I studied engineering for my undergraduate degree at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. In my final year, I started thinking hard about what I wanted to do in the future, and as I had really enjoyed the research opportunities I had had to date, I decided to apply to PhD programs in operations research. After visiting the MIT ORC, I knew it was the best place for me.

My academic advisor was Professor Dimitris Bertsimas. My thesis focused on developing new algorithms and software for robust and adaptive optimization, and trying to develop an understanding of when and why these methods work best. I also worked on many side projects, including developing the JuMP modeling language, using machine learning to build better algorithms, participating in a variety of analytics projects, and creating two new classes. After graduation I’ll be working as a research engineer at Google DeepMind, where I’ll be solving cutting-edge problems in artificial intelligence.

I really enjoyed my time at the ORC. It was a lot of work, but the opportunities I had, the friendships I made, and the experiences I had made it all worthwhile. OR is not only at the heart of companies like Uber and Amazon, but it can also be found in hospitals, schools, and many other organizations. If you are interested in tackling problems with a combination of modeling, mathematics, and computing, then a PhD program in OR could be right for you—and there is no better place to study OR than at MIT.