Education Background

Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2012

  • Advisor: Yinyu Ye

  • Dissertation Title: Dynamic Learning Mechanisms in Revenue Management Problems

M.S. in Mathematical Finance, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2011

B.S. in Mathematical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2007

 

Research Interests

  • Pricing and Revenue Management

  • Stochastic/Robust Optimization, Applications in Operations Management and Finance

  • Data-Driven Decision-Making

  • Internet Economics, Online Auctions, Information Markets



Journal Publications  

  • Optimal Emission Regulation under Market Uncertainty (with Guokai Li and Pin Gao). Naval Research Logistics, 2024. Link

  • Price Interpretability of Prediction Markets: A Convergence Analysis (with Dian Yu, Jianjun Gao and Weiping Wu). Operations Research, 2024. Link

  • Price Optimization for a Multi-Stage Choice Model (with Jiaqi Shi, Ginger Y. Ke and Lianmin Zhang). Production and Operations Management, 2024. Link

  • Optimal Switching Policy for Batch Servers (with Yinbin Han). Operations Research Letters, 2023. Link

  • Assign-to-Seat: Dynamic Capacity Control for Selling Train Tickets (with Feng Zhu, Shaoxuan Liu and Yu Wang). Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM), 2023. Link

  • Assortment Optimization under a Multi-Stage Choice Model (with Yunzong Xu). Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM), 2023. Link

    • This paper is in the finalist of 2018 INFORMS Undergraduate Operations Research Prize.

  • Bayesian Dynamic Learning and Pricing with Strategic Customers (with Xi Chen, Jianjun Gao and Dongdong Ge). Production and Operations Management, 2022. Link

  • Optimal Control for Parallel Queues with a Single Batch Server (with Hongyu Chen). Operations Research Letters, 2022. Link

  • An Operations Research Based Approach for Aero-Engine Fleet Management of Large Legacy Airlines (in Chinese, with Jinshen Wang). Aviation Maintenance and Engineering, 2022.

  • Assortment Competition and Cooperation Game under Markov Chain Choice Model (with Kameng Nip and Changjun Wang). Production and Operations Management, 2022. Link

  • The Value of Price Discrimination in Large Random Networks (with Jiali Huang and Ankur Mani). Management Science, 2022. Link

    • This paper is in the finalist of 2019 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Best Student Paper Award

    • This paper also wins the second place of the 2020 POMS-HK Best Student Paper Award

  • Aggregation Bias in Estimating Log-Log Demand Functions (with Chaolin Yang, Hongsong Yuan and Yaowu Zhang). Production and Operations Management, 2021. Link

  • We Are On the Way - Analysis of On-Demand Booking System (with Guiyun Feng and Guangwen Kong). Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM), 2021. Link

    • This paper wins the Honorable Mention award for the 2017 Best Paper Award in the 10th Conference of Chinese Scholar Association for Management Science and Engineering (CSAMSE).

  • Assortment Optimization under a Single Transition Model (with Kameng Nip and Zhenbo Wang). Production and Operations Management, 2021. Link

  • Pricing for a Product with Network Effects and Multiple Demand Segments (with Fatemeh Nosrat and William Cooper). Naval Research Logistics, 2021. Link

  • Home Service Routing and Appointment Scheduling with Stochastic Service Times  (with Yang Zhan and Guohua Wan). European Journal of Operational Research, 2021. Link

  • Probabilistic Forecasting with Temporal Convolutional Neural Network (with Yitian Chen, Yanfei Kang and Yixiong Chen). Neurocomputing, 2020. Link

  • Information Disclosure and Pricing Policies for Sales of Network Goods (with Ming Hu and Yinbo Feng). Operations Research, 2020. Link

  • Comparison-Based Algorithms for One-Dimensional Stochastic Convex Optimization (with Xi Chen and Qihang Lin). INFORMS Journal on Optimization, 2020. Link

  • Modern Optimization Theory and Applications (in Chinese, with Qi Deng, Dongdong Ge, Simai He, Bo Jiang, Xiaocheng Li, Chaolin Yang and Yinyu Ye). Science in China Series A-Mathematics, 2020. Link

  • Information Provision and Revenue Management in the Presence of Consumer Search Costs (with Yan Liu and William Cooper). Production and Operations Management, 2019. Link

  • Constrained Likelihood for Reconstructing a Directed Acyclic Gaussian Graph (with Yiping Yuan, Xiaotong Shen and Wei Pan). Biometrika, 2018. Link

  • A Composite Risk Measure Framework for Decision Making under Uncertainty (with Pengyu Qian and Zaiwen Wen). Journal of the Operations Research Society of China, 2018. Link

    • This paper is in the finalist for 2015 INFORMS Undergraduate Operations Research Prize.

  • Optimal Worst-Case Pricing for a Logit Demand Model with Network Effects (with Chenhao Du and William Cooper). Operations Research Letters, 2018. Link

  • On Substitutability and Complementarity of Choice Models (with Guiyun Feng and Xiaobo Li). Operations Research Letters, 2017. Link

  • Optimal Pricing for Selling to a Multi-Period Newsvendor (with Xiao Chen and Hongsong Yuan). Operations Research Letters, 2017. Link

  • On the Relationship Between Several Discrete Choice Models (with Xiaobo Li and Guiyun Feng). Operations Research, 2017. Link

  • Knapsack with Variable Weights Satisfying Linear Constraints (with Kameng Nip and Zhenbo Wang). Journal of Global Optimization, 2017. Link

  • Consumer Choice Models with Endogenous Network Effects (with Ruxian Wang). Management Science, 2017. Link

  • Intertemporal Price Discrimination via Reference Price Effects. Operations Research, 2016. Link

  • Optimal Pricing for a Multinomial Logit Choice Model with Network Effects (with Chenhao Du and William Cooper). Operations Research, 2016. Link

  • Scheduling under Linear Constraints (with Kameng Nip and Zhengbo Wang). European Journal of Operational Research, 2016. Link

  • Pricing Personalized Bundles: A New Approach and An Empirical Study (with Markus Ettl and Zhengliang Xue). Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM), 2016. Link

    • This paper is in the finalist of 2015 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Practice Award.

  • Hidden-City Ticketing: The Cause and Impact (with Yinyu Ye). Transportation Science, 2016. Link

  • An Improved Algorithm for Fixed-Hub Single Allocation Problem (with Dongdong Ge, Lai Wei and Jiawei Zhang), Journal of the Operations Research Society of China, 2016. Link

  • Likelihood Robust Optimization for Data-Driven Problems (with Peter Glynn and Yinyu Ye). Computational Management Science, 2015. Link

  • A Dynamic Learning Algorithm for Online Matching Problems with Concave Returns (with Xiao Chen). European Journal of Operational Research, 2015. Link

  • On Solving Convex Optimization Problems with Linear Ascending Constraints. Optimization Letters, 2015. Link

  • A Dynamic Near-Optimal Algorithm for Online Linear Programming (with Shipra Agrawal and Yinyu Ye). Operations Research, 2014. Link

  • Close the Gaps: A Learning-while-Doing Algorithm for Single-Product Revenue Management Problems (with Shiming Deng and Yinyu Ye). Operations Research, 2014. Link

  • Complexity of Unconstrained L2-Lp Minimization (with Xiaojun Chen, Dongdong Ge and Yinyu Ye). Mathematical Programming, 2014. Link

  • A Note on Appointment Scheduling with Piecewise Linear Cost Functions (with Dongdong Ge, Guohua Wan and Jiawei Zhang). Mathematics of Operations Research, 2014 Link

  • Committed versus Contingent Pricing under Competition (with Ming Hu). Production and Operations Management, 2014. Link

  • A Simple Policy for Multiple Queues with Size-Independent Service Times (with Yuhang Liu). Operations Research Letters, 2013. Link

  • Non-line-of-sight Node Localization Based on Semi-Definite Programming in Wireless Sensor Networks (with Hongyang Chen, Gang Wang, H.-C. So and Vincent Poor). IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2012. Link

  • A Unified Framework for Dynamic Prediction Market Design (with Shipra Agrawal, Erick Delage, Mark Peters and Yinyu Ye). Operations Research, 2011. Link

  • Further Relaxation of SDP Approach to Sensor Network Localization (with Song Zheng, Stephen Boyd and Yinyu Ye). SIAM Journal on Optimization, 2008. Link

 

Conference Proceedings

  • Assortment Optimization in the Presence of Focal Effect: Operational Insights and Efficient Algorithms (with Bo Jiang, Chenyu Xue and Nanxi Zhang). In WINE 23: Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Web and Internet Economics, 2023. Link

  • Sequential Recommendation and Pricing under the Mixed Cascade Model (with Yicheng Liu, Chenhao Wang and Pin Gao). In WINE 23: Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Web and Internet Economics, 2023. Link

  • Dynamic Multinomial Logit Choice Model with Network Effects (with Qing Feng).  In WINE 23: Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Web and Internet Economics. 2023. Link

  • Personalized Assortment Optimization under Consumer Choice Models with Local Network Effects (with Tong Xie). In WINE 22: Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Web and Internet Economics. 2022. Link

  • Revenue Management under a Price Alert Mechanism (with Bo Jiang and Nanxi Zhang). In WINE 22: Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Web and Internet Economics. 2022. Link

    • This paper wins the third prize in the best paper award in 2023 POMS-China Conference.

  • Price Interpretability of Prediction Markets: A Convergence Analysis (with Dian Yu, Jianjun Gao and Weiping Wu). In EC 22: Proceedings of the 23rd ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, 2022. Link

  • Identification of Redundant Security Constraints in Robust SCUC Problems (with Qia Ding, Meng Zheng, Yantao Zhang and Chunling Lu). In PMF'22: Proceedings of the 7th Purple Mountain Forum on Smart Grid Protection and Control. 2022. Link

  • Probabilistic Forecasting with Temporal Convolutional Neural Network (with Yitian Chen, Yanfei Kang and Yixiong Chen).  In MileTS 19: Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Mining and Learning from Time Series, 2019. Link

  • The Value of Price Discrimination in Large Random Networks (with Jiali Huang and Ankur Mani). In EC'19: Proceedings of the 20th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, 2019. Link

  • Strong NP-Hardness for Sparse Optimization with Concave Penalty Functions (with Yichen Chen, Dongdong Ge, Mengdi Wang, Yinyu Ye and Hao Yin). In ICML 17: Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Machine Learning, 2017. Link

  • A Unified Framework for Dynamic Pari-mutuel Information Market Design (with Shipra Agrawal, Erick Delage, Mark Peters and Yinyu Ye). In EC 09: Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, 2009. Link

  • Pari-mutual Betting on Permutations (with Shipra Agrawal and Yinyu Ye). In WINE 08:Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Internet and Network Economics, 2008. Link

  • Real-time Tracking for Sensor Networks via SDP and Gradient Method (with Yichuan Ding). In MELT 08: Proceedings of the First ACM International Workshop on Mobile Entity Localization and Tracking in GPS-less Environments, 2008. Link

 

Papers under Review

  • Infrequent Resolving Algorithm for Online Linear Programming (with Guokai Li and Jingwei Zhang). 2024. Link

  • ORLM: Training Large Language Models for Optimization Modeling (with Zhengyang Tang, Chenyu Huang, Xin Zheng, Shixi Hu, Dongdong Ge and Benyou Wang). 2024. Link

  • The Impact of Risk-Awareness on Assortment Planning (with Junjie Lei and Wenjie Huang). 2024. Link

  • An Approximate Dynamic Programming Approach for Solving Aircraft Fleet Engine Maintenance Problem: Methodology and A Case Study (with Miao Zhang, Jingyuan Yang, Chuwen Zhang, Simai He, Huikang Liu, Jinshen Wang). 2023.

  • Robust Mechanism Design under Nonlinear Utility (with Pin Gao, Yicheng Liu, Zhen Wang, Shixin Wang). 2023. Link

  • Simple is Enough: A Cascade Approximation for Attention-Based Satisficing Choice Models (with Pin Gao, Yicheng Liu, Chenhao Wang). 2023. Link.

    • This paper wins the first prize of 2023 ISCOM Best Paper Award

  • Simultaneous vs Sequential: Optimal Assortment Recommendation in Multi-Channel Retailing (with Xiao Chen, Yan Liu and Yicheng Liu). 2023. Link.

  • When to Push Ads: Optimal Mobile Ad Campaign Strategy under Markov Customer Dynamics (with Guokai Li and Pin Gao). 2023. Link

    • This paper is in the Finalist of 2024 POMS-HK Best Student Paper Award

  • Distributionally Robust Optimization under Mean-Covariance Ambiguity Set and Half-Space Support for Bivariate Problems (with Jiayi Guo, Hao Qiu, Zhen Wang and Xinxin Zhang). 2022. Link

  • Cardinal Optimizer (COPT) User Guide (with Dongdong Ge, Qi Huangfu, Jian Wu and Yinyu Ye). 2022. Link

  • Optimal Partition for Multi-Type Queueing System (with Shengyu Cao, Simai He and Yifan Feng). 2021. Link.

  • Introducing T-Indices: An Effective Tool in Pricing and Retailing Analytics (with Dongdong Ge, Simai He and Ran Tian). 2021.

  • Dynamic Seat Selection Surcharge and Allocation Policy in Selling High-Speed Train Tickets (with Yaqi Xie). 2021.

  • Random Walk Bandits (with Tianyu Wang and Lin Yang), 2020. Link

Teaching

  • Fall 2012, IE4521 (Statistics, Quality and Reliability), University of Minnesota
  • Spring 2013, IE4521 (Statistics, Quality and Reliability), University of Minnesota
  • Fall 2013, IE5531 (Engineering Optimization), University of Minnesota
  • Spring 2014, IE3521 (Statistics, Quality and Reliability), IE 8773 (Graduate Seminar Series), University of Minnesota
  • Fall 2014, IE5531 (Engineering Optimization), IE 8773 (Graduate Seminar Series), University of Minnesota
  • Spring 2015, IE3521 (Statistics, Quality and Reliability), IE 5080 (Topics in Revenue Management) , IE 8773 (Graduate Seminar Series), University of Minnesota
  • Fall 2015, IE5531 (Engineering Optimization), University of Minnesota
  • Fall 2016, IE5531 (Engineering Optimization), University of Minnesota
  • Fall 2017, IE5531 (Engineering Optimization), IE 3521 (Statistics Quality and Reliability), University of Minnesota
  • Fall 2018, MAT3007 (Optimization), CUHK-SZ
  • Fall 2019, MAT3007 (Optimization), CUHK-SZ
  • Fall 2020, MFE5100 (Optimization), CUHK-SZ
  • Spring 2022, MAT3007 (Optimization), CUHK-SZ
  • Spring 2023, MAT3007 (Optimization), CUHK-SZ
  • Spring 2023, DDA2001 (Introduction to Data Science), CUHK-SZ
  • Spring 2024, MAT3007 (Optimization), CUHK-SZ

 

Research Funding

  • NSFC Research Funding 72394361, Data-and-Model Driven Decision Making Theory and Method (Principal Investigator). Total Amount 2,280,000 RMB. 2024-2028.

  • Director, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence. Total Amount 3,000,000 RMB. 2023-2025.

  • NSFC Research Funding 72150002, Online Learning and Optimization Algorithms under Data-Scarce and Non-stationary Model Scenarios (Principal Investigator). Total Amount 2,400,000 RMB. 2021-2023.

  • Adobe Digital Marketing Research Award. Real-Time Learning and Optimization with Applications to Personalized Product/Ad Recommendation (with Xi Chen). Total Amount 50,000 USD.  Oct 2017 - Sept 2018.

  • NSF Research Funding CMMI-1462676. Revenue Management with Network Effects. Co-Principal Investigator (PI: William L. Cooper). Total Amount 269,863 USD. Sept 2015 - Aug 2018.

  • NSF Research Funding CMMI-1434541. Learning While Doing Algorithms for Online Decision Making Problems. Total Amount 285,599 USD. Sept 2014-Aug 2017.

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Other Activities

  • I am the co-founder and CTO of Cardinal Operations (shanshu.ai), which provides data-to-decision solutions to companies. Our company now provides service to more than 200 Chinese companies and has been the leading machine learning/AI/optimization companies in China.

  • I enjoy playing bridge. I played for the USA Team for the 2012 World Junior Championship and a series of other top-level tournaments. For a list of bridge achievements, click here.

  • I also enjoy traveling. Here is my traveling album. Here is my *flight data recorder*.

  • Here is an FAQ I wrote for those who are interested (or will soon become interested) in Operations Research.