Tommaso Giovannelli
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Industrial Engineering
University of Cincinnati
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About Me
I am an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Industrial Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Lehigh University, where I was a member of the Optimization and Machine Learning (OptML) Research Group. 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.
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.
Work Address
2851 Woodside Dr, Cincinnati OH 45221-0072
Office: Rhodes Hall 635
Links
Bio
Tommaso Giovannelli is an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) in the Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Industrial Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher and adjunct faculty member in the ISE Department 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 areas of nonlinear optimization, including stochastic bilevel and multi-objective optimization, as well as simulation-based and derivative-free optimization. His primary application domains include machine learning, healthcare operations management, and transportation systems. He has been actively contributing to the academic community by serving on the local organizing committee for ICCOPT 2022, chairing the organizing committees for the MOPTA 2023 and 2024 conferences, serving as a guest editor for the MOPTA 2024 Special Issue in Optimization and Engineering, and co-chairing the organizing committees for the MOPTA 2025 conference and PAOW workshop. Additionally, he is an associate editor for Operations Research Forum and a member of the UC Cancer Center.
News:
February 24, 2025:
Exciting news! Our Industrial and Systems Engineering program is rapidly growing, and our department has officially been renamed the Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Industrial Engineering. We are in the process of updating all websites and brochures, so you may notice occasional inconsistencies during this transition. I have already updated my email signature, designed by our talented ISE undergraduate students:
November 7, 2025:
Today, I had the opportunity to present the research my group and I are doing on optimizing healthcare operations management through data modeling and AI to the University of Cincinnati Mechanical and Materials Engineering External Advisory Board (EAB). The EAB supports continuous improvement of our MME undergraduate curriculum, ensuring sensitivity to industry needs and ABET accreditation requirements. They provide a connect point for industry with MME faculty and students.
November 6, 2025:
Really excited to give a seminar today as part of the Fall 2025 Seminar Series at the Purdue University Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering. I'll be talking about our Pareto sensitivity approach to identify knee points and the most representative Pareto sub-fronts in multi-objective optimization, without computing the entire front. Link
October 27, 2025:
Today, I was excited to give an invited talk titled Pareto sensitivity, most-changing sub-fronts, and knee solutions in a session organized by Margaret Wiecek and Kristen Joyce at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, USA.
October 8, 2025:
I had a great time at the All Ohio IISE Dinner in Columbus yesterday. I am very excited that our Industrial & Systems Engineering Student Association will be hosting this event next year. Looking forward to it! Link
October 1, 2025:
New accepted paper: S. Josyula, Y. Noiman, E. J. Payton, T. Giovannelli, Comparison of derivative-free and gradient-based minimization for multi-objective compositional design of shape memory alloys, to appear in Computational Materials Science.
August 21, 2025:
On November 6, 2025, from 1:30 to 2:45 PM, I will give an invited talk in the Purdue University Industrial Engineering Seminar Series. I will present our work on "Pareto sensitivity, most-changing sub-fronts, and knee solutions." PDF
August 20, 2025:
A new paper is out: S. Josyula, Y. Noiman, E. J. Payton, T. Giovannelli, Comparison of derivative-free and gradient-based minimization for multi-objective compositional design of shape memory alloys, arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.14127 (2025). PDF
July 15, 2025:
A new paper is out: T. Giovannelli, J. Tan, and L. N. Vicente, Non-smooth stochastic gradient descent using smoothing functions, arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.10901 (2025). PDF
July 5, 2025:
I am honored to accept the invitation to join the editorial board of the Springer journal Operations Research Forum.
June 21, 2025:
The MOPTA 2025 conference took place in Ponta Delgada from June 17–20, with around 150 registrants.
LinkedIn posts: Day 1, Day 2, Tamas-70 Session and Dinner, Day 3, Day 4.
The PAOW workshop was held in Horta from June 13–15, focusing on continuous optimization and its applications to machine learning. We had 65 registrants.
LinkedIn posts: Day 1, Days 2 and 3.
Thank you to everyone who participated in these two events. It was great to see old friends and make new connections.
May 13, 2025:
A new paper is out: T. Giovannelli, G. D. Kent, and L. N. Vicente, A stochastic gradient method for trilevel optimization, arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.06805 (2025). PDF
The PAOW program book is available here.
May 9, 2025:
New accepted paper: T. Giovannelli, G. D. Kent, and L. N. Vicente, Inexact bilevel stochastic gradient methods for constrained and unconstrained lower-level problems, to appear in Journal of Global Optimization.
The MOPTA 2025 program book is available here.
February 18, 2025: I have been invited to give an online talk titled Exploring Bilevel Optimization: Applications in Machine Learning as part of the Blue Yonder Series on Optimization for Machine Learning. Date: March 18, 2025. Time: 4:00 PM (CET). Link
February 10, 2025: New accepted paper, 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, to appear in Journal of Sports Analytics.
January 28, 2025: A new paper is out: T. Giovannelli, M. M. Raimundo, and L. N. Vicente, Pareto sensitivity, most-changing sub-fronts, and knee solutions, arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.16993 (2025). PDF
September 5, 2024: The Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications (MOPTA) 2025 Conference will be held in Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal during June 17-20, 2025. We will be celebrating the 70th Birthday of Professor Tamás Terlaky, who founded MOPTA 25 years ago. There will be a Tamas-70 Session and Dinner on June 18, 2025.
September 5, 2024: The Portuguese American Optimization Workshop (PAOW), a satellite event of MOPTA 2025, will take place in Horta, Azores, Portugal during June 13-15, 2025. PAOW is primarily focused on continuous optimization and its applications to machine learning.
August 17, 2024: Yesterday, we wrapped up MOPTA 2024, which gathered over 140 participants on Lehigh campus. The conference program included 7 plenary talks from leaders in the field (including a Spencer C. Schantz lecture), 28 parallel sessions with 86 talks, a tutorial session on quantum computing, a poster session, the 16th AIMMS-MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition, and the first edition of the iMOPTA workshop.
Thank you to all attendees, plenary speakers, organizing committee members, sponsors, and volunteers who helped ensure another successful edition of this annual event. We look forward to celebrating the 25th edition of MOPTA next year in the beautiful Azores, Portugal!
July 29, 2024: New accepted paper: T. Giovannelli, O. Sohab, and L. N. Vicente, The limitation of neural nets for approximation and optimization, to appear in Journal of Global Optimization.
June 4, 2024: New publication: 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.
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