Grad Profiles - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Operations Research

Overview
MIT is an independent, coeducational, privately endowed university that began operation in the mid–nineteenth century. Today, nearly 10,000 students are evenly divided between undergraduates and graduate students, and the teaching staff totals more than 1,460. There are five schools and twenty-six academic departments and more than fifty interdepartmental laboratories and centers. This breadth of educational disciplines offers the student a vast range of research possibilities as well as depth of focus.

Graduates of the program are in high demand. Over the past two decades, 50 percent have accepted faculty positions at top universities, 30 percent have taken positions in research laboratories such as AT&T Bellcore and USWest, and 20 percent have gone to work in industry with companies like McKinsey and USAir. Their responsibilities are varied and include research, teaching, project work, and analyzing and designing systems in many different industries, including finance, manufacturing, transportation, and telecommunications.

The Community
MIT is located in Cambridge on the north bank of the Charles River facing the city of Boston. Thousands of students and young professionals live in the area, which has more than fifty postsecondary schools. Within a 2-mile radius of MIT are a number of fine arts museums, an aquarium, libraries, Fenway Park, and the Fleet Center. Boston is an exciting city with a diverse ethnic population and many cultural resources. Massachusetts and the neighboring New England states are picturesque in all seasons and offer a variety of outdoor and historical attractions.

The ORC enrolls 44 students—33 Ph.D. students and 11 S.M. students. Each year, it awards about six Ph.D. degrees and seven S.M. degrees. The small number of students is a result of a selective admissions process and reflects the faculty's desire to provide a highly interactive and well-supervised environment for education and research. Approximately 50 percent of the students are from other countries, and about 15 percent are women; several hold scholarships from their respective countries, and some hold fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. ORC students engage in many social and recreational events as well. The MIT Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) Student Chapter organizes seminars with ORC faculty members and OR practitioners from business and industry. It also monitors the collections of the Philip M. Morse Reading Room and organizes social events and participation in intramural athletic activities. A notable feature of the ORC graduate programs is the strongly supportive relationships among its students.

Programs of study and degree requirements
Since its founding in 1953 as an academic birthplace of operations research, the Operations Research Center (ORC) has offered the oldest continuously operating interdepartmental graduate degree program at MIT, granting both S.M. and Ph.D. degrees. The Center was founded with the explicit objective of becoming the focus of interdepartmental and interdisciplinary activity and of meeting MIT's objective of educating men and women in the application as well as the acquisition of knowledge.

The ORC brings together faculty and students from the Schools of Engineering, Management, and Science, three of the five schools at MIT. Due to its interdisciplinary character and the dual affiliation of its faculty and students, the ORC's educational programs are recognized widely as achieving a balance between OR theory and applications.

The educational program aims to train students in fundamental OR research methods and to engage them in research as early in the program as possible. Both S.M. and Ph.D. degree students take a set of core courses in OR methods and electives in theory and applications, including such topics as public systems, transportation, production management, finance, economic systems, and marketing. Master's degree candidates are required to write a thesis based on independent, usually applied, research. Doctoral degree candidates take qualifying examinations in the beginning of their second year and take oral general examinations in advanced subjects at the end of their second year. The Ph.D. program culminates with the preparation of a thesis whose purpose is to contribute to original research.

Facilities & Resources
Research facilities are housed in the Muckley Building (E40), which contains the Philip M. Morse Reading Room, computer facilities, and office space for students, faculty, visitors, and administrative staff. The ORC has state-of-the-art PC/NT and Linux workstations that are directly connected to the MIT network. The reading room contains a collection of operations research professional journals and technical reports and working papers from MIT and other OR programs throughout the United States. MIT's information-processing services provide the latest developments in computer technology, including a broad spectrum of processing power from personal computer laboratories to large multiuser access systems, as well as a full range of support services. MIT's library system comprises five libraries (each of which is devoted to a major subject area) and a number of branch libraries and reading rooms. Cooperation with other Boston area libraries and national library services provides access to substantial research collections.

Expenses and Aid
Costs: The 2001–02 tuition for all regular graduate students is $26,960 per academic year.

Financial Aid: Financial aid is awarded on a competitive basis to entering Ph.D. and S.M. students. Support generally consists of research and teaching assistantships, which in 2001–02 carry a stipend of approximately $15,000 per academic year and a full tuition award for full-time appointments. The stipend and tuition award are prorated for part-time appointments. Fellowships may also be awarded to qualified students. Most continuing graduate students requiring support hold assistantships throughout their graduate careers at the ORC.

Housing/Living Expenses: For 2001–02, monthly living expenses are estimated to be $2100 for a single graduate student attending MIT. Rooms and/or apartments are available for single and married students.

How to Apply
The application deadline is January 15 for fall-term admission. Applications must include a GRE General Test score, three letters of recommendation, complete academic transcripts, and the student's statement of objectives. International students whose native language is not English must submit a TOEFL score of 600 or better. No waivers shall be accepted.

Who to Contact
James B. Orlin
Operations Research Center
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307
Telephone: 617-253-3601

THE FACULTY AND THEIR RESEARCH

George Apostolakis, Professor of Nuclear Engineering; Ph.D. (engineering science and applied mathematics), Caltech. Probabilistic risk and reliability assessment of complex technological systems, software dependability, human reliability.

Arnold I. Barnett, George Eastman Professor of Management Science; Ph.D. (applied mathematics), MIT. Probability modeling and statistics, transportation systems, criminal behavior, health, risk analysis and risk perception.

Cynthia Barnhart, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Codirector, Operations Research Center; Ph.D. (transportation), MIT. Development and application of linear, integer, and network optimization models and methods to large-scale transportation systems.

Dimitris Bertsimas, Boeing Professor of Operations Research; Ph.D. (operations research and applied mathematics), MIT. Combinatorial optimization and integer programming, applied probability, dynamic and stochastic optimization, performance analysis and optimization of queueing systems, OR applications in air transportation, manufacturing and finance.

Gabriel R. Bitran, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Professor of Management; Ph.D. (operations research), MIT. Mathematical programming, operations planning and control, production scheduling, inventory management, design of service delivery systems.

Ismail Chabini, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Ph.D. (computer science), Montreal. Computer science and transportation science, methodological operations research, optimization methods for static and temporal network flows.

Vincent Chan, Director, Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems; Ph.D. (electrical engineering), MIT. Optical communications, wireless communications, space communications and networks.

John-Paul Clarke, C. S. Draper Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Sc.D. (aeronautics and astronautics), MIT. Airline operations and strategy, air traffic management, modeling and design of complex systems.

Richard de Neufville, Professor, Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chairman, Technology and Policy Program; Ph.D. (civil engineering), MIT. Real options, decision analysis, dynamic strategic planning, applications to transportation and airport systems.

Eric Feron, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Ph.D. (aeronautics and astronautics), Stanford. Applications of optimization theory control problems, automatic control, signal processing and air traffic control.

Joseph Ferreira Jr., Professor of Urban Planning and Operations Research; Ph.D. (operations research), MIT. Analytic methods and computer-based modeling for urban planning and policy analysis.

Charles H. Fine, Professor of Management Science; Ph.D. (business administration), Stanford. Operations management, manufacturing policy, manufacturing technology development and technology supply chain.

Ernst Frankel, Emeritus Professor of Ocean Systems and Professor of Management; Ph.D. (transportation economics), London. Routing, scheduling, and allocation of resources in transportation and manufacturing systems.

Robert M. Freund, Theresa Seley Professor of Operations Research; Ph.D. (operations research), Stanford. Mathematics of optimization modeling, the efficient solution of optimization programs, applications of optimization modeling in scheduling, transportation, and financial engineering.

Stanley B. Gershwin, Senior Research Scientist, Mechanical Engineering; Ph.D. (applied mathematics), Harvard. Manufacturing systems, hierarchical control, dynamic programming in hybrid systems, approximation techniques and decomposition methods for large-scale systems.

Michel Goemans, Associate Professor of Mathematics; Ph.D. (operations research), MIT. Combinatorial optimization, polyhedral combinatorics, discrete math, and theoretical computer science.

Stephen C. Graves, Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management and Codirector, Leaders for Manufacturing Program; Ph.D. (operations research), Rochester. Manufacturing and logistics systems, production planning and scheduling, inventory management, design of manufacturing systems.

John Hauser, Kirin Professor of Marketing; Sc.D. (operations research), MIT. Metrics for new product development; evaluating and managing the tiers of R,D&E; customer satisfaction measurement and incentive systems; internal customer issues; quality function deployment.

Gordon M. Kaufman, Morris A. Adelman Professor of Management; D.B.A., Harvard. Theoretical and applied statistical decision analysis with applications to oil and gas exploration, finite population inference, applied multivariate analysis.

Richard C. Larson, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Center for Advanced Educational Services; Ph.D. (electrical engineering), MIT. Applied OR, with emphasis on model building, analysis of transactional data, queues, spatially distributed service systems, inventory/routing systems, and personnel assignment systems.

Steven R. Lerman, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of Center for Educational Computing Initiatives; Ph.D. (transportation systems analysis), MIT. Educational uses of computer and communications technologies, uses of multimedia.

John D. C. Little, Institute Professor and Professor of Management Science; Ph.D. (physics), MIT. Model building and data analysis to support managerial decision making, mostly dealing with marketing issues.

Andrew Lo, Harris & Harris Group Professor, Sloan School of Management; Ph.D. (economics), Harvard. Empirical validation and implementation of financial asset pricing models, pricing of options and other derivative securities, financial engineering and risk management, computer algorithms and numerical methods.

Thomas L. Magnanti, Institute Professor and Dean of Engineering; Ph.D. (operations research), Stanford. Combinatorial and network optimization, transportation planning, logistics, communication systems, large-scale optimization, manufacturing, nonlinear programming.

Amedeo R. Odoni, T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Ph.D. (electrical engineering), MIT. Applied probability theory, queuing theory, transportation systems, risk benefit analysis, routing problems, network location theory, probabilistic combinatorial optimization problems, applications of operations research in air transportation, air traffic control and urban systems.

James B. Orlin, Edward Pennell Brooks Professor of Operations Research and Codirector, Edward Operations Research Center; Ph.D. (operations research), Stanford. Combinatorial optimization, network optimization, and logistics.

Georgia Perakis, Assistant Professor of Operations Research; Ph.D. (applied math), Brown. Optimization, variational inequalities, fixed point problems, traffic equilibrium and dynamic traffic assignment integer programming.

Donald Rosenfield, Senior Lecturer, Sloan School of Management, and Director, Leaders for Manufacturing Fellows Program; Ph.D. (operations research), Stanford. Logistics system design, logistics strategy, manufacturing strategy.

Stephen A. Ross, Franco Modigliani Professor of Finance and Economics; Ph.D. (economics), Harvard. Finance, economics, arbitrage pricing theory.

Alexander M. Samarov, Principal Research Associate, Center for Computational Research in Economics and Management Science; Ph.D. (statistics), USSR Academy of Sciences. Robust and nonparametric modeling in regression, multivariate analysis, and time series; computational methods in statistics and data analysis; recursive estimation; regression diagnostics.

Andreas S. Schulz, Associate Professor of Operations Research and Management Science; Ph.D. (math), Berlin Technical. Combinatorial optimization, integer programming, combinatorics of polytopes, approximation algorithms, scheduling theory and algorithms.

Jeremy F. Shapiro, Professor of Operations Research and Management Science; Ph.D. (operations research), Stanford. Integer programming, large-scale programming on parallel computers, integration of modeling with knowledge-based systems, mathematical programming models.

Yossi Sheffi, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Center for Transportation Studies; Ph.D. (civil engineering), MIT. Operations planning methods for carriers and shippers, transportation system analysis, logistics and transportation network design.

Duncan Simester, Associate Professor of Management Science; Ph.D. (management science), MIT. Marketing problems using agency theory and industrial organization tools, measuring the impact of incentive schemes and investigating channel and organization design.

David Simchi Levi, Professor of Engineering Systems; Ph.D. (operations research), Tel Aviv University. Distribution/service systems, inventory theory, location theory, production systems, scheduling and sequencing, supply chain management, telecommunications systems.

John N. Tsitsiklis, Professor of Electrical Engineering; Ph.D. (electrical engineering), MIT. Stochastic control, applied probability, stochastic systems, optimization, algorithms and neural networks.

Glen Urban, David Austin Professor of Marketing; M.B.A. (management science), Wisconsin–Madison. Marketing and management science, trust-based marketing on the Internet, new product development.

Santosh Vempala, Assistant Professor of Mathematics; Ph.D. (mathematics); CMU. Geometry, combinatorics and randomness.

Jiang Wang, Professor of Finance; Ph.D. (finance), Pennsylvania. Models of security market, asset pricing theory, and international finance.

Yashan Wang, Assistant Professor of Management Science; Ph.D. (management science), Columbia. Manufacturing and logistic systems, inventory control, efficient simulation, computational finance.

Lawrence M. Wein, Leaders for Manufacturing Professor of Management Science; Ph.D. (operations research), Stanford. Design and scheduling of manufacturing systems, queuing theory, stochastic control, quality control problems in manufacturing, health-care management.

Roy E. Welsch, Professor of Management Science and Statistics; Ph.D. (mathematics), Stanford. Nonlinear regression, process control, design of experiments, robustness of statistical estimators, statistical graphics.

Nigel H. M. Wilson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Ph.D. (transportation systems and civil engineering), MIT. Urban transport, public transport operations, planning, and management, transport systems analysis.