The Analytics of Robust Satisficing: Predict, Optimize, Satisfice, then Fortify

We introduce a novel approach to prescriptive analytics that leverages robust satisficing techniques to determine optimal decisions in situations of risk ambiguity and prediction uncertainty. Our decision model relies on a reward function that incorporates uncertain parameters, which can be partially predicted using available side information. However, the accuracy of the linear prediction model depends … Read more

Vehicle Repositioning under Uncertainty

We consider a general multi-period repositioning problem in vehicle-sharing networks such as bicycle-sharing systems, free-float car-sharing systems, and autonomous mobility-on-demand systems. This problem is subject to uncertainties along multiple dimensions – including demand, travel time, and repositioning duration – and faces several operational constraints such as the service level and cost budget. We propose a … Read more

Joint Pricing and Production: A Fusion of Machine Learning and Robust Optimization

We integrate machine learning with distributionally robust optimization to address a two-period problem for the joint pricing and production of multiple items. First, we generalize the additive demand model to capture both cross-product and cross-period effects as well as the demand dependence across periods. Next, we apply K-means clustering to the demand residual mapping based … Read more