Research Interests
Continuous Optimization, Semidefinite and Polynomial Optimization, Computational Complexity, Algorithmic Real Algebraic Geometry, Computational Topology, and their applications in Optimization and Complexity
Research Grants
- 2021-2024: Collaborative Research: AF: Small: On the Complexity of Semidefinite and Polynomial Optimization through the Lens of Real Algebraic Geometry, National Science Foundation, Grant Number CCF-2128702. Co-PIs: Saugata Basu and Tamas Terlaky ($500,000).
Education
- PhD: Industrial and Systems Engineering, Lehigh University, PA (2013-2018).
- MsC: Industrial and Systems Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran (2008-2011).
- BsC: Industrial Engineering, Golpayegan College of Engineering (under scientific support of Sharif University of Technology), Golpayegan, Iran (2004-2008).
Research Appointments
- Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Jul. 2023 - Present).
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University (May 2022 - Jun. 2023).
- Golomb Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Purdue University (Aug. 2019 - May 2022).
- Visiting Scholar, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Lehigh University (Jan. 2019 - Aug. 2019).
- Postdoctoral Research Assistant, School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University (Oct. 2018 - Jan. 2019).
Mentoring
- PhD Committee member
- Pouya Sampourmahani (PhD student), Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Lehigh University
- Summer Undergraduate Applied Mathematics Institute (SUAMI), Jun.-Jul., 2022, Carnegie Mellon University
- Project: Simulation optimization of Emerald Cloud Lab
- Janiece Jackson (undergraduate studnet), Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University.
- Layla Montemayor (unndergraduate studnet), Department of Mathematics, University of Nebraska Lincoln.
Services
- Reviewer for journals Mathematics of Operations Research, Symbolic Computation, SIAM Journal on Optimization, Mathematical Programming, Mathematical Programming Computation, Computational Optimization and Applications, Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Optimization, Operations Research Letters, Optimization Letters, and Optimization Methods and Software
- Co-organizer (with Papri Dey) of "Topological and Algebraic Approaches for Optimization", Joint Mathematics Meetings 2024, Seattle WA
- Organizer of Algebro-geometric Aspects of Optimization”, SIAM Conference on Optimization 2023, Seattle WA
- Organizer of "Complexity and Topology in Computational Algebraic Geometry", Joint Mathematics Meetings 2023, Boston MA
- Organizer of “Algebraic Methods in Polynomial and Semidefinite Optimization”, Informs Annual Meeting 2022, Indianapolis IN
- Organizer of the Optimization, Algebra, and Geometry Seminar, Fall 2022, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
- Organizer of the Optimization and Real Algebraic Geometry Seminar, Spring 2022, Department of Mathematics, Purdue University
- Co-organizer (with Saugata Basu) of “Optimization, Complexity, and Real Algebraic Geometry”, AMS Spring Central Sectional Meeting 2022, Purdue University
- Co-organizer (with Saugata Basu) of a special session on "Algebraic Methods of Optimization", SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry 2021 (Virtual), Aug. 2021
- Organizer of a special session on "Recent Advances in Conic Optimization", SIAM Conference on Optimization 2021 (Virtual), Jul. 2021
- Co-organizer (with Saugata Basu) of a special session on "Optimization and Real Algebraic Geometry", (Virtual) AMS Spring Southeastern Sectional Meeting, Georgia Tech, Mar. 2021
- Co-organizer of (with Saugata Basu) a special session on "Optimization and Algebraic Geometry", (Virtual) Joint Mathematics Meeting 2021, Purdue University, Jan. 2021
- Co-Organizer (with Jonathan Hauenstein) of a special session on "Optimization and Algebraic Geometry", AMS Spring Central Sectional Meeting, Purdue University (Cancelled), Apr. 2020
- Organizer of a session in "Perturbation Analysis of Conic Optimization", Informs Annual Meeting 2018, Pheonix AZ, Nov. 2018
- Organizer of a session on "Conic Optimization and Integer Programming", MOPTA 2018 Conference, Lehigh University, Aug. 2018
- Organizer of a session on "Conic Optimization", MOPTA 2017 Conference, Lehigh University, Aug. 2017
- Organizer of a session on "Dynamic Optimization", MOPTA 2016 Conference, Lehigh University, Aug. 2016
- Organizer of a session on "Convex and Conic Relaxations for Intractable Optimization Problems", MOPTA 2016 Conference, Lehigh University, Aug. 2016
- Organizer of a session on "Conic optimization", MOPTA 2016 Conference, Lehigh University, Aug. 2016
- Organizer of a session on "Polynomial Optimization and Interior Point Methods", MOPTA 2016 Conference, Lehigh University, Aug. 2016
- Member of AMS, SIAM, MOS, and INFORMS societies
- COR@L server administrator, Lehigh University