About
Overview
Asteroide Santana is an Operations Research Scientist passionate about science, education, technology, and ways to combine them to improve human's experiences.
Wondering about his name? Check out his blog post.
Asteroide received his Ph.D. degree in Operations Research from the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech in May 2019, and have been looking for new opportunities to make a difference and positively impact the world.
"The world needs more scientist with strong leadership skills to aid decision-making."
Asteroide has made several scientific contributions, including several articles published in peer-reviewed journals and a number of computational resources for solving optimization problems. In the domain of mathematical optimization, he is particularly interested in mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) and non-convex quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP), and its engineering applications. Learn more about his research interests.
"It's fascinating how we can translate a seemingly unsolvable problem involving hundreds of decisions into a number of mathematical expressions, and then design an algorithm to find not only a solution but the best possible solution in few seconds of computation."
Asteroide has been recognized by his former students and fellows as an outstanding teacher. In 2018, he was awarded the Graduate Student Instructor of the Year in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. In the last two semesters that Asteroide taught the Engineering Optimization undergraduate course at Georgia Tech, his overall teaching defectiveness was rated 5.0/5.0 by his students.
"Learning Mathematics and Engineering has never been a trivial task for me. It's my personal challenge to make subjects that I struggled to grasp more meaningful and easier for my students to understand. And seeing them engaged and succeeding is my biggest reward."
During his Ph.D. program, Aster used to be actively engaged with the community by organizing seminars, giving talks, and advising undergrad students. He was also a fellow coach in the One-on-One Leadership Coaching program of LEAD, the Leadership Education and Development program at Georgia Tech.
Moving forward, Aster has built a career in the industry as well. He joined Opex Analytics (acquired by LLamasoft) as an Operation Research consultant, then became an Operations Research Scientist at LLamasoft (acquired by Coupa), and later a Sr. Solution Designer at Coupa Software.
In July 2021, Aster quit his position at Coupa to start Mip Wise with which he's further helping to build bridges between academia and industry with a combination of education and applied research & development.
"I truly believe that a closer communication between academia and industry can benefit both sides."
Fun fact:
Asteroide was born and grow up in Garopaba, SC, Brazil, but his is not a big fan of soccer and has never visited the Amazon Forest!
Before starting college in 2005, Asteroide spent almost two years away from school working in a sunglasses factory.
Before working in the factory, Aster used to work with his father and some friends in construction (street pavement, retaining wall, house building, etc). During summertime, he used to work as a cashier in the local grocery store.
He used to spend most of his free time fishing, swimming, snorkeling, and playing volleyball on the beach.
Core values:
Commitment and Resilience
Contribution and Innovation
Caring and Kindness
Greatest Passions:
Family
Mathematics, Optimization, Applications, Operations Research
Education, Teaching, Coaching
Education
Ph.D. in Operations Research
Georgia Tech - Atlanta-GA-United States (Aug 2014 - May 2019)
Adviser: Prof. Santanu S. Dey
Minor: Theory and applications of statistics and machine learning
M.S. in Mathematics
Federal University of Santa Catarina - Florianópolis-SC-Brazil (Mar 2011- Mar 2013)
Adviser: Prof. Maicon Marques Alves
B.S. in Mathematics
Federal University of Santa Catarina - Florianópolis-SC-Brazil (Mar 2005- Mar 2009)
Adviser: Prof. Gustavo A. T. T. da Costa
Teaching
Georgia Tech
Graduate Student Instructor (GSI)
ISyE 3133: Engineering Optimization (Fall 2018, Main lecturer: Prof. Santanu S. Dey )
Overall effectiveness 5.0/5.0
ISyE 3833: Engineering Optimization (Spring 2017, Main lecturer: Prof. George Nemhauser)
Overall effectiveness 5.0/5.0
Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA)
ISyE 3833: Engineering Optimization (Fall 2015)
Federal University of Santa Catarina
Full-time Instructor
Department of Mathematics, four courses per semester including Linear Algebra, Calculus and Finances (Mar 2013 - Jul 2014 & Aug 2009 - Dec 2010).
Awards and Fellowships
Best Poster Award, 15th Mixed Integer Programming Workshop 2018.
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor of 2018 Award, ISyE - Georgia Tech.
Robert G. Brown Fellowship Award for Spring 2018 semester, ISyE - Georgia Tech.
Ed Iacobucci Fellowship Award for Fall 2017 semester, ISyE - Georgia Tech
Science Without Boundary Fellowship (PhD Program) 2014-2018, CNPq - Brazil.
CAPES Fellowship (MS Program) 2011-2013, UFSC, Brazil.
Undergraduate Research Fellowship 2007-2008, UFSC, Brazil.
PET-MTM Fellowship 2005-2007, UFSC, Brazil.