ALI NEZHAD

Ali Mohammad Nezhad
Department of Statistics and OR
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599
Office: Hanes 338
Email:

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics at the Carnegie Mellon University, a Golomb Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Purdue University, a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Lehigh University, and a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. I completed my PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Lehigh University in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Tamas Terlaky.

My research is supported by the collaborative NSF Grant CCF-2128702 and CCF-2128527 (Purdue and Lehigh universities). The main theme of my research is computational complexity in continuous optimization, computational optimization, and their algorithmic implications. In recent years, the focus of my research has been centered on different facets of stability, complexity, and computation in semidefinite and polynomial optimization through the lens of (algorithmic) real algebraic geometry. I recently developed interest in computational topology and its interplay with computational optimization. You can find out more about my research here.

I organized the Optimization, Algebra, and Geometry Seminar in the Mathematical Sciences Department at CMU in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023.

[07/26/2024] Our paper Improved effective Lojasiewicz inequality and applications was accepted for publication in Forum of Mathematics, Sigma.

[07/23/2024] I will be giving a talk at 25th International Symposium on Mathematical Programming (ISMP 2024).

[07/17/2024] Our poster, Semi-algebraic structures, Central paths in nonlinear optimization, was a prize winner (with honorable mention) in the poster competition at The International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (ISSAC 2024).

[02/09/2024] Our paper On the complexity of analyticity in semi-definite optimization was published in Advances in Applied Mathematics.

[11/15/2023] I presented our paper Improved effective Lojasiewicz inequality and applications in the workshop "Symmetry, Stability, and interactions with Computation" at CIRM.

[10/19/2023] I will be giving a talk at Annual Midwest Optimization Meeting 2023.

[08/16/2023] I will be teaching Discrete Mathematics for Data Science (STOR 315) in the STOR Department in Fall 2023.

[07/12/2023] I will be giving a talk in the minisymposium "Computational Real Algebraic Geometry" at SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry.

[07/01/2023] I officially started my job as a tenure-track assistant professor in STOR Department at UNC Chapel Hill.

[06/02/2023] I gave be a talk in the minisymposium "Algebro-Geometric Aspects of Optimization" at SIAM Conference on Optimization (OP23).

[03/06/2023] Beginning July 2023, I will start a tenure-track assistant professor position in the STOR Department at UNC Chapel Hill.

[01/18/2023] We submitted a new paper: On the complexity of analyticity in semi-definite optimization.

[11/20/2022] We submitted a new paper: Improved effective Łojasiewicz inequality and applications.

[10/08/2022] I will be presenting my research "Applications of Real Algebraic Geometry in Optimization" at Informs Annual Meeting 2022.

[08/10/2022] I am organizing a special session on "Complexity and Topology in Computational Algebraic Geometry" for JMM 2023.

[08/10/2022] I will be teaching Matrix Algebra and Applications (21-240) in the Mathematical Sciences Department in Fall 2022.

[08/09/2022] Our summer undergraduate project (with Janiece Jackson, Layla Montemayor, and Professor David Offner) on the simulation optimization of Emerald Cloud Lab was highlighted in the CMU's news.

[07/23/2022] We just finished the summer undergraduate program at CMU. Thanks to Janiece Jackson and Layla Montemayor for their nice work on optimization of Emerald Cloud Lab.

[07/23/2022] I will be presenting my research "On the Complexity of Annalyticity, a Real Algebraic Geometry Approach" at ICCOPT 2022.

[06/20/2022] I will present my poster titled "On the Complexity of Analyticity" in CCAAGS-22.

[05/24/2022] Our paper On the Central Path of Semidefinite Optimization: Degree and Convergence Rate was published in SIAM Journal on Applied Algebra and Geometry.

[05/16/2022] I presented my poster titled "On the Complexity of Analyticity" in Algebraic Statistics 2022.

[05/16/2022] I officially started my job as a math postdoc in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at CMU.

[08/14/2021] I will be giving a talk in the session Optimization and Algebraic Geometry at AG21.

[08/10/2021] Professor Basu and I will be organizing the session on Algebraic Aspects of Optimization at SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry (AG21).

[06/28/2021] Our paper On the sensitivity of the optimal partition for parametric second-order conic optimization was accepted for publication in Mathematical Programming B. 

[05/17/2021] We submitted a new paper: On the central path of semidefinite optimization: degree and convergence rate.

[05/11/2022] Our paper On computing the nonlinearity interval in parametric semidefinite optimization was published in <ahref rel="noopener" target="_blank">Mathematics of Operations Research.</ahref>

[03/08/2022] I will be giving a talk in the session Nonlinear Constrained Optimization at IOS22.

[03/08/2022] Beginning May 2022, I will be a Postdoc Research Associate joint with the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics and the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.

[12/20/2021] Our paper On the central path of semidefinite optimization: degree and convergence rate was accepted for publication in the SIAM Journal on Applied Algebra and Geometry.

[10/29/2021] Our paper On computing the nonlinearity interval in parametric semidefinite optimization was accepted for publication in Mathematics of Operations Research.

[08/27/2021] Our collaborative NSF proposal (co-PIs: Saugata Basu and Tamas Terlaky) was approved.