Allison An Chang

Technical Staff
Lincoln Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Education

Ph.D., Operations Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 2012
Advisors: Dimitris Bertsimas and Cynthia Rudin
Thesis: Integer Optimization Methods for Machine Learning
Sc.B., Applied Mathematics, Brown University, May 2007

Short Biography

Hello and welcome to my homepage! I received my Ph.D. from the Operations Research Center at MIT in June 2012 and am currently a member of the research staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Prior to my graduate work, I studied Applied Mathematics at Brown University. I decided to pursue a career in Operations Research after taking a mathematical programming course while studying abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia during Fall 2005. My research interests include statistical learning and optimization.

Summer Internships

Analytics Operations Engineering, 2009
UCLA Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, "Computer Experiments for Function Approximations", 2007
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, "Data Mining for Extra-Solar Planets", 2006
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, "Stabilization of Final Focus Magnets for the Next Linear Collider", 2004

Teaching Assistantships

MIT Spring 2012	15.097 Prediction: Machine Learning and Statistics	Cynthia Rudin
MIT Fall 2010	15.075 Statistical Thinking and Data Analysis	Cynthia Rudin
MIT Fall 2009	15.075 Statistical Thinking and Data Analysis	Cynthia Rudin
MIT Fall 2008	15.093 Optimization Methods	Pablo Parrilo
Brown Spring 2006	CS4 Introduction to Scientific Computing and Problem Solving	Alan Usas
Brown Spring 2005	CS4 Introduction to Scientific Computing and Problem Solving	Alan Usas

Personal
In my spare time, I like playing piano and clarinet, reading, and watching movies. I also enjoy ping-pong, skiing, ice skating, and ballroom dancing.
Click here for pictures of my family.

Publications

D. Bertsimas, A. Chang, and C. Rudin Ordered Rules for Classification. Submitted, under review. 2012.
A. Chang, C. Rudin, M. Cavaretta, R. Thomas, G. Chou. How to Reverse-Engineer Quality Rankings. Machine Learning, Vol. 88(3), pg. 369-398, September 2012.
D. Bertsimas, A. Chang, C. Rudin. Integer Optimization Methods for Supervised Ranking. Submitted, under review. 2011.
D. Bertsimas, A. Chang, C. Rudin. A Discrete Optimization Approach to Supervised Ranking. In Proceedings of the 5th INFORMS Workshop on Data Mining and Health Informatics, November 2010.
K.D. Borne, A. Chang. Data Mining for Extra-Solar Planets. In Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVI, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 376, 2007.
A. Chang, I. Izmailov, S. Rizzo, S. Wynter, O. Alexandrov, C. Tong. Computer Experiments for Function Approximations. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report UCRL-TR-235618, 2007.

Presentations

D. Bertsimas, A. Chang, C. Rudin. Integer Optimization Methods for Ranking Problems in Machine Learning. SIAM Conference on Optimization, Darmstadt, Germany, May 2011.
D. Bertsimas, C. Barnhart, A. Chang. Optimization-Based Data Mining Methods for Cancer Treatments. INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, October 2009.
A. Belloni, R. Freund, K.C. Toh, A. Chang. Improved Initialization of the Homogeneous Self-Dual Embedding Model for Solving Conic Optimization. SIAM Conference on Optimization, Boston, MA, May 2008.

Awards and Honors

INFORMS Data Mining Section Student Paper Award Finalist (2011)
Rohn Truell Premium for High Distinction in Applied Mathematics
Anne Crosby Emery Fellowship
Phi Beta Kappa
Sigma Xi
Magna Cum Laude

last updated: January 21, 2013