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  • Apr
    7

    IEMS Wasserstrom Lecture - Jim Dai April 7

    Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences (IEMS)

    11:00 AM Suite 1400, Krebs Classroom, North Campus Parking Garage

    EVENT DETAILSmore info

    Jim Dai

    ORIE, Cornell University

    Stochastic processing networks (SPNs) model the operations of many complex systems, such as data centers and communication networks. These networks have been an active subject of research for more than 40 years. In this talk, I will introduce M-COF (Multi-scale Closed-form Optimization Framework), a new framework for the optimal control of a class of SPNs known as multi-class queueing networks. M-COF is scalable, can incorporate practical performance metrics such as tail-latency or fairness, and is rooted in recently developed multi-scale heavy-traffic theory. I will also discuss the relationship between M-COF (simulation-free) and recent methods (with simulation) based on deep PDEs and deep reinforcement learning. This talk is based on joint work with Jin Guang (Chicago Booth) and Lucy Huo (HKUST).

    Bio: Jim Dai is the Leon C. Welch Professor of Engineering in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University. Prior to joining Cornell, he held the Chandler Family Chair Professorship in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was a faculty member from 1990 to 2012.

    Jim Dai received his BA and MA in mathematics from Nanjing University and his PhD in mathematics from Stanford University. He is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an elected Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). His awards include the Erlang Prize (1998), the ACM SIGMETRICS Achievement Award (2018), and the INFORMS von Neumann Theory Prize (2024). He served as Editor-in-Chief of Mathematics of Operations Research from 2012 to 2019.

    Jim Dai’s research interests include fluid and diffusion models of queueing networks, Stein’s method, stochastic processing networks and their applications to ride-hailing platforms, data centers, and hospital inpatient flow management.

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    TIME Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    LOCATION Suite 1400, Krebs Classroom, North Campus Parking Garage    map it

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    CONTACT Kendall Minta    kendall.minta@gmail.com EMAIL

    CALENDAR Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences (IEMS)

  • Jun
    14

    Spring 2026 Commencement

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Sunday, June 14, 2026

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

  • Jun
    15

    Northwestern Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony

    McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

    9:00 AM

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Monday, June 15, 2026 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

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    CONTACT Andi Joppie    andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Jun
    15

    Northwestern Engineering Undergraduate Convocation

    McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

    2:00 PM

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Monday, June 15, 2026 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

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    CONTACT Andi Joppie    andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Jun
    19

    Juneteenth - University Closed

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Friday, June 19, 2026

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

  • Jul
    3

    Independence Day (observed) - University Closed

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Friday, July 3, 2026

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

  • Sep
    23

    Fall 2026 Classes Begin

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Wednesday, September 23, 2026

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar