Biography

Dr. Saran's research interests are in stochastic programming, large scale optimization, and discrete event modeling and simulation. Applications of interest include supply chain management, healthcare, pricing and revenue management, and energy management. Before joining the PhD program at Texas A&M University, Dr. Saran worked in industry for nine years for companies like JDA Software, Hewlett Packard where he had opportunities to develop and implement decision support systems (mathematical and statistical models) in the domains of consumer support, supply chain management, transportation, and pricing and revenue management.

Courses Taught

IE4560 - Operations Research (undergraduate)
IE6560 - Deterministic Optimization (graduate)
IE7535 - Stochastic Programming and Robust Optimization (graduate, PhD students)
DSA 6200 - Operations Research (graduate, Data Science Program)
IE7570 - Deterministic Optimization (graduate, EMMP - Ford Motor Company)
IE 5995/CSC 5991: Simulation in Robotics using ROS
IE7570 - Deterministic Optimization (graduate, EMMP - Ford Motor Company)

Research Interests

Stochastic programming, Large scale optimization, Robust optimization, Decision making under uncertainty, Decomposition algorithms. Domains - Supply chain management, Airline operations, Unmanned aerial/ground vehicles 

Research Projects

• PI, Novel Data-Driven Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicle Path Planning Problems with Uncertain Data Parameters, ARC (Automotive Research Center), U.S. Army Center of Excellence, University of Michigan, MI. (2019 - present).
• PI, Community-Aware Charging Station Network Design for Electrified Vehicles in Urban Areas: Reducing Congestion, Emissions, Improving Accessibility, and Promoting Walking, Bicycling, and use of Public Transportation, TRCLC, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. (2017-2018).

• PI, Support and Enhancement of Optimization Models for Advertisement Placements in Radio Stations, JDA Software, Atlanta, GA.
• PI, Auto-Carrier - Routing and Loading, US Auto Logistics, Houston, TX, (2015-2016). 

Publications

Published (*Student)

• Faridimehr, S.*, Venkatachalam S., Chinnam RB., 2020, “Managing access to primary care clinics using robust scheduling templates,” Health Care Management Science. (in press)
• Anvaryazdi, S.F., Venkatachalam, S. and Chinnam, R.B., 2020. Appointment Scheduling at Outpatient Clinics Using Two-Stage Stochastic Programming Approach. IEEE Access, 8, pp.175297-175305.
• Fazeli S. S. *, Venkatachalam S., Chinnam RB., and Murat A., 2020, “Two-stage stochastic choice modeling approach for electric vehicle charging station network design in urban communities,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, doi: 10.1109/TITS.2020.2979363, pp. 1-16. (in press)
• Venkatachalam S., Acharya S., Oba K., and Nakayama Y., 2019, “Prescriptive Analytics for swapping aircraft assignments at All Nippon Airways,” INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics, Vol. 50, pp. 99-111.
• Venkatachalam S. and Narayanan A., 2019, “Two-stage absolute semi-deviation mean-risk stochastic programming: An application to supply chain replenishment problem,” Computers and Operations Research, Vol. 106, pp. 62-75.
• Venkatachalam, S., Sundar, K., and Rathinam, S., 2018, “A Two-Stage approach for routing multiple unmanned aerial vehicles with stochastic fuel consumption,” Sensors, Vol. 18(11).
• Faridimehr, S.*, Venkatachalam, S. and Chinnam, R.B., 2018. A stochastic programming approach for electric vehicle charging network design. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 20(5), pp.1870-1882.
• Sundar, K., Venkatachalam S., and Rathinam S., 2017, “Analysis of mixed-integer linear programming formulations for a fuel-constrained multiple vehicle routing problem,” Unmanned Systems, Vol. 05, pp. 197-207.
• Venkatachalam S. and Arunachalam N., 2016, “Efficient formulation and heuristics for multi-item single source ordering problem with transportation cost,” International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 54, pp. 4087-4103.
• Beier E., Venkatachalam S., Leon J., and Ntaimo L., 2016, “Nodal decomposition–coordination for stochastic programs with private information restrictions,” IIE Transactions, Vol. 48, pp. 283-297.
• Venkatachalam, S., Wong, F., Uyar, E., Ward, S., and Aggarwal, A, 2015, “Media company uses analytics to schedule radio advertisement spots,” Interfaces, Vol. 45, pp. 485-500.
• Beier E., Venkatachalam S., Ntaimo L., and Corolli L., 2015, “Stage-and scenario-wise Fenchel decomposition for stochastic mixed 0-1 programs with special structure,” Computers and Operations Research, Vol. 59, pp. 94-103.
• Corolli L., Lulli G., Ntaimo L, and Venkatachalam S., 2015, “A two-stage stochastic integer programming model for air traffic flow management,” IMA Journal of Management Mathematics, Vol. 28, pp. 19-40.

Under Review

• (under review) Fazeli S. S. *, Venkatachalam S., Smereka M. J., 08/2020, “Efficient algorithms for autonomous electric vehicles’ min-max routing problem,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
• (under review) Venkatachalam S. and Smereka M. J., 08/2020, “UV mission planning under uncertainty in vehicles’ availability,” Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems.
• (under revision after first review) Sanjeevi S., Venkatachalam S., 01/2020, “Robust flight schedules with stochastic programming,” Annals of Operations Research.
• (under review)Venkatachalam S. and Ntaimo L., 03/2020, “Integer set reduction for stochastic mixed-integer programming,” Computational Optimization and Applications.

Papers and Conferences

• Fazeli S.*, Venkatachalam S., Chinnam RB., Murat A., “Electric charging station network,” TRCLC Conference, Kalamazoo, MI, June 6-7, 2019.
• Fazeli S.*, Venkatachalam S., Chinnam RB., Murat A., Phase-II, Community-aware charging station network design for electrified vehicles in urban areas: Improving accessibility, reducing emissions, and promoting walking, TRCLC Conference, Kalamazoo, MI, June 21-22, 2018.
• Sundar, K., Venkatachalam S., and Satyanarayana G. M., “Path planning for multiple heterogeneous unmanned vehicles with uncertain service times,” Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Miami, FL, June 13-16, 2017.
• Venkatachalam S., Faridimehr S.*, Chinnam RB., Community-aware charging station network design for electrified vehicles in urban areas: Improving accessibility, reducing emissions, and promoting walking, TRCLC Conference, Kalamazoo, MI, June 1-2, 2017.
• Sundar K., Venkatachalam S., and Sivakumar R., “Formulation and algorithms for the multiple depot, fuel-constrained, multiple vehicle routing problem,” American Control Conference, Boston, MA, July 6-8, 2016.
• Beier E., Venkatachalam S., Leon J., Ntaimo L., Optimization despite partial information and uncertain data, IIE Magazine Article, March 2016.

Education

Ph.D, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
M.S, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
B.E, Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, India

Laboratory Web Site

 http://saran.eng.wayne.edu/lab.html

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