Faculty Profile
Lavanya Marla
Profile Sections
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Transportation Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), September 2010. Thesis: Airline Schedule Planning and Operations: Optimization-based Approaches for Delay Mitigation, Advisor: Prof. Cynthia Barnhart, Chancellor, MIT.
- Master of Science (S.M.), Transportation and Operations Research (dual degree), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 2007.
- Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), Major: Civil Engineering, Minor: Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, June 2004.
Academic Positions
- Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, Jan 2013-present. Zero-time appointment with Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Systems Scientist and iLab Mobility Analytics Co-director, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh PA, Sep 2010-Dec 2012.
- Visiting Faculty/Scholar, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India, Feb-August 2015.
For more information
Continuing Education
- IE 598 Special Topics Class: Optimization Methods for Large-scale Network-based Systems
- IE 360 Facilities Planning and Design
- IE 598 Special Topics Class: Optimization Methods for Large-scale Network-based Systems
- IE 360 Facilities Planning and Design
- IE 598 Special Topics Class: Optimization Methods for Large-scale Network-based Systems
- IE 360 Facilities Planning and Design
- IE 360 Facilities Planning and Design
- IE 598 Special Topics Course: Optimization Methods for Large-scale Network-based Systems
- IE 360 Facilities Planning and Design
- IE 360 Facilities Planning and Design.
Research Statement
My research aims at the development and application of tools from large-scale optimization, data mining, statistics, simulation, and computational techniques to build logistics and transportation systems that are operationally flexible and dynamically adaptable to improve cost, efficiency, robustness and environmental
impact which are crucial for a sustainable system. This vision is challenging because of the sheer size of the system, competition between multiple stakeholders and presence of significant uncertainty. To analyze and address evolving transportation infrastructure, I use tools from large-scale optimization, data mining, statistics, simulation, visualization and computational techniques. My research style involves: (i) analyzing large-scale real-world data from public agencies, operators and users to identify high-impact opportunities, (ii) developing quantitative data-driven models and algorithms to address them, and (iii) evaluating impact by testing on realistic simulation testbeds.
Research Interests
- Multi-agent systems
- Shared transportation systems
- Logistics systems and services
- Emergency medical systems
- Air transportation systems
- Statistical modeling and data-mining
- Decision-making under Uncertainty
- Robust planning and operations for large-scale networks
- Transportation and logistics networks
- Data-driven modeling and optimization
Selected Articles in Journals
- A. Faghih-Imani, R. Hampshire, L. Marla and N. Eluru, An Empirical Analysis of Bike Sharing Usage and Rebalancing: Evidence from Barcelona and Seville, accepted to Transportation Research: Part A.
- L. Marla, B. Vaaben and C. Barnhart, "Integrated Airline Disruption Management and Flight Planning to Tradeoff Delays and Fuel Burn," Transportation Science, Vol 51, No. 1, February 2017, pp 88-111.
- L. Marla, C. Barnhart and V. Biyani, "A Decomposition Approach for Robust Commodity Pickup and Delivery with Time-Windows under Uncertainty," Journal of Scheduling, Vol 17, Issue 5, 2014.
Articles in Conference Proceedings
- N. Eggenberg and L. Marla, Congestion in a competitive world: a study of the impact of competition on airline operations, in Proceedings of the Swiss Transport Research Conference (STRC) September 9-11, 2009.
- L. Marla and C. Barnhart (2011), A decomposition approach for shipment pickup and delivery for time-windows under uncertainty, in Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference: Theory and Applications, August 9-12, 2011.
- R. Hampshire and L. Marla. Analysis of Bike-Sharing Usage: Explaining Trip Generation and Attraction from Observed Demand, Poster presentation, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, 2012.
- R. Krishnan, L. Marla and Y. Yue, “An Efficient Simulation-based Approach to Ambulance Allocation and Dynamic Redeployment,” in Proceedings of the 26th Conference on Artificial Intelligence held by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), July 22-26, 2012. Acceptance rate of 25%, similar to NIPS.
- K. Krishnan, L. Marla and Y. Yue, Robust Ambulance Allocation Using Risk-based Metrics, in Proceedings of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Workshop of COMSNETS (International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks) 2016.
- M. Baranwal, P.M. Parekh, L. Marla, S.M. Salapaka and C. Beck. Vehicle Routing Problem with Time-Windows: A Deterministic Annealing Approach, in Proceedings of the American Control Conference, 2016, Boston.
Other Scholarly Activities
- Invited referee for the following journals: Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Transportation Research-Part B, Transportation Science, Journal of Air Transport Management, Transportation Research-Part C, 4OR, Transportation Research- Part A, Transportation Research Part D, Annals of Operations Research, Journal of the Production and Operations Management Society, Networks and Spatial Economics, Socio-Economic and Planning Sciences, Flexible Services and Manufacturing, Decision Analysis.
Other Outside Service
- Invited to judge the INFORMS Aviation Applications Sections Best Dissertation Prize, 2017.
- Chair, Best Student Presentation Award committee for the Aviation Applications Society, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2016.
- Invited to serve on the National Science Foundation's CMMI Panel, 2014.
- Invited to judge the INFORMS Aviation Applications Sections Best Dissertation Prize, 2014.
- Invited to judge the IIE Transactions Best paper Award for INFORMS, 2013.
- Invited to serve on the National Science Foundation's Cyber-Physical Systems Panel, 2013.
Honors
- National Merit Scholarship Fellow, National Council for Educational Research and Training. (1998-2004 (awarded in 1998).)
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. (2008-2009)
- Ann Hershfang Graduate Scholarship. (2010)
- US Department of Transportation Grant to establish a University Transportation Center (UTC) at Carnegie Mellon University (January 2012)
- Invited to judge the IIE Transactions' Best paper Award for INFORMS (2013)
- Invited to serve on the National Science Foundation's Cyber-Physical Systems Panel (2013)
- Invited to judge the INFORMS Aviation Applications Section's Best Dissertation Award for 2014. (June-Nov 2014)
- Invited to serve on the National Science Foundation's CMMI Panel (2014)
- Invited Keynote speaker for the Society of Women Engineers (Fall 2015)
- United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) Indo-US 21st Century Knowledge Initiative Grant awarded, started Fall 2015. Award of $189,000. (Fall 2015)
- Winner, Cross-Regional Collaboration Grant for 2017-2018 by the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics (TSL) Society, sponsored by Kalyx Warehousing; with Prof. Gitakrishnan Ramadurai as Co-PI. (Nov 2017)