September 30, 2020

Name
Ashkan Mirzaee 

Hometown
Tehran, Iran

Major
PhD, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering   

Faculty Advisor
Ronald McGarvey

Where did you complete your undergraduate study?
Azad University, Arak, Iran

Why did you choose Mizzou for your graduate program?
I was very interested in the research area in the field of Operations Research in the IMSE department. Mizzou provided me a unique opportunity to pursue my study in United States. Being a PhD student is not always an easy job, but it was my dream and Mizzou let the dream come true.

Tell us about your graduate research. What are some potential outcomes or applications?
Currently, I am investigating questions related to impact of generating bioenergy on U.S. forestlands by using statistical learning tools. Moreover, I am developing an optimization model to identify the optimal amount of electricity generation from woody biomass, natural gas and coal at a candidate set of coal burning power plants. The MILP model minimizes the total cost of generating the required electricity projected to be demanded by 2030, with environmental and spatially-explicit woody biomass availability constraints.

What are some accomplishments you’ve achieved at Mizzou that you’re especially proud of?

I have attended several conferences such as 2019 and 2018 INFORMS Annual Conferences, 2017 IISE Annual Conference and two CELDi conferences in 2016.

I was part of the winner team in Innovative Design Competition in IISE Annual Conference at May 2017.

Also, I am a Cyberinfrastructure Engineer (CIE) at University of Missouri Research Computing Support Services (RCSS). As a CIE, I assists a wide variety of researchers in implementing their computational workflow and provide documentation and training in the use of a high-performance computing (HPC) and associated scientific software.

Since I joined RCSS, I had the opportunity to be XSEDE Student Champions that let me familiar with academic HPC community through this national NSF founded organization.