Tommaso Giovannelli

About Me

I am a postdoctoral researcher and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Lehigh University. I am an incoming Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering program of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. I have a PhD in Operations Research and hold both an M.S. and a B.S. in Management Engineering from SAPIENZA University of Rome. I am a member of the Optimization and Machine Learning (OptML) Research Group at Lehigh University.

Research Interests

My methodological research interests span several sub-fields of nonlinear optimization, such as optimization methods for machine learning, stochastic optimization, bilevel and multi-objective optimization, simulation-based optimization, and derivative-free and black-box optimization. 

My main application areas include machine learning, transportation systems, and healthcare management.

Download my CV 

Work Address

200 West Packer Avenue, Mohler Lab, Room 478, Bethlehem, PA 18015

Prospective PhD students

I have two funded Ph.D. student positions under my supervision in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (MME) within the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) Program at the University of Cincinnati (UC).

The general area of research involves mathematical optimization and machine learning, with applications in healthcare.

If you are a motivated and enthusiastic student passionate about operations research, data science, and industrial and systems engineering, and if you meet the qualifications listed below, I encourage you to apply. 

Qualifications:

The MME Department currently offers a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering (https://ceas.uc.edu/academics/departments/mechanical-materials-engineering/degrees-programs/mechanical-engineering-phd.html). A Ph.D. degree in ISE is expected to be launched later this year. While a Master’s degree is not required for admission to the UC Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. Program, an ideal candidate will hold a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, or a related field, with prior research experience in these areas.

The ideal starting date is Spring 2025.

To apply, please send your CV, transcripts, and one sample publication (if available) to tommaso.giovannelli@gmail.com. Please include a brief paragraph about how your previous experiences align with my research interests.

Feel free to reach out to me for further information or any inquiries about these positions.

Bio

Tommaso Giovannelli (he/him/his) is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering program of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at Lehigh University. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research in May 2021 from Sapienza University of Rome, where he obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Engineering Management in 2015 and 2017, respectively. From January 2020 to May 2021, he was a visiting scholar at Lehigh ISE. In July 2019, he won a doctoral award at the Doctoral Consortium ORAHS 2019 (EURO Working Group within IFORS) in Karlsruhe, Germany, for his research in simulation-based optimization applied to emergency department management. His research interests span several sub-fields of nonlinear optimization, including stochastic bilevel and multi-objective optimization and simulation-based and derivative-free optimization. His main application areas include machine learning, transportation systems, and healthcare management, all motivated by important problems for social good. Tommaso has been actively contributing to the academic community by serving on the local organizing committee for ICCOPT 2022 and chairing the organizing committees for the MOPTA 2023 and 2024 conferences.

News:

June 4, 2024: New accepted paper: T. N. Alleck, T. Giovannelli, L. N. Vicente, R. Mitchell, and O. Remen, Match score dataset for team ball sports, to appear in Data in Brief.  PDF

May 16, 2024: New publication: M. Boresta, T. Giovannelli, M. Roma, Managing low-complexity patients in an emergency department through simulation–based multi-objective optimization using a neural network metamodel, to appear in Health Care Management Science. PDF

May 2, 2024: Thaksheel N. Alleck is the recipient of the eighth annual Van Hoesen Family Best Publication Award for our paper “Why is Soccer so Popular: Understanding Underdog Achievement and Randomness in Team Ball Sports”. Thaksheel is a junior IBE undergraduate pursuing a double major in ISE and Marketing, with a minor in Data Science. Congratulations Thaksheel! That is very well deserved.

April 19, 2024: Thaksheel Alleck, Roman Mitchell, and Ori Remen presented a poster (Link) on our research about randomness in team ball sports at the 2024 Rossin College's David and Lorraine Freed Undergraduate Research Symposium. They did a great job!

April 9, 2024: Two new papers are out, co-authored with undergraduate students: 

L. N. Vicente, T. N. Alleck, T. Giovannelli, R. Mitchell, and O. Remen, Why is soccer so popular: Understanding underdog achievement and randomness in team ball sports, ISE Technical Report 24T-004, Lehigh University PDF

T. N. Alleck, T. Giovannelli, L. N. Vicente, R. Mitchell, and O. Remen, Match score dataset for team ball sports, ISE Technical Report 24T-003, Lehigh University PDF

February 21, 2024: New publication: T. Giovannelli, G. Kent, and L. N. Vicente, Bilevel optimization with a multi-objective lower-level problem: Risk-neutral and risk-averse formulations, to appear in Optimization Methods and Software. PDF

January 19, 2024: I am an incoming Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering program of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. I look forward to starting my new position in August!

November 21, 2023: A new paper is out: T. Giovannelli, O. Sohab, and L. N. Vicente, The limitation of neural nets for approximation and optimization, ISE Technical Report 23T-027, Lehigh University. PDF 

October 7, 2023: At the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting, I will give an invited talk titled "The Limitation of Neural Nets for Approximation and Optimization" in the "MA36. Special Topics in Derivative-free Optimization" session, which is scheduled for October 16, 2023, 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM, CC-North 222C.

September 29, 2023: MOPTA 2024 will be held at Lehigh University from August 14 to 16, 2024. I am excited to once again serve as the chair of Lehigh's ISE Department's flagship conference.

August 24, 2023: MaremmaOggi posted an article (in Italian) about my academic experience in the US: https://www.maremmaoggi.net/tommaso-giovannelli-cervello-della-maremma-in-america

August 19, 2023: Yesterday, we wrapped up MOPTA 2023, which featured 140 attendees, 7 plenary speakers, 32 parallel sessions, the 15th AIMMS-MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition, and a poster competition. I had a great time seeing people make new connections and learn about the latest developments in optimization and its applications.

August 15, 2023: MOPTA 2023 is starting tomorrow! As the chair of the conference, I will be speaking in the opening session, and I will present our work on inexact bilevel stochastic gradient methods for constrained and unconstrained lower-level problems in RB 241, 10:15-11:45 AM.

May 3, 2023: New publication: T. Giovannelli and L. N. Vicente (2023), An integrated assignment, routing, and speed model for roadway mobility and transportation with environmental, efficiency, and service goals, to appear in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. Link PDF

February 10, 2023: A new paper is out: T. Giovannelli, G. Kent, and L. N. Vicente, Bilevel optimization with a multi-objective lower-level problem: Risk-neutral and risk-averse formulations, ISE Technical Report 23T-013, Lehigh University. PDF

January 23, 2023: I have been invited to give a talk on bias and fairness in AI at Penn State Berks on February 20, 2023 (https://sites.psu.edu/aims/calendar_event/461/). 

December 6, 2022: The list of plenary speakers for MOPTA 2023 has been finalized. We are very excited to have incredible plenary speakers. Here is the link to the conference website: https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/~mopta.

October 7, 2022: A new paper is out: T. Giovannelli and L. N. Vicente, An integrated assignment, routing, and speed model for roadway mobility and transportation with environmental, efficiency, and service goals, ISE Technical Report 22T-013, Lehigh University. PDF

October 3, 2022: 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting is less than 2 weeks away. I am the chair of the Nonlinear Optimization Flash Session (October 17, 2022, 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM, CC - Room 203) and co-chair of the session on Bilevel Stochastic Methods for Optimization and Learning (October 18, 2022, 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM, CC - Room 203). I will give a flash talk on bilevel stochastic gradient methods in my flash session.

September 8, 2022: Today I had the MOPTA 2023 kick-off meeting with Prof. T. Terlaky. MOPTA 2023 will be held at Lehigh University from August 16 to 18 2023, and I will be the chair of the Organizing Committee.

July 22, 2022: ICCOPT 2022 is starting tomorrow! I am honored to be a member of the Local Organizing Committee.