Landmark Papers in Mathematics of Operations Research

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A research paper by Professor and Department Chair Xin Guo has been selected as one of 50 landmark papers published in Mathematics of Operations Research (MOR), commemorating the journal’s 50th anniversary. Established in 1976, Mathematics of Operations Research is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal that publishes foundational research in areas central to operations research, including optimization,…

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Ken Goldberg named to National Academy of Engineering

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The National Academy of Engineering has elected Ken Goldberg, a professor of industrial engineering and operations research (IEOR) at the University of California, Berkeley, to its membership—one of the highest professional distinctions in engineering. Election to the NAE honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education, including advances in emerging…

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When AI Image Generators Refuse

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New UC Berkeley benchmark examines the trade-off between safety and usability in text-to-image models Text-to-image (T2I) models have become a central part of today’s artificial intelligence ecosystem, powering tools that generate images from short text descriptions. As these systems grow more capable and widely deployed, concerns about safety have followed closely behind. Developers have introduced…

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How AI prompting shapes accuracy, efficiency and cost

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New UC Berkeley research maps how AI reasoning strategies affect accuracy, efficiency As large language models (LLMs) move from research labs into classrooms, offices and engineering workflows, “prompt engineering” has become a central practice for shaping how LLMs reason and respond. A new study led by UC Berkeley researchers goes beyond the general understanding that…

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