Optimization and Algorithms Research

Optimization is in the center of every engineering discipline and every sector of the economy. Airlines and logistics companies run optimization algorithms to schedule their daily operations; power utilities rely on optimization to efficiently operate generators and renewable resources and distribute electricity; biotechnology firms search through massive genetic data using optimization to find new discoveries. UC Berkeley IEOR Department is at the forefront of optimization research. Our faculty and their students create new fields of optimization and push the boundaries in convex and nonconvex optimization, integer and combinatorial optimization to solve problems with massive data sets. Research activities are funded by NSF, DOE, DOD, ONR, and IBM Corporation.

Faculty

Ilan Adler

Professor
Head MEng Advisor

Anil Aswani

Associate Professor
Head Undergraduate Advisor

Alper Atamturk

Professor
MAnalytics Program Director

Ying Cui

Assistant Professor

Paul Grigas

Associate Professor

Dorit Hochbaum

Distinguished Professor
ORMS Advisor

Javad Lavaei

Associate Professor

Rajan Udwani

Assistant Professor

Laurent El Ghaoui

Joint Faculty, EECS

Selected Publications

Agency problem and mean field system of agents with moral hazard, synergistic effects and accidents

Zhang, J., & Mastrolia, T. (2025). Agency problem and mean field system of agents with moral hazard, synergistic effects and accidents. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications.

Polyhedral analysis of quadratic optimization problems with Stieltjes matrices and indicators

Liu, P., Atamtürk, A., Gómez, A., & Küçükyavuz, S. (2025). Polyhedral analysis of quadratic optimization problems with Stieltjes matrices and indicators. Mathematical Programming. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-025-02272-7

Optimal Policy for Inventory Management with Periodic and Controlled Resets

Lee, Y., Mintz, Y., Aswani, A., Shen, Z. M., & Yang, C. (2025). Optimal policy for inventory management with periodic and controlled resets. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 27(5), 1484–1496. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0318

Matching-Based Off-Policy Evaluation for ReinforcementLearning Applied to Mechanical Ventilation

Lee, J. S., Mahendra, M., & Aswani, A. (2025). Matching-based off-policy evaluation for reinforcement learning applied to mechanical ventilation. CHASE ’25: Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Connected Health: Applications, Systems and Engineering Technologies, 211–221. https://doi.org/10.1145/3721201.3721370

Airline Flight Network Expansion with Strategic Aircraft Leasing Decisions

Safak Aydiner, O., Akturk, D., Atamtürk, A., & Aktürk, M. S. (2025, July 14–16). Airline flight network expansion with strategic aircraft leasing decisions [Paper presentation]. INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference, New York, NY, United States. https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/publications/airline-flight-network-expansion-with-strategic-aircraft-leasing-/

Towards Global Solutions for Nonconvex Two-Stage Stochastic Programs: A Polynomial Lower Approximation Approach

Zhong, Suhan & Cui, Ying & Nie, Jiawang. (2024). Towards Global Solutions for Nonconvex Two-Stage Stochastic Programs: A Polynomial Lower Approximation Approach. SIAM Journal on Optimization. 34. 3477-3505. 10.1137/23M1615516.

Analysis of a Class of Minimization Problems Lacking Lower Semicontinuity

Han, Shaoning & Cui, Ying & Pang, Jong-Shi. (2024). Analysis of a Class of Minimization Problems Lacking Lower Semicontinuity. Mathematics of Operations Research. 10.1287/moor.2023.0295.

Scenario Grouping and Decomposition Algorithms for Chance-Constrained Programs

Yan Deng, Huiwen Jia, Shabbir Ahmed, Jon Lee, Siqian Shen, “Scenario Grouping and Decomposition Algorithms for Chance-constrained Programs”, INFORMS Journal on Computing, 3(2), 757-773, 2020

Multi-armed bandit with sub-exponential rewards

Huiwen Jia, Cong Shi, Siqian Shen, “Multi-armed Bandit with Sub-exponential Reward”, Operations Research Letters, 49(5), 728-733, 202, 2021

Benders Cut Classification via Support Vector Machines for Solving Two-Stage Stochastic Programs

Huiwen Jia, Siqian Shen, “Benders Cut Classification via Support Vector Machines for Two-stage Stochastic Integer Program’’, INFORMS Journal on Optimization, 3(3), 278-297, 2021