Tell us about yourself.

I am originally from Lebanon. Coming from a humble background, education is what carried me through an exciting journey. After my bachelor in Mechanical Engineering at the Lebanese American University, I took my very first flight to the US on a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University. I fell in love with the field of optimization and worked on clique relaxation in social networks and started delving into stochastic optimization and decision making under risk. After completing my first year of the PhD program at Texas A&M, I was encouraged to apply to the MIT Operations Research Center (ORC) by a dear mentor of mine at Texas A&M. I still remember vividly the day I received the acceptance letter from MIT. What a happy day! I was over the moon at the Open House and I knew right that day that the ORC would be the best place for me.

What degree you received from MIT and when?

I came to MIT in the Fall of 2011 and defended my PhD in October 2015. 

Who was your advisor at MIT?

I was incredibly lucky to work with Dimitris Bertsimas. I have enjoyed both our theoretical discussions as well as his mission to make a positive impact on the world. I have learned a lot from my collaboration with Chaithanya Bandi, now an assistant professor at Kellogg, Northwestern University. I was also very much inspired by my committee members Georgia Perakis and David Gamarnik. 

What was the research you performed while at MIT?

My main interest was around understanding and optimizing the performance of large-scale supply chain and queueing networks, especially in uncertain environments. Instead of modeling uncertainty in a probabilistic manner, I employed to concept of the probability limit laws and modeled the uncertainty as a geometric set. This allowed me to use tractable robust optimization algorithms to produce accurate approximations relative to probabilistic estimates. Bringing together two areas of Operations Research together in my research was extremely rewarding. 

I also worked on a side project with the MIT Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP).  OSP assists the MIT research community in securing sponsored research funding, with only 16 contract administrators (CAs) reviewing about 2,500 proposals and managing about 1,000 awards worth $1.5 billion every year. OSP’s goal was to minimize their workload imbalance between their CAs, maximize fairness, and increase their ability to deal with sponsor deadlines and emergencies effectively. I helped develop a resource allocation optimization algorithm, followed by an online assignment optimization, which helped reduced the work imbalance by 30%. Along with their IT team, we embedded the optimization algorithms within their software, and the technology has been managing the flow of proposals within OSP since May 2014. 

For me, the opportunity to lead this project from conception to implementation has given me crucial insights into the challenges of bridging the gap between the development of cutting-edge analytics technology and bringing those technologies to bear on the creation of value for businesses.

What have you been doing since your OR degree?

Since my PhD defense, I have been riding on an exciting journey to bridge my OR research and knowledge with solving real-life problems. It truly gives me an instant gratification to see how OR can make a practical difference. 

I have co-founded RECLAIM (MyA health), an MIT spinoff whose mission is to help individuals take control of their healthcare finances and save on their out-of-pocket expenses. I am currently serving as its CEO and I am leading its technology team, bridging large-scale data analytics with the development of a consumer-friendly application. 

I am also a Partner at P2 Analytics, a boutique company offering customized analytics software to large businesses. Among the exciting projects I have worked on is a software tool for a cardiac department at a large US hospital to optimize their patient flow from the operating room all the way to their discharge and minimize patient delays. 

Why the ORC from your perspective? How did the ORC contribute to your development as a scientist and as a person?

I cannot recommend the ORC enough. And the three main reasons are a) tight-knit community, b) impactful research, and c) link to the business school. 

a) Tight-Knit Community:

At the ORC, you will get the chance to meet many colleagues, not only those who are in your cohort. For one, the open layout of the office space allows you to meet more senior/junior MS and PhD students with a wide research, intellectual, and extra-curricular interests. Thanks to the AMAZING retreat in September, you will get to know almost everyone right off the bat! These retreats occur every year up in a large lake house in Maine and they present really unique opportunities to meet everyone. I have confided with many of my more senior peers, whom I am still very close to, well beyond graduation! One of my closest friendships were a product of my ORC experience!

b) Impactful Research:

One reason that initially interested me about the ORC is that students were encouraged to get started on research right from the very first semester. By the time you are done with your coursework (end of second year mostly), you have a very good chance at having already submitted a publication for review! Also, I was able to have both a theoretical project as well as a more applied project simultaneously, which helped me understand better where I thrived better. This, I believe, is important to figure out where you find yourself beyond grad school, and whether an academic career is what fulfills your ambitions, or a career in industry.

c) Link to Business:

Unlike any other engineering/statistics/applied mathematics program, the ORC gives a chance for its students to interact closely with the Sloan School of Management. I was a teaching assistant for executive MBAs for two years in a row, and this experience has allowed me to connect to more than 200 executives from a host of industries and enlarge my network of connections. Moreover, it gave me the opportunity to see how analytics and optimization can be applied practically to solve the very problems that keep these executives up at night. This experience has been instrumental in defining the direction that my career has taken after the ORC.

What is one memory about the ORC you carried with you? 

I have two memories that jump to mind: The first one is my very first ORC retreat where I met all the ORC’ers at the time over barbecues, beer, karaoke, zip-lining, and a host of other activities. Those colleagues are my friends and have become professors at Northwestern, Georgia Tech, Michigan Ann Arbor, Columbia, NYU, Cornell, UCLA, USC, Harvard, and others who are now working at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Zillow, Uber, or at tech startups. The second memory that comes to mind is the day of my defense, surrounded by my friends and my parents who flew across the world and took me by surprise to share in the excitement of the day. I still remember the pride in their eyes when Dimitris, Georgia and David (my committee members) announced that I had passed my PhD defense. Incredible emotions that sealed 4 incredible years at the ORC.

Any additional information you feel might be of interest to others?

Do not hesitate to reach other ORC’ers, including alumni, for help, whether it is regarding choosing a PhD advisor, preparing for quals, or seeking career advice. You will only encounter fellow ORC’ers who will jump at the occasion of helping you out in any way they can.