Originally motivated by the emergence of networked systems lacking central coordination such as multiprocessors, wireless sensor networks and smart grids, the study of distributed optimization algorithms has been an active field of research spanning multiple decades. More recently, the rapid growth in the availability of high-dimensional datasets has posed the...
For stochastic simulation optimization in a modern computing era, we introduce a new parallel framework for solving very large-scale problems using a ranking & selection (R&S) approach that simulates all systems or feasible solutions to provide a global statistical guarantee. We propose a parallel adaptive survivor selection (PASS) framework that...
Even though a number of techniques have been developed for motion generation and perception, few of them focus on the computational efficiency and theoretical guarantees at the same time. Typically, improved guarantees come with increased complexity, making theoretically guaranteed methods challenging use in real-time applications. Thus, existing methods usually have...
Providing quality transit service to travelers is a constant challenge for transit agencies. The advent of fully-autonomous vehicles (AVs) and their inclusion in mobility service fleets may allow transit agencies to offer better service or reduce their own capital and operational costs. This study focuses on the problem of allocating...
In this dissertation, we study models and methods to address uncertainties that can vary in optimization problems. Robust optimization is a popular approach for optimization under uncertainty, especially if limited information is available about the distribution of the uncertainty. It models the uncertainty through sets and finds a robust optimal...
Polymer nanocomposites have attracted great interest in recent years because of their potential as tailored materials with enhanced properties. Recent experiments have shown that polymer nanocomposites are able to achieve significant improvement in dielectrical, thermal, mechanical and other physical properties compared with their parent polymer systems. More importantly, these outstanding...