Optimization for Data-Driven Science (ODDS) Research Group

Postdoctoral Researchers

Xinwei Zhang

Xinwei Zhang is a postdoctoral research associate in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at the University of Southern California. He obtained his Ph.D. and M. Eng. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research interest lies in the theoretical understanding of distributed optimization, federated learning, and differentially private algorithms. 



Graduate Students

Tianjian Huang

Tianjian Huang is a Ph.D. student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California. He obtained his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research interest lies in developing large-scale optimization algorithms for training machine learning models with special requirements such as robustness, binary weights, or invariant requirements.


Ali Ghafelebashi

Ali Ghafelebashi

Ali is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California. He obtained his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the Amirkabir University of Technology in 2018 (overall GPA: 4.0/4.0). He was granted the FOE (Faculty of Engineering) prize for the 1st GPA at the Department of Industrial Engineering for a three-year sequence at the Amirkabir University of Technology. He was awarded the membership of the National Elites Foundation in 2017.


Yinbin Han

Yinbin is a PhD student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California. He obtained his B.Sc in Mathematics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. His research lies in stochastic control, stochastic optimization, reinforcement learning as well as applications in finance and service systems.


Zeman Li

Zeman is a Ph.D. student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC. He obtained his B.S. in Applied Mathematics at Emory University and B.S. in Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests lie in the area of machine learning and large-scale optimization, particularly data-efficient and private machine learning in large models. Zeman leads his own research group where he mentors Juno.


Devansh Gupta

Devansh Gupta is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Southern California. He did his B. Tech in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. His research interests broadly lie in Learning Theory, Large Scale Optimization, and Differential Privacy.


Mahdi Salmani

Mahdi is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Southern California. He received his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. He also earned a silver medal in Iran’s National Mathematical Olympiad. His research interests lie in Large-Scale Optimization, especially in developing trustworthy, privacy-preserving, and robust models.


Alumni

Alex Mulrooney (Summer 2024, Visiting Undergraduate Student), University of Delaware

Musheng Li (Summer 2024, Visiting Undergraduate Student), Tsinghua University

Poornash Anandan Sangeetha (Summer 2024, Visiting Undergraduate Student) Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna

Sina Baharlouei (2017-2023, PhD Student), First position after graduation: Applied Scientist at eBay

Felipe Wagstein (2020-2023), First position after graduation: CFO (Chief Fetch Officer) at Google Bones

Andrew Lowy (2019-2023, PhD Student), First position after graduation: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Daniel Lundstrom (2021-2023, PhD Student), First position after graduation: Principle Image/Signal Processing Engineer at Northrop Grumman

Shivam Patel (Summer 2023, Visiting Undergraduate Student) Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai

Vikram Meyer (Summer 2023, Visiting Undergraduate Student) Vanderbilt University

Gaia Dennison (Summer 2022, Visiting Undergraduate Student), Cal Poly Pamona

Shaunak Halbe (Summer 2021, Visiting Undergraduate Student) College of Engineering Pune

Yan Wen, (Summer 2021, Visiting Undergraduate Student), Tsinghua University

Eileen Stiles (Spring and Summer 2021, Visiting Undergraduate Student), Johns Hopkins University

Dmitrii Ostrovskii (2019-2021, Postdoctoral Researcher) Current Position: Assistant Professor of Math and ISyE, Georgia Tech

Rakesh Pavan, (Summer and Fall 2020, Visiting Undergraduate Student), National Institute of Technology Karnataka; Current Position: Graduate Student at UW Seattle

Maher Nouiehed (2016-2019, Ph.D. Student) First position after graduation: Assistant Professor, American University of Beirut.

Babak Barazandeh (2017-2021, Ph.D. Student) First position after graduation: Senior Research Scientist at Splunk.

Prajwal Singhania, (Summer 2018, Visiting Undergraduate Student), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, Current Position: Analyst at AlphaGrep Securities

Shahriar Norouzizadeh (Summer 2017, Visiting Undergraduate Student), University of British Columbia, Current Position: Graduate Student at CMU