Research

My research can be roughly categorized as applied optimization (method-wise) and disaster resilience and humanitarian logistics (application-wise). Under this general heading, I conduct research in all stages of resilience decision making, including extreme weather mitigation and climate adaptation, community and infrastructure resilience, etc. In the past, I have worked on manufacturing and service logistics decision making problems: network design – inventory management – manufacturing planning and scheduling.

My latest research has focused on extreme weather resilience, preparedness and recovery logistics for critical infrastructure, including healthcare, power grid, and road networks, and the resilience of communities served by such critical infrastructure.

Here is a YouTube video of a webinar from the Covid era highlighting my group’s early resilience research, “Disaster decision making: Integrated prediction and optimization for resilience planning,” as part of the Cockrell School of Engineering TexTalks series.

 

• Methodological Areas of Expertise:
  • Integer programming and combinatorial/discrete optimization
  • Stochastic programming and robust optimization
• Applications:
  • Extreme-weather resilience (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery) against flood inducing hurricanes, winter storms, and heat waves
    • Multi-hospital and nursing home patient evacuation
    • Short- and medium-term power grid resilience, preparedness and recovery
    • Long-term adaptation of power grid to extreme weather and climate change
    • Equitable and community-sensitive resilience and climate investment planning
  • Service supply chain, distribution and transportation logistics
    • Facility location and logistics network design
    • Inventory management
  • Manufacturing planning and scheduling
    • Semiconductor manufacturing
  • Transportation planning
    • Freight logistics and last-mile delivery

More details on the applications that drive my research:

• Extreme Weather Resilience, Preparedness and Recovery for Critical Infrastructure and Communities: This motivates my latest research on logistics of efforts before, during and after flood inducing extreme weather events such as hurricanes and heavy rainfalls. This collaborative effort between engineering and geosciences has attracted funding from UT’s Planet Texas 2050 program as well as NSF Coastlines and People (CoPe) Program. The power grid extension of this work is further supported by UT’s Energy Institute and Sandia National Labs. My latest work on equitable power grid resilience planning started with seed funding from UT’s IC2 Institute. Finally, the climate adaptation of the power grid is now supported by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
• Service Parts Logistics: This motivated my joint logistics network design and inventory management research as part of my NSF CAREER award and my collaborations with IBM’s Service Parts Logistics Group.
• Manufacturing Planning and Scheduling: This motivated my M.S. and Ph.D. research, and my NSF/SRC Project on Disruption Management in Semiconductor Manufacturing, and my projects on Semiconductor Manufacturing Planning and Scheduling with semiconductor companies.
• Transportation Planning, Freight Logistics, and Last-mile Delivery: My freight logistics research was motivated my past Transportation Center projects and by my collaborations with JB Hunt, ABF, and Caterpillar. More recently, last-mile delivery optimization particularly with robot-assisted systems has been my focus.

I could not do any of this work without my talented, highly skilled students, listed on the Students page.

My most recent journal and peer-reviewed conference papers, all written with my students, are listed on the Publications page.

Various organizations have provided support for my research that funded my students, via grants and awards. They are listed on the Projects page.

Full list of publications as well as funded projects and grants are on my CV.