{"id":102320,"date":"2024-11-08T09:18:55","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T15:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/?post_type=news&p=102320"},"modified":"2024-11-12T18:20:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T00:20:37","slug":"for-the-love-of-the-riddle-industrial-engineers-foundational-math-makes-way-for-optimal-solutions","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/news\/for-the-love-of-the-riddle-industrial-engineers-foundational-math-makes-way-for-optimal-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"For the love of the riddle: Industrial engineer\u2019s foundational math makes way for optimal solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Midway through an explanation of his research into some of the murkier corners of the mathematical universe, Alberto Del Pia<\/a> cuts himself off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand this is complicated,\u201d says the University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of industrial and systems engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While that statement could apply to researchers across the College of Engineering, it\u2019s especially apt for Del Pia, whose list of focus areas reads like a word salad of mathematical terms\u2014at least to those outside his field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadly, Del Pia works in mathematical optimization, an area that seeks the best answer to a given question among all available possibilities and a traditional strength at UW-Madison. Think finding the quickest route to a destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But specifically? That\u2019s where it gets, as Del Pia notes \u2026 complicated. He specializes in mixed-integer linear and quadratic programming, as well as binary polynomial optimization. In all three areas, he skews toward the theoretical side\u2014proving whether classes of problems can be quickly solved with algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuch of his work is going into the jungle out of optimization and trying to determine what is possible and what is not,\u201d says Harvey D. Spangler Professor Jeff Linderoth<\/a>, a fellow optimization researcher who\u2019s collaborated with Del Pia on several projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Del Pia excels at slicing his way through that mathematical jungle. Linderoth estimates his colleague is one of the top three integer programming researchers in the world among his age cohort. That assessment is backed up by Del Pia\u2019s prestigious 2023 INFORMS Optimization Society honor, the Egon Balas Prize<\/a>, named for the late applied mathematician who was a giant in the field. It\u2019s annually awarded to one early-career standout in optimization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years earlier, Del Pia first came to the United States after receiving another extremely selective honor: a Goldstine Fellowship at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center north of New York City. At most, the company awards two fellowships worldwide each year. Spending a year living in Manhattan and working alongside industry-leading researchers convinced Del Pia, who was born and educated in Italy and completed postdoctoral stints in Germany and Switzerland, that his future lay in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt felt like such an open environment and positive and enthusiastic. I really loved it. I thought, \u2018I belong here,\u2019\u201d says Del Pia, who became an American citizen in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He arrived at UW-Madison in 2014, along with his wife, Industrial and Systems Engineering Assistant Professor Carla Michini<\/a>. Around that same time, Jeff Poskin (PhD mathematics \u201917) was contemplating abandoning his doctoral plans and leaving the university with his master\u2019s degree after struggling to connect with potential PhD advisors. A fellow student mentioned Del Pia\u2019s name, so Poskin sought out the new faculty member. The two hit it off; it was the start of a productive two-plus years that saw them publish three papers and present at several conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a mentor, he was very motivated to find out what would work best for me as a PhD student,\u201d says Poskin, who\u2019s now a mathematician at Boeing. \u201cThere were times when he was very hands-off and would let me dig into what was I working on, and once I needed to meet with him, he would give me as much time in his day as possible. If I was deep into something and needed his help, we\u2019d talk for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Del Pia\u2019s belief that his graduate students need to truly enjoy what they\u2019re doing to be productive and successful is very much rooted in his philosophy regarding his own work. The reason he gravitates toward the types of problems he investigates has little to do with their industrial applications and all to do with his enjoyment of the process of solving them\u2014just like he used to spend all day contemplating riddles a friend of his father\u2019s would pose to him as a kid in Treviso, Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of his work, particularly a series of award-winning papers<\/a> produced over the span of a decade with former IBM colleague and current Lehigh University Assistant Professor Aida Khajavirad, informs software used for managing complex systems such as chemical plants, power production and airport scheduling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But much of his theoretical work, especially involving more complicated polynomial mathematical functions, breaks new ground. He pulls several seminal linear programming textbooks off the shelf in his office in the Discovery Building at UW-Madison, where he\u2019s also a faculty member in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery<\/a>. No authoritative books yet exist for the quadratic programming and binary polynomial optimization spaces he\u2019s exploring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy work tries to lay the foundations. So, I think, if in the future people continue to work on these problems, this will be seen as the foundation,\u201d he says. \u201cMy goal is just to keep working on problems I like, try to find interesting questions, and try to solve them\u2014having fun doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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