REU Site: Research on Prescriptive Analytics for AI-enabled Operations Engineering

The goal of this REU site to fill the gap in student knowledge in prescriptive analytics, a form of analytics which suggests decision options for how to take advantage future opportunities or mitigate future risks. Prescriptive analytics are particularly critical for key industries such as services, manufacturing and agriculture that experience high expenditure, supply-demand mismatch, and operational uncertainties. This REU program will not only equip students with the required knowledge but provide them the skillset to conduct research on delivering intelligent/scalable prescriptive analytics solutions to real-world problems involving data-driven planning and decision making. In addition, through the REU projects, numerous underrepresented minorities, women and first-generation graduates, will be trained in doing independent research, which will, in turn, motivate them to pursue advanced degrees in STEM. The summer program will cultivate student interest in developing several creative and novel research works, e.g., (i) real-time scheduling models to optimize the planning and control of unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) - transfer robots (a.k.a. transbots), (ii) creating a Blockchain system for healthcare process improvement, (iii) designing decomposition-based iterative optimization algorithms for dynamically dispatching and routing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), i.e., drones and air taxis, and (iv) understanding genotype, environment and management (G×E×M) interaction using deep learning. In summary, exposing students to multidisciplinary research projects in prescriptive analytics for AI-enabled operations engineering, inculcating a passion for science and engineering, and cultivating their presentation skillsets for pursuing advanced STEM degrees are the main goals of the proposed REU Site. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.