Associate Professor
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Graduate Field Faculty
Operations Research and Information Eng.
Center for Applied Math
Systems Engineering
Faculty Fellow
Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future
317 Hollister Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
samitha@cornell.edu
607-255-3438
I am an Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Graduate Field Faculty in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, the Center for Applied Math and the Systems Engineering Program at Cornell.
My primary research interest is in mathematical modeling and algorithm design for large-scale transportation network problems, and my current focus is on problems at the intersection of public transit and ride-sharing. In particular, I am interested in hybrid transit systems---services that are designed from the ground-up to fully integrate traditional fixed-line public transit and agile, demand-responsive modes.
I look at these problems through the lens of Algorithm Engineering, which focuses on developing theoretical insights from successful data-driven and heuristic approaches, and vice-versa (heuristics from theory). While the general formulations of the underlying technical questions in this domain typically lead to complex optimization problems with known hardness results, tractable solutions can sometimes be obtained by exploiting domain-specific characteristics that arise in specific transportation systems. I also work closely with public transit agencies and private shuttle operators to gain domain-specific practical insights, calibration of models using real-data, and validation through simulation and real world deployment of our algorithms.
Open Postdoc Positions:
Postdoc positions available in the area of network design and optimization with applications in emerging transportation systems and stochastic optimization for uncertaincy aware route planning. We're looking for applicants with a very strong optimization and/or algorithms background.
Prospective students:
Highly motivated PhD students with strong quantitative and computational skills who are interested in problems relating to urban mobility are encouraged to apply to the PhD programs in Civil Engineering, Operations Research, Applied Mathematics or Systems Engineering based on their background.
