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Robert Aboolian

Robert Aboolian

Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management


Office: Markstein Hall 446

Robert Aboolian

Dr. Aboolian is a Professor of Operations Management and the Chair of Operations and Supply Chain Management Department. He was also the Faculty Director of Specialized Accelerated MBA (SAMBA) program during the first two years of the program. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Management from Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto. He teaches Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, Revenue Management, Business Forecasting, Business Statistics, Project Management and Decision Models at undergraduate and MBA levels.

His research interests include Location of Competitive Facilities, Service System Design, Reverse Logistics, Supply Chain Network Design, Nonlinear Integer Programming, Production and Inventory Planning, Web Services Planning, and Online Game System Design and his work has been published in leading journals such as INFORMS Journal on Computing, Transportation Science, IIE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research, Naval Research Logistics, Journal of Operational Research Society and Annals of Operations Research. He serves as a reviewer for many top quality journals and is in the editorial board of the International Journal of Applied Management Science and the International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management.

He is an active member of INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences). He has worked in the industry for many years as an industrial Engineer and has consulted many elite companies and organizations globally.

Education

  • Ph.D., Operations Management
    University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 2002

  • M.S., Industrial Engineering
    Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, 1993

  • B.S., Industrial Engineering
    Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, 1989

Research

Research Interests

Location of Competitive Facilities, Preventive Health Care System Design, Service System Design, Reverse Logistics, Supply Chain Network Design, Nonlinear Integer Programming, Production and Inventory Planning, Web Services Planning, Online Game System Design.

Papers in Refereed Journals

Aboolian, R., S. Elhedhli, and M. Karimi, “An Efficient Approach for Service System Design Problem with Immobile Servers, Stochastic Demand, Congestion, and Consumer Choice,” Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Management 20(1) (2022), 1-30. Winner of Alan Khade Best Paper Award
 

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and M. Karimi, “Probabilistic Set Covering Location Problem in Congested Networks," Transportation Science 56(2) (2022), 265-298.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Optimizing Facility Location and Design,” European Journal of Operational Research 289(1) (2021), 31-43.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and J. Wang, “Responsive Make-to-Order Supply Chain Network Design,” Naval Research Logistics 68(2) (2021), 241-258.

Aboolian R., E. Carrizosa, V. Guerrero, and J. Wang, “Locating Service Facilities with Concave Variable Costs,” Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Management, 17(1) (2019), 96-110. 

Aboolian R., O. Berman and V. Verter, "Maximal Accessibility Network Design in the Public Sector," Transportation Science 50(1) (2016), 336-347.

Aboolian R., T. Cui and M. Shen, "An Efficient Approach for Solving Reliable Facility Location Models," INFORMS Journal on Computing 25(4) (2013), 720-729.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Profit Maximizing Distributed Service System Design with Congestion and Elastic Demand," Transportation Science 46(2) (2012), 247-261.

Aboolian, R., J. Leu and Y. Sun "Deploying a Zone-Based Massively Multiplayer Online Game on a Congested Network", International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management 5(1) (2012), 38-57.

Aboolian, R., Y. Sun, and G., J., Koehler, "A Location-Allocation Problem for a Web Service Provider in a Competitive Market", European Journal of Operational Research 194(1) (2009), 64-77.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and Z. Drezner, "Multiple Server Center Location Problem", Annals of Operations Research 167 (2009), 337-352.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Efficient Solution Approaches for Discrete Multi-Facility Competitive Interaction Model", Annals of Operations Research 167 (2009), 297-306.

Aboolian, R., and S. Lou, "An Efficient Algorithm to Solve Base Station Location and Channel Assignment Problems in a Cellular Network," International Journal of Management and Network Economics 1 (2009), 176-185.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Optimizing Pricing and Location Decisions for Competitive Service Facilities Charging Uniform Price," Journal of Operational Research Society 59 (2008), 1506-1519.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and Z. Drezner, "Location-Allocation of Service Units on a Congested Network," IIE Transactions 40(4) (2008), 422-433.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Competitive Facility Location and Design Problem," European Journal of Operational Research 182(1) (2007), 40-62.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Competitive Facility Location Model with Concave Demand," European Journal of Operational Research 181(2) (2007), 598-619.

Papers in Conference Proceedings

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and J. Wang, “Responsive Make-to-Order Supply Chain Network Design,” Proceedings of Sixth International Conference on Information Systems, Logistics and Supply Chain (ILS2016), Bordeaux, France, June 2016.

Aboolian, R., J. Leu and Y. Sun "On The Study of Establishing a Responsive Infrastructure for a Massively Multiplayer On-Line Game," Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Francisco, August 2009.

Aboolian, R. and S. Lou, "Locating Base Stations in a Cellular Network with Stochastic Service Demand," Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS International Conference on Computing, Athens, Greece, July 2006.

Aboolian, R., Y. Sun, and G., J., Koehler "Web Service Provider Location, Sever Allocation Problem in a Competitive Environment," Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Systems Management, Marrakech, Morocco, May 2005.

Aboolian, R. and Y. Sun, "Optimum Positioning of Servers of Web Services in a Competitive Environment," Proceedings of the Third Workshop on e-Business of Web2004 Conference, Washington, D.C., December 2004.

Submitted Papers

Manuscripts Under Preparation

 Aboolian R., "A Location-Inventory Model for an Online Retailer."

Aboolian R. and M. Karimi, "An Efficient Approach for Service System Design with Continuous Service Rate and Concave Capacity Cost."

Aboolian R. and M. Karimi, "Benefit Maximizing Network Design in the Public Sector."

Aboolian R. and M. Karimi, "Reliable Facility Location Problem With Capacity Decisions."

Conference Papers Invited

Aboolian R. and M. Karimi, "Socially Optimal Public Service Design," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 2022.

Aboolian R. and M. Karimi, "Reliable Facility Location Problem With Capacity Decisions." INFORMS Annual Meeting, Virtual, November 2020.

Aboolian, R., Berman, O., & M. Karimi, “Probabilistic Set Covering Problem in a Congested Network. INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, October 2019.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Optimizing facility Location and Design,” 9th IFAC/IFIP/IFORS/IISE/INFORMS Conference Manufacturing Modelling, Management and Control MIM, Berlin, Germany, August 2019.

Aboolian, R. & O. Berman, “Benefit Maximizing Network Design in the Public Sector,” INFORMS Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, November 2018.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Generalized Facility Location and Design Problem,” INFORMS Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas, October 2017.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Optimizing Facility Location and Design,” International Symposium on Locational Decisions (ISOLDE), Toronto, Canada, July 2017.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and J. Wang, “Responsive Make-to-Order Supply Chain Network Design,” International Symposium on Locational Decisions (ISOLDE), Toronto, Canada, July 2017.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Joint Optimization of Location and Design of New Facilities,” INFORMS Annual Meeting, Nashville, November 2016.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and J. Wang, “Responsive Supply Chain Network Design,” INFORMS Annual Meeting, Nashville, November 2016.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Optimal Location and Design of competitive facilities under Elastic Demand,” INFORMS International Conference, Hawaii, June 2016.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and J. Wang, “Responsive Make-to-Order Supply Chain Network Design,” International Conference on Information Systems, Logistics and Supply Chain, Bordeaux, France, June 2016.

Aboolian, R., E. Carrizosa and V. Guerrero, “An efficient Approach for Solving Uncapacitated Facility Location Problem with Concave Operating Costs,” INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, November 2014.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Competitive Facility Location and Design Problems with Large Number of Potential Designs,” INFORMS Annual Meeting, Minnesota, October 2013.

Aboolian R., O. Berman and V. Verter, "An Efficient Exact Approach for Preventive Healthcare Facility Network Design," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Phoenix, October 2012.

Aboolian R., "Responsive Supply Chain Design Problem for a Network of Make to Order Facilities," INFORMS, Charlotte, November 2011.

Aboolian R., O. Berman and V. Verter, "An Efficient Exact Approach for Preventive Healthcare Facility Network Design," Workshop on Locational Analysis, Canary Islands, Spain, February 2011.

Aboolian R., T. Cui and M. Shen, "An Efficient Approach for Supply Network Design under the Risk of Disruption," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Austin, November 2010.

Aboolian R., O. Berman and V. Verter, "An Efficient Exact Approach for Preventive Healthcare Facility Network Design," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Austin, November 2010.

Aboolian R., T. Cui and M. Shen, "Efficient Algorithms for the Reliable Facility Location Problem," INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Diego, October 2009.

Aboolian R. and S. Elhedhli, "Efficient Solution Approaches for Service System Design Problem," INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Diego, October 2009.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Spatially-Distributed Make-to-Order System with Time-Sensitive Demand," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, October 2008.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Maximizing Participation Benefits in a Socially Optimal Service System Design," WDSI, San Diego, March 2008.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Profit Maximizing Service System Design with Elastic Demand," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, November 2007.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Identifying Optimal Designs in Competitive Facility Location Models," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, November 2007.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and Z. Drezner, "Location-Allocation of Service Units on a Congested Network," EURO Winter Institute on Location and Logistics, Estoril, Portugal, February 2007.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and Z. Drezner, "Location-Allocation of Service Units on a Congested Network," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, November 2006.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Optimizing Pricing and Location Decisions for Competitive Service Facilities Charging Uniform Price," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, November 2006.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Concurrent Pricing and Location Optimization for Competitive Service Facilities," CORS/Optimization Days, Montréal, Canada, May 2006.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Competitive Facility Location and Design Problems with Large Number of Potential Designs," INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, November 2005.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and Z. Drezner, "Multiple Server Location Problem with Fixed Cost," INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, November 2005.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Competitive Facility Location and Design Problem on a Network," joint CORS/INFORMS conference, Banff, Canada, May 2004.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Competitive Facility Location and Design Problem," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Atlanta, October 2003.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Efficient Solution Approaches for Flow Intercepting Spatial Interaction Location Models," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Atlanta, October 2003.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Competitive Facility Location and Design Problem," joint EURO/INFORMS conference, Istanbul, Turkey, July 2003.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Optimizing Attraction Level of Facilities in Generalized Spatial Interaction Model," INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Antonio, November 2000.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Generalized Spatial Interaction Model with Exponential Expenditure Function," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, May 2000.

Conference Papers Contributed

Aboolian, R. and M. Karimi, “Benefit Maximizing Network Design in Public Sector,” European Working Group on Locational Analysis (EWGLA) Meeting, Aveiro, Portugal, September 2022.

Aboolian, R., Berman, O., & M. Karimi, “Probabilistic Set Covering Problem in a Congested Network,” European Working Group on Locational Analysis (EWGLA) Meeting, Brussels, Belgium, June 2019.

Aboolian, R. and O. Berman, “Benefit Maximizing Public Facilities Network Design,” EURO 2018 conference, Valencia, Spain, July 2018.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and J. Wang, “Responsive Supply Chain Network Design,” European Working Group on Locational Analysis (EWGLA), Edinburgh, United Kingdom, May 2018.

Aboolian, R., E. Carrizosa and V. Guerrero, “An efficient Approach for Solving Uncapacitated Facility Location Problem with Concave Operating Costs,” MAGO'14, XII Global Optimization Workshop, Malaga, Spain, September 2014.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, “Competitive Facility Location and Design Problems with Large Number of Potential Designs,” ISOLDE XIII, Naples/Capri, Italy, June 2014.

Aboolian R., O. Berman and V. Verter, "An Efficient Exact Approach for Preventive Healthcare Facility Network Design," ECCO XXIII, Malaga, Spain, May 2010.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Spatially-Distributed Make-to-Order System with Time-Sensitive Demand," ISLODE XI, Santa Barbara, California, June 2008.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and Z. Drezner, "Location-Allocation of Service Units on a Congested Network," Second Madrid Conference on Queuing Theory, Madrid, Spain, July 2006.

Aboolian, R., S. Lou, "Optimum Positioning of Base Stations in a Mobile Wireless Network," CORS/INFORMS conference, Banff, Canada, May 2004.

Aboolian, R. and Y. Sun, "Optimum Positioning of Servers of Web Services in a Competitive Environment," Third Workshop on e-Business, Web2004 Conference, Washington, D.C., December 2004.

Aboolian, R., S. Lou, "Optimal Location of Base Stations in Cellular Network," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Denver, October 2004.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Competitive Facility Location and Design Problem on a Network," 20th European Conference on Operational Research, Rhodes, Greece, May 2004.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Efficient Solution Approaches for Flow Intercepting Spatial Interaction Location Models," Southern California annual OR/MS conference, UCI, Irvine, May 2003.

Aboolian, R., O. Berman and D. Krass, "Solution Approaches for a Special Class of Concave Integer Programs," INFORMS Annual Meeting, Miami, November 2001.

Courses

Undergraduate Courses

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  • OM 302 and OM 305 - Operations Management

     Intensive study of the elements associated with the design and operation of companies in manufacturing and service industries and the integration of these elements within the entire corporate strategy. Includes operations in global markets, designing and controlling the transformation process, and planning for operations. Focuses on the quantitative model building approach to problem-solving with extensive use of computer software.

  • OM 428 - Supply Chain Management

    A systems approach to manage the entire flow of information and materials to enable an organization to provide products/services better than the competition. Focus on the following three areas and their interrelationships: (1) strategic role of the supply chain and its key performance drivers, (2) role of E-Commerce technologies on managing and improving a supply chain, and (3) analytical models for supply-chain analysis.

  • OM 440 - Pricing and Revenue Management

    Pricing and revenue management is concerned with dynamic pricing and product availability decisions across various selling channels of a firm. The objective is to come with optimal decisions that will maximize firm¿s profit. Within the broader area of pricing theory, the course emphasizes on optimization of pricing and capacity allocation decisions, using quantitative models of consumer behavior, demand forecasts and market uncertainty, and the tools of constrained optimization.

  • OM 406 - Decision Models

    This course introduces the basic principles and techniques of applied mathematical modeling which helps you to formulate, solve, and interpret mathematical models to support managerial decision-making. This course gives students a well- rounded knowledge of various flavors of decision models such as linear and integer programming, queuing, multi-period planning under uncertainty, Monte Carlo simulation and decision trees. As much as possible, the methodologies are demonstrated with realistic applications. The emphasis is on model formulation and interpretation of results, not on mathematical theory. The emphasis is also on models that are widely used in diverse industries and functional areas, including finance, marketing, and operations.

  • OM 435 - Project Management

    This course deals with seeking new methods of planning, organizing, and controlling non-routine tasks. The management of a project differs in several ways from management of a typical enterprise. The goal of a project team is to accomplish its prescribed mission and then disband; though this is easier said than done. Project Management has been around for some time, though it has recently become more important because of the shifting emphasis on teams in accomplishing tasks. This course covers some of the issues related to managing projects in organizations and students are expected to draw on materials from other business courses.

  • BUS 493 - Problem Analysis and Implementation (Senior Experience)

    Implementation of the project portion of the senior experience. Team members complete their project, and submit a final project report and present their results.

MBA Courses

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  • BA 645 - Operations Management

     The term Operations refers to the processes by which organizations convert inputs (e.g., labor, material, knowledge, equipment) into outputs (goods and/or services) for both internal and external markets. In this broad-spectrum course we study how to manage these processes. We study how different business strategies require different operational capabilities and how different operational capabilities support different strategies. We also study tactical and operational decision making. We view operations through the framework of business processes and discuss process improvement through the management of capacity, throughput, inventory, lead time and quality. We consider business processes at various levels, from an individual process to an entire supply chain.

  • BA 667 - Supply Chain Management

    Supply chain management is about management of entire flow of materials and information in multi-stage production-distribution networks. Focus will be on four areas: (1) strategic role of the supply chain and its drivers and obstacles (2) analytical decision support tools (both models and applications) that successfully allow companies to develop, implement and sustain supplier management and collaborative strategies (3) role of information technology and E-commerce on supply chain (4) coordination of supply chain players and strategic partnership.

  • BA 690J - Dynamic Pricing and Revenue Management

    This specialized course is meant to provide students with the customized package of multi-disciplinary tools and conceptual frameworks drawn from Operations Management, Microeconomics, Decision Modeling, Statistics, Marketing, and Information Systems to deliver optimal price recommendations. The first part of the course addresses pricing issues (pricing under various constraints, non-linear pricing, markdown pricing), from a combined economics and marketing perspective and the second part of the course provides tools and methods for combined pricing and capacity management decisions from an operational perspective.

Vitae

View my Curriculum Vitae.

Service

Professional Service

Sponsored Sessions Chair: INFORMS Annual Meeting 2009, San Diego.

Journal Referee

  • Operations Research
  • Transportation Science
  • Production and Operations Management
  • Naval Research Logistics
  • European Journal of Operations Research
  • International Journal of Production Economics
  • Annals of Operations Research
  • Omega
  • Computers and Operations Research
  • Journal of Mathematical Modeling and Algorithms
  • INFOR: Information Systems and Operations Research
  • International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making

Journal Editorial Board

  • International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management 
  • International Journal of Applied Management Science 

 

University - Level Committees

2012 – 2013          Professional Leave Committee (Member)

2011 – 2012          CoBA Dean Search Committee (Member)

2011 – 2012          Academic Policy Committee (Chair)

2011 – 2012          Academic Senate’s Executive Committee (Member)

2011 – 2012          Academic Senate (Member)

2010 – 2011          Academic Policy Committee (Chair)

2010 – 2011          Academic Senate’s Executive Committee (Member)

2010 – 2011          Academic Senate (Member)

2007 – 2009          University Curriculum Committee (CoBA rep)

2006 – 2007          University Curriculum Committee (At Large)

2005 – 2006          Academic Senate (CoBA rep)

 

College - Level Committees

2020 – present       R&D Committee (Member)

2018 – present       Assessment of Learning Committee (Member)

2022 – 2023           RTP Revision Task Force (Chair)

Fall 2022                CoBA Leadership and Operations Group (Member)

2012 – 2021           CoBA Leadership and Operations Group (Member)

2014 – 2020           Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (Chair)

2014 – 2016           Specialized MBA program (Faculty Director)

2012 – 2014           MBA Committee (Member)

2011 – 2012           MBA Committee (Chair)

2011 – 2012           CoBA Leadership Group (Member)

2010 – 2011           MBA Committee (Chair)

2010 – 2011           CoBA Leadership Group (Member)

2010 – 2011          Health Information Technology Program Advisory Board (Co-Chair)

2009 – Present       Health Information Technology Program Advisory Board (member)

2009 – 2010          MBA Committee (Department rep)

2008 – 2009          MBA Committee (Chair)

2008 – 2009          CoBA Leadership Group (Member)

2007 – 2009          R&D Committee (Department rep)

2002 – 2005          Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (Department rep)

2003 – 2006          Senior Experience Advisory Board (Member)

 

Department - Level Committees

Fall 2022               Interim Department Chair of Operations and Supply Chain Management

2013 – 2021          Department Chair of Operations and Supply Chain Management

2012 – present       Global Supply Chain Management Program Advisory Board (Co-Chair)

2021 – 2022          OM Recruitment Committee (Member)

2019 – 2020          OM Recruitment Committee (Member)

2018 – present       PRC (Member)

2016 – 2017          OM Recruitment Committee (Member)

2014 – 2015          OM Recruitment Committee (Chair)

2012 – 2018          Faculty Advisor of Global Supply Chain Management Club

2009 – 2012          Global Supply Chain Management Program Advisory Board (Member)

2005 – 2006          OM Recruitment Committee (Member)

2004 – Present      Course Coordinator of Operations Management

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