My research interests span: Decision-making under uncertainty, Data-driven decision-making, Sequential decision-making, and Optimization, with the applications of those theory in operations management and social good/sustainability problems. I entertain a strong interest for quantitative methodologies that can help manage the risk, uncertainty and ambiguity for engineering and service systems.
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Publications and Working Papers
Publications and Working Papers
Data-Driven Decision-Making / Risk Analytics and Robust Optimization
Data-Driven Decision-Making / Risk Analytics and Robust Optimization
"Fast convergent risk-aware reinforcement learning" (with Junjie Lei, Dionysios Kalogerias and Zuo-Jun Max Shen), to be submitted to Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2026.
"Subsidy mechanism in target-oriented manufacturing-recycling system" (with Yao Gao, Ling Jian and Lianmin Zhang), to be submitted to Naval Research Logistics, 2026.
"Robust assortment optimization with value conscious customers under nested logit model" (with Yicheng Liu and Zizhuo Wang), to be submitted to Operations Research Letters, 2026.
"Robust data-driven quasi-concave optimization" (with Jian Wu, William B. Haskell and Huifu Xu), under 2nd round review, INFORMS Journal on Computing, 2026.
"DRL-ORA: Distributional reinforcement learning with online epistemic risk adaptation" (with Yupeng Wu, Wenyun Li and Chin Pang Ho), under review, 2026.
"The role of mixed discounting in risk-averse sequential decision-making" (with Erick Delage and Shanshan Wang), R&R, Management Science, 2025.
"Online non-convex optimization with long-term non-convex constraints" (with Shijie Pan and Jianyu Xu), under review, SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science, 2025.
"Adjustable robust disassembly planning and dynamic capacity expansion for reverse supply chain network" (with Yao Gao and Xinbao Liu), under major revision, Omega, 2025.
"Efficiently computing the quasi-concave envelope with incomplete information" (with Jian Wu, William B. Haskell and Huifu Xu), under major revision, SIAM Journal on Optimization, 2025.
"Assortment planning under spectral risk measures" (with Junjie Lei and Zizhuo Wang), accepted after minor revision, European Journal of Operational Research, 2026.
"Preference robust optimization for choice functions on the space of CDFs" (with William B. Haskell and Huifu Xu), SIAM Journal on Optimization, 2022. [Preprint]
"Randomized smoothing variance reduction method for large-scale non-smooth convex optimization" (with Xun Zhang), Operations Research Forum, 2021. [Supplemental Materials]
"Model and reinforcement learning for Markov games with risk preferences" (with Viet Hai Pham and William B. Haskell), AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2020 (acceptance rate: 20.6%). [Supplemental Materials]
"Stochastic approximation for risk-aware Markov decision processes" (with William B. Haskell), IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2020. [Supplemental Materials]
Featured publication selected by IEEE CSS-DES Newsletter
"Data-driven satisficing measure and ranking", Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2019. [Preprint]
"Risk-aware Q-learning for Markov decision processes" (with William B. Haskell), IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2017.
"Offline-to-online target-based sorting for tourist evacuation path selection" (with Shijie Pan, Xudong Wu, Jiayu Chen and Qixiu Cheng), Work-in-Progress.
"Exploiting transitivity structure in online ranking via pairwise comparisons" (with Ethan Hao Feng Lam, Alec Kirkley and Sebastian Morel-Balbi), Work-in-Progress.
"Large-scale optimization for non-parametric ranking under high-order risk preferences" (with Kai Tu and Man-Chung Yue), Work-in-Progress.
"Joint preference estimation and robust optimization" (with Junjie Lei, Yanyu Lu, Erick Delage and Zuo-Jun Max Shen), Work-in-Progress.
"Contextual and active preference robust optimization" (with Junjie Lei, Yanyu Lu, Erick Delage and Zuo-Jun Max Shen), Work-in-Progress.
Data Science/AI for Operations
Data Science/AI for Operations
"Inventory management with probabilistic transformer-based forecaster for scale-demand'', (with Mingyuan Zhu, Shan Dai and Lianmin Zhang), to be submitted to Production and Operations Management, 2026.
"Data-and-structure driven lateral transshipment policy for multi-retailer system" (with Yimo Yan, Zhen Li, Linhui Fu, Weilei Feng, Yaping Zhao and Yong-Hong Kuo), to be submitted to IISE Transactions, 2026.
"HFLC-MCDM for hybrid electric vehicle power service station location optimization" (with Yanchao Zhang, Yang Yang, Peng Guo, Guoliang Shi and Rui Miao), under review, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2026.
"Shaping sparse rewards in reinforcement learning: A semi-supervised approach" (with Wenyun Li and Chen Sun), under review, 2026.
"Revenue maximization leveraging positive effect of queue length" (with Zongyou Xu and Junjie Lei), IISE Annual Conference & Expo, 2026.
"Generalizable trajectory prediction via inverse reinforcement learning with Mamba-Graph architecture" (with Wenyun Li, Zejian Deng and Chen Sun), IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2026.
"Efficiency versus accuracy: The optimal level of decentralization in humanitarian operations for sudden-onset disasters" (with Xiaobo Li, Yinuo Lin and Lei Xu), under review, Operations Research, 2025.
Accepted for 2025 Durham Early Career Scholars Professional Development Workshop: Operations and Analytics, Supply Chain Management Track
Accepted at 2024 INFORMS MSOM Conference
"Dynamic production scheduling and multi-energy coordination in complex stochastic demand management: A MAPPO-enhanced greedy optimization algorithm" (with Yaping Zhao, Weilei Feng, Jiarong Li, Likun Jia, Jingsi Huang), under review, ENGINEERING Management, 2025.
"Data-driven inventory management for new products: An adjusted Dyna-Q approach with transfer learning" (with Xinye Qu and Longxiao Liu), IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2025.
Finalist, 2025 lEEE CASE Best Application Paper Award
"Stochastic optimization for on-time delivery in high-speed railway meal services: balancing earliness and tardiness costs" (with Lei Xu, Yaping Zhao, Weilei Feng and Rongsen Jin), Industrial Management & Data Systems, 2025.
"Towards cyber-physical internet: A systematic review, fundamental model and future perspectives" (with Hang Wu, Ming Li, Chenglin Yu, Zhiyuan Ouyang, Kee-hung Lai, Zhiheng Zhao, Shenle Pan, Shuaian Wang, Ray Y. Zhong, Yong-Hong Kuo, Fangni Zhang, Zuo-Jun Max Shen, Eric Ballot and George Q. Huang), Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 2025.
"Stochastic scheduling of high-speed railway meal service for on-time delivery" (Lei Xu, Yaping Zhao, Siqi Ma and Rongsen Jin), Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, 2024.
"Pricing and green promotion decisions in a retailer-owned dual-channel supply chain with multiple manufacturers" (Yaping Zhao, Endong Xu and Xiaoyun Xu), Cleaner Logistics and Supply Chain, 2023.
"Profit model for electric vehicle rental service: Sensitive analysis and differential pricing strategy" (with Rui Miao, Peng Guo, Qi Li and Bo Zhang), Energy, 2022.
"Online non-convex learning for river pollution source identification" (with Jing Jiang and Xiao Liu), IISE Transactions, 2022. [Supplemental Materials][Preprint]
"Profit optimization for milage-based pricing of electric vehicle lease" (with Rui Miao, Qi Li, Peng Guo, Leiyu Mi, Zhiqi Zhang, Jie Zhang and Zhibin Jiang), IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 2020.
"System resilience assessment method of urban lifeline system for GIS" (with Mengzhi Ling), Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 2018. (undergraduate work)
"Research on lease and sale of electric vehicles based on value engineering" (with Rui Miao, Donghao Pei, Xiyao Gu, Zefeng Li, Jie Zhang and Zhibing Jiang), International Journal of Production Research, 2016. (undergraduate work).
"Adaptive stress testing and test case generation via reinforcement learning" (with Wenyun Li, Zejian Deng and Chen Sun), Work-in-Progress.
Research Grants
Research Grants
PI, "Contextual and active preference robust optimization", Hong Kong RGC General Research Fund 17211325 , 2026/01-2028/12.
PI, "Online adaptive risk-aware epistemic uncertainty quantification in reinforcement learning", HKU Seed Fund for PI Research - Basic Research, 2025/06-2027/06.
PI, "Risk-aware accelerated and variance-reduced reinforcement learning with application in portfolio optimization", NSFC Young Scientist Fund (C Class) 72201224, 2023/01-2025/12, (PI).
PI, "HKU-100 Scholars" Research Start-up Funds, 2022/01-2024/12.
Co-PI, "SynchroHub: cyber-physical internet for synchronizing cross-border logistics hubs in the Greater Bay Area (GBA)", Hong Kong RGC Theme-based Research Scheme T32-707/22-N, 2022/23.
Co-I, "Portfolio optimization based on partial information on risk preferences", Zhejiang Provincial NSFC Research Fund (General Program) LY23G010001, 2023/01-2025/12.
Co-I, "Target based distributionally robust optimization with application to inventory routing problem", NSFC Research Fund (General Program) 72171156, 2022/01-2025/12.
Co-I, "Drawdown risk valuation, hedging and related portfolio selection problems", NSFC Research Fund (General Program) 12171408, 2022/01-2025/12.
Co-I, "Online learning and optimization algorithms under data-scare and non-stationary model scenarios", NSFC Research Fund (Original Exploratory Program) 72150002, 2021/01-2023/12.
Service
Service
Ad-hoc Reviewer for:
Operations Research, Production and Operations Management; INFORMS Journal on Computing; European Journal of Operational Research; Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review; International Journal of Production Research; Computational Management Science; Computer & Operations Research; Annals of Operations Research;
Journal of Machine Learning Research; Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research; International Journal of Approximate Reasoning; AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence; Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence;
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control; IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems; IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management; IEEE Control Systems Letters; IEEE Conference on Decision and Control; IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems;
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