Research

My primary current interest is Revenue Management.
More generally, I am interested in Dynamic Optimization and the analysis of complex stochastic systems.
Some popular press coverage: [NYT]; [HBR]; [BB] &hellip

Publications

  1. N. Bhat, V. F. Farias, and C. C. Moallemi. “ Non-parametric Approximate Dynamic Programming via the Kernel Method. ” Submitted. [pdf]
    Preliminary version:
    • N. Bhat, V. F. Farias, and C. C. Moallemi. “ Non-parametric Approximate Dynamic Programming via the Kernel Method. ” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 25 ,2012.

  2. Y. C. Chen and V. F. Farias. “ What's On The Table: Revenue Management And The Welfare Gap In The US Airline Industry. ” Submitted. [pdf]

  3. V. F. Farias, S. Jagabathula, and D. Shah. “ Sparse Choice Models. ” Submitted. [pdf]

  4. D. F. Ciocan, V. F. Farias. “ Dynamic Allocation Problems with Volatile Demand ” Mathematics of Operations Research (forthcoming) [pdf]

  5. 4 D. Bertsimas, V. F. Farias, and N. Trichakis. “ Fairness, Efficiency and Flexibility in Organ Allocation for Kidney Transplantation. ” Operations Research (forthcoming). [pdf]

  6. V. V. Desai, V. F. Farias, and C. C. Moallemi. “ Pathwise Optimization for Optimal Stopping Problems. ” Management Science (forthcoming). [pdf]

  7. D. Bertsimas, V. F. Farias, and N. Trichakis. “ A Characterization of the Efficiency-Fairness Tradeoff. ” Management Science (forthcoming). [pdf]

  8. Y. Chen, V. F. Farias. “ Simple Policies for Dynamic Pricing with Imperfect Forecasts ” Operations Research (forthcoming). [pdf]

  9. C. W. Chan, V. F. Farias, N. Bambos, and G. J. Escobar. “ Maximizing Throughput of Hospital Intensive Care Units with Patient Readmissions.” Operations Research (forthcoming). [pdf]

  10. 3 V. F. Farias, S. Jagabathula, and D. Shah. “ A New Approach to Modeling Choice with Limited Data. ” Management Science (forthcoming). [pdf]
    Preliminary version:
    • V. F. Farias, S. Jagabathula, and D. Shah. “ A Data-Driven Approach to Modeling Choice. &rdquo Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22 , 2009.

  11. 5 V. V. Desai, V. F. Farias, and C. C. Moallemi. “ Aproximate Dynamic Programming via a Smoothed Approximate Linear Program. ” Operations Research (forthcoming). [pdf]
    Preliminary version:
    • V. V. Desai, V. F. Farias, and C. C. Moallemi. “ The Smoothed Approximate Linear Program. ” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22 ,2009.

  12. D. Bertsimas, V. F. Farias, and N. Trichakis. “ The Price of Fairness. ” Operations Research, Vol. 59, No. 1, January-February 2011, pp. 17-31. [pdf]

  13. 2 V. F. Farias, D. Saure, and G. Y. Weintraub. “ An Approximate Dynamic Programming Approach to Solving Dynamic Oligopoly Models ” RAND Journal of Economics (forthcoming) [pdf]

  14. V. F. Farias, R. Madan. “ Irrevocable Multi-Armed Bandit Policies. ” Operations Research, Vol. 59, No. 2, March-April 2011, pp. 383-399. [pdf]

  15. C. W. Chan, V. F. Farias. “ Stochastic Depletion Problems: Effective Myopic Policies for a class of Dynamic Optimization Problems.” Mathematics of Operations Research 34:2 (May 2009) [pdf]

  16. V. F. Farias, B. Van Roy. “An Approximate Dynamic Programming Approach to Network Revenue Management.” Submitted. [pdf]

  17. 1 V. F. Farias, B. Van Roy. “Dynamic Pricing with a Prior on Market Response.” Operations Research, Vol. 58, No. 1, January-February 2010, pp. 16-29. [pdf]

  18. V. F. Farias, C. C. Moallemi, B. Van Roy, and T. Weissman. “ Universal Reinforcement Learning.” IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 56, No. 5, May 2010, pp 2441-2454. [pdf]
    Preliminary version:
    • V. F. Farias, C. C. Moallemi, B. Van Roy, and T. Weissman. “ A Universal Scheme for Learning.” Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Adelaide, Australia, September 2005.

  19. V. F. Farias, C. C. Moallemi, and B. Prabhakar. “Load Balancing with Migration Penalties.” Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Adelaide, Australia, September 2005. [pdf]

  20. V. F. Farias, B. Van Roy. “Approximation Algorithms for Dynamic Resource Allocation.” Operations Research Letters, Vol. 34, No. 2, March 2006, pp. 180-190. [pdf]

  21. V. F. Farias, B. Van Roy. “Tetris: A Study of Randomized Constraint Sampling.” Probabilistic and Randomized Methods for Design Under Uncertainty, Springer-Verlag [pdf] [Tetris Demo]

Thesis

  1. V.F. Farias. “Revenue Management Beyond "Estimate, Then Optimize"” Stanford University Ph. D. Thesis, 2007.[pdf]
5 2011 INFORMS JFIG Paper Competition, first place.
4 2011 INFORMS Pierskalla Award, finalist.
3 2010 INFORMS MSOM Student Paper Competition, first place.
2 2009 INFORMS JFIG Paper Competition, second place.
1 2006 INFORMS MSOM Student Paper Competition, second place.