Víctor Bucarey López

victor.bucarey [at] uoh [dot] cl

I am an Assistant Professor at Universidad de O'Higgins, Chile.  My research interests are focused on Game Theory and Large Scale Optimization. Specifically, my current research revolves around learning approaches for challenging combinatorial optimization problems and developing efficient algorithms to tackle complex prediction and optimization problems. Furthermore, a significant portion of my research has been dedicated to studying bilevel optimization and its applications in diverse areas such as inverse optimization, pricing, security, and network design. Furthermore, I am interested in Science Vulgarisation and collaborating on many Outreach projects.

Updates
  • (10/24) New preprint: Take a look to the journal extension of our CPAIOR article "Decision-focused predictions via pessimistic bilevel optimization: complexity and algorithms", a great collaboration between our master student Sophia Calderón, Gonzalo Muñoz and Frederic Semet. link 
  • (08/24) The survey on Decision-focused learning is published in JAIR: https://www.jair.org/index.php/jair/article/view/15320
  • (07/24) ISMP 2024: We will present our recent results of the complexity of computing decision-focused predictions. 
  • (03/24) Paper accepted: our collaboration with Pamela Bustamante, Vladimir Marianov, Fernando Ordoñez and Martine Labbé on Stackelberg Security Games over Perfect Formulations is published in OMEGA. You can find the preprint in the following link! 
  • (1/24) We started the year by organizing IWOBIP, the International Workshop on Bilevel Programming. It was held in Rancagua and Santa Cruz: a fantastic activity of the Institute of Engineering Sciences and the Institute of Complex Systems Engineering: iwobip2024.cl
  • (1/24) Paper accepted: Probability estimation and structured output prediction for learning preferences in last-mile delivery is accepted in Computers and Industrial Engineering. Great work with Rocs Canoy, Jayanta Mandi, and Tias Guns.
  • (12/23) New preprint: Decision-focused predictions via pessimistic bilevel optimization: a computational study. Nice work with Gonzalo Muñoz, Frederic Semet and our brilliant master student Sophia Calderón https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.17640
  • (11/23) New project awarded! Mechanism and Incentives against hidric crisis (MICCHI: Mecanismos e Incentivos Contra la Crisis Hídrica). New project for promoting international ties between Universidad de Barcelona, Univeristé Montpellier, INRIA Sophia Antipolis and Universidad de Chile.
  • (10/23) Paper accepted: Our article Learn and route: Learning Implicit Preferences for vehicle routing is finally published in Constraints. It is available in open access! Great work with Rocs Canoy, Jayanta Mandi, and Tias Guns. (link) 
(07/23) A Decision-focused Learning survey is now available online! Great collaboration with Jayanta Mandi, James Kotary, Maxime Mulamba, Ferdinando Fioretto and Tias Guns. We provide also the codes of our experiments! Check out the preprint: arxiv 
  • (06/23) New preprint! A nice collaboration with Pamela Bustamante, Vladimir Marianov, Fernando Ordoñez and Martine Labbé on Stackelberg Security Games over Perfect Formulations. You can find the preprint in the following link! 
  • (03/23) This semester I will be teaching  Logistics, Manufacturing and Services, and Data Project! 
  • 12/22) I have attended the CLAIO in Buenos Aires, Argentina (https://claio2022.dc.uba.ar/) and WOA (https://algopt.cl/), in Codegua Chile. In both conferences, I presented the advances of my Fondecyt "Decision-focused learning under the lens of Bilevel Programming." 
  • (10/22) Paper accepted: Our article Stationary Strong Stackelberg Equilibrium in Discounted Stochastic Games was accepted in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. Nice article with Alain Jean-Marie, Fernando Ordoñez and Eugenio Della Vecchia. You can read the research report in the link at the publications section.
  • (8/2022) This semester I am teaching two courses: Simulation of Complex Systems, for undergrad students and Advanced Modeling in OR for our new Master's program in operations management.
  • (7/2022) Nice and productive research visit to LIMOS in Clermont-Ferrand (https://limos.fr/) and DataLab at VUB in Brussels. 
  • (7/2022) Great conference EURO 2022 in ESPOO, Finland. I presented "Labor Planning and Shift Scheduling in Retail Stores Using Customer Traffic Data" at the session on Data-driven decision-making in OR.  
  • (5/2022) I am happy to share that our article "Decision-focused Learning: Through the Lens of Learning to Rank" has been accepted at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2022. Nice work with the dragons Tias Guns, Jayanta Mandi and Maxime Mulamba. 
  • (3/2022) Our article "The Stackelberg games of water extraction with myopic agents" (with Mabel Tidball and Alain Jean-Marie) has been accepted for publication in the IGTR Special Issue on Game Theory and Applications. (https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03429257)
  • (3/2022) This semester I am teaching two courses: Logistics, Manufacturing and Services, and Evidence-based Management. Both for 4th-year Industrial engineering students.
  • (1/2022) Habemus funding: ANID Fondecyt Iniciacion - Decision Focused learning through the lens of mathematical programming, Principal Researcher, 2022-2025. 
  • (9/2021) Our article Data Driven VRP: A Neural Network Model to learn hidden preferences for VRP was accepted at the 27th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. Joint effort with the Dragons: Jayanta Mandi, Rocs Canoy, and Tias Guns
  • (5/2021) Check out our new article: An exact dynamic programming approach to segmented isotonic regression recently published in Omega. Great collaboration with Juan Miguel Morales, Salvador Pineda and Martine Labbé. (LINK)
  • (5/2021) Our article "Benders decomposition for Network Design Covering Problems" was accepted for publication in Computers and Operations research.  Nice  collaboration  with Martine Labbé,  Bernard Fortz, Natividad González-Blanco and Juan Antonio Mesa. 
  • (3/2021) Happy! Our article "Constrastive losses and solution caching for predict-and-optimize" was accepted at IJCAI 2021!  (PDF)
  • (3/2021) Proud! I will be joining the new public university Universidad de O'Higgins as an assistant professor.
  • Finally published our article with Martine Labbe, Carlos Casorran, Oscar Figueroa and Fernando Ordoñez: "Coordinating resources in Stackelberg Security Games" in EJOR (link)   
  • (11/2020) Accepted our article in Computers and Operations research: Models and algorithms for the product pricing with single-minded customers requesting bundles, with Martine Labbé, Sourour Elloumi and Frank Plein (link)





You can also check my Google Scholar profile here and my CV