About

I am a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC). Concurrently, I am engaged in part-time research with the Modeling & Optimization team at Amazon, where I was previously a full-time Research Scientist. Before this, I completed my Ph.D. in Operations Research at MIT and obtained my B.A. in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Both my graduate and undergraduate studies have been generously funded by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore. I taught as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Singapore University of Technology and Design in Spring 2024 and have also previously completed research internships at Amazon and the Institute for Infocomm Research. My CV can be found here.

Research Interests

At IHPC, I currently work on research to optimize the placement of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and assess the impact of vehicle electrification on Singapore’s transport and energy systems. In my current and previous roles at Amazon, I work on optimization for fulfilment networks and fulfilment center operations at Amazon. During my Ph.D., I worked with my advisors Retsef Levi and Georgia Perakis on picking policies for multi-item orders in a warehouse, in collaboration with a large online retailer, as well as a batch scheduling problem, a complementary perspective to the same problem. More broadly, my research interests lie in formulating and solving mathematical optimization models to aid decision making for real world applications.

Publications

  • Algorithm for robotic picking in Amazon fulfillment centers enables humans and robots to work together effectively with R. Allgor and T. Cezik, INFORMS Journal of Applied Analytics, 2023 [link].
  • Backhauling in heterogeneous cellular networks: Modeling and tradeoffs with T. Q. S. Quek and M. Kountouris, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 14(6): 3194-3206, 2015.
  • Imputing missing values in sensor networks using sparse data representations with L. Z. Wong, H. Chen and S. Lin, Proceedings of the 17th ACM International Conference on Modeling, analysis and simulation of wireless and mobile systems, 227-230, 2014.
  • Wireless backhaul in small cell networks: Modelling and analysis with T. Q. S. Quek and M. Kountouris, Proceedings of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference Spring, 2014.
  • Ordinal-based method for robust image/video signature generation with L. Chaisorn and S. Rahardja, Proceedings of SPIE Optics and Photonics, 2008.

Preprints

  • A practical and precise model for shared charging dynamics of electric vehicles: insights for charger allocation with H. E. Tan, submitted to Production and Operations Management, 2024.
  • Picking multi-item orders in a warehouse: data, models and simulation with T. Cezik, R. Levi and G. Perakis, R&R at Management Science.
  • Incorporating parametric information in robust data-driven optimization, in preparation for submission to Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.
  • Submodular batch scheduling with T. Cezik, R. Levi and G. Perakis, in preparation for submission to Mathematics of Operations Research.
  • Robust optimal inventory level when facing uncertainty in mixed demand with R. Levi and G. Perakis, working paper.

Talks

Contact

Emails
daniel underscore chen at ihpc dot a dash star dot edu dot sg
chonglic at amazon dot com