Advanced Analytics

Prof. Xie
Winter Semester 2021/2022

Language: English

Occurrence: Winter semester

Scheduling: Kick-off September 16, 2021, 9:00 pm – 10:30 am via Zoom. The course will be taught as a
series of seminars every Thursday morning. Dates could be coordinated with participants. If possible, the
course will be held in person; otherwise, via Zoom.

Registration: Until September 16th, 2021, via Moodle.

Description of Achievement and Assessment Methods: Participants will be assessed based on their
seminar presentation (70%) and oral contributions to the course (30%). Each participant will present a topic
and lead the discussion. Everyone else should read the relevant literature before class and participate
actively in the discussion. Students who show up unprepared and/or unable to contribute actively may be
considered absent. The presentation of 90 min to 120 min shall introduce and explain the respective
method as well as applications. Presenters will suggest an article in which this method is applied. The
course is pass/fail, not graded. In order to pass the course, participants must take part in all classes. In
case of excused absence due to illness they need to hand in a written assignment about the content of the
class they have missed.

Prerequisites: The seminar requires solid knowledge in advanced mathematics, especially the knowledge of
probabilities, machine learning, and optimization, etc. Mathematical maturity and the ability to write down
precise and rigorous arguments and proofs are also important. Computer programming skills are required as
well.

Content:
Analytics (business analytics, or data analytics) is a process of using data and modelling to support decision-
making, including predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics. There are many innovative methods in
analytics. In this course, the students will study some advanced models by reading recent articles in learding
journals.

Intended learning outcomes: Participants shall be able to understand the mathematical derivation of
these methods; to obtain insights through data-based analysis models; and to apply them to their research.

Teaching and learning methods: Learning methods are a mix of seminar presentations by the participants
and group discussions. There will be an intense 180-minute session presentation and discussion each
week. During this time, we are going to discuss a specific topic in analytics in the greatest depth.

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Reading list:

1: Data-driven Optimization
 Elmachtoub, A. N., & Grigas, P. (2021). Smart “predict, then optimize”. Management Science.
 Bertsimas, D., & Kallus, N. (2020). From predictive to prescriptive analytics. Management
Science, 66(3), 1025-1044.
 Qi, M., Cao, Y., & Shen, Z. J. (2021). Distributionally robust conditional quantile prediction with fixed
design. Management Science.
 Kallus, N., & Zhou, A. (2020). Minimax-Optimal Policy Learning Under Unobserved
Confounding. Management Science. (Policy Learning)
 He, S., Sim, M., & Zhang, M. (2019). Data-driven patient scheduling in emergency departments: A
hybrid robust-stochastic approach. Management Science, 65(9), 4123-4140.
 Mandelbaum, A., Momčilović, P., Trichakis, N., Kadish, S., Leib, R., & Bunnell, C. A. (2020). Data-
driven appointment-scheduling under uncertainty: The case of an infusion unit in a cancer
center. Management Science, 66(1), 243-270.
 Bertsimas, D., & Koduri, N. (2021). Data-driven optimization: A reproducing kernel hilbert space
approach. Operations Research.
 Zhang, Y., Zhang, Z., Lim, A., & Sim, M. (2021). Robust data-driven vehicle routing with time
windows. Operations Research, 69(2), 469-485.
(Data-driven robust optimization based on Wasserstein distance)

2: Other Optimization
 Huang, T., Bergman, D., & Gopal, R. (2019). Predictive and prescriptive analytics for location
selection of add‐on retail products. Production and Operations Management, 28(7), 1858-1877.
 Wang, S., Liu, N., & Wan, G. (2020). Managing appointment-based services in the presence of walk-
in customers. Management Science, 66(2), 667-686. (Appointment Scheduling)
 Gupta, V., Han, B. R., Kim, S. H., & Paek, H. (2020). Maximizing intervention
effectiveness. Management Science, 66(12), 5576-5598.
(Keyword: Analytics; Robust Optimization based on data)
 Cohen, M. C., Kalas, J. J., & Perakis, G. (2021). Promotion optimization for multiple items in
supermarkets. Management Science, 67(4), 2340-2364.
 Angalakudati, M., Balwani, S., Calzada, J., Chatterjee, B., Perakis, G., Raad, N., & Uichanco, J.
(2014). Business analytics for flexible resource allocation under random emergencies. Management
Science, 60(6), 1552-1573.

3: Non-parametric Analytics
 Chen, N., & Gallego, G. (2021). Nonparametric pricing analytics with customer
covariates. Operations Research.

4: Dynamic Programming & Reinforcement Learning

 Kamalzadeh, H., Ahuja, V., Hahsler, M., & Bowen, M. E. An Analytics‐Driven Approach for Optimal
Individualized Diabetes Screening. Production and Operations Management.
 Ciocan, D. F., & Mišić, V. V. (2020). Interpretable optimal stopping. Management Science.
 Balseiro, S. R., & Gur, Y. (2019). Learning in repeated auctions with budgets: Regret minimization
and equilibrium. Management Science, 65(9), 3952-3968.

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 (Online Learning & Stochastic Optimization)
 Negoescu, D. M., Bimpikis, K., Brandeau, M. L., & Iancu, D. A. (2018). Dynamic learning of patient
response types: An application to treating chronic diseases. Management science, 64(8), 3469-
3488.
 Mansour, Y., Slivkins, A., & Syrgkanis, V. (2015, June). Bayesian incentive-compatible bandit
exploration. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (pp.
565-582).
 Bastani, H., & Bayati, M. (2020). Online decision making with high-dimensional
covariates. Operations Research, 68(1), 276-294.
(Bandit model based on LASSO estimator; Dimension reduction)
 Russo, D. (2016, June). Simple bayesian algorithms for best arm identification. In Conference on
Learning Theory (pp. 1417-1418). PMLR.

5: Machine Learning
 Ban, G. Y., & Rudin, C. (2019). The big data newsvendor: Practical insights from machine
learning. Operations Research, 67(1), 90-108.
 Bertsimas, D., Pauphilet, J., Stevens, J., & Tandon, M. (2021). Predicting inpatient flow at a major
hospital using interpretable analytics. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.
 Huang, D., Jiang, F., Li, K., Tong, G., & Zhou, G. (2021). Scaled PCA: A new approach to dimension
reduction. Management Science.
(PCA; Reduce dimensions)
 Gabel, S., & Timoshenko, A. (2021). Product Choice with Large Assortments: A Scalable Deep-
Learning Model. Management Science.
(Deep neural network)
 Chen, X., Owen, Z., Pixton, C., & Simchi-Levi, D. (2021). A statistical learning approach to
personalization in revenue management. Management Science.
(logit model-based framework for joint pricing and assortation decisions)
 Grushka-Cockayne, Y., Jose, V. R. R., & Lichtendahl Jr, K. C. (2017). Ensembles of overfit and
overconfident forecasts. Management Science, 63(4), 1110-1130.
(the combined effect of overfitting and overconfidence on the average forecast)
 Mišić, V. V. (2020). Optimization of tree ensembles. Operations Research, 68(5), 1605-1624.
 Lehrer, S. F., & Xie, T. (2021). The Bigger Picture: Combining Econometrics with Analytics Improves
Forecasts of Movie Success. Management Science.

6: Empirical Research
 Wu, L., Hitt, L., & Lou, B. (2020). Data analytics, innovation, and firm productivity. Management
Science, 66(5), 2017-2039.
 Tan, T. F., & Netessine, S. (2014). When does the devil make work? An empirical study of the
impact of workload on worker productivity. Management Science, 60(6), 1574-1593.
 Miklós-Thal, J., & Tucker, C. (2019). Collusion by algorithm: Does better demand prediction facilitate
coordination between sellers?. Management Science, 65(4), 1552-1561.
 Wu, L., Lou, B., & Hitt, L. (2019). Data analytics supports decentralized innovation. Management
Science, 65(10), 4863-4877.

7: Miscellaneous
 Gao, L., Shi, J., Gorman, M. F., & Luo, T. (2020). Business analytics for intermodal capacity
management. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 22(2), 310-329.
 Notz, P. M., & Pibernik, R. (2021). Prescriptive analytics for flexible capacity
management. Management Science.

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 (Distributional-free prescriptive analytics for two stage capacity planning problem)
 Mishra, V. K., Natarajan, K., Padmanabhan, D., Teo, C. P., & Li, X. (2014). On theoretical and
empirical aspects of marginal distribution choice models. Management Science, 60(6), 1511-1531.
(semiparametric discrete choice models; Special issue on Business Analytics)
 Chen, B., & Chao, X. (2020). Dynamic inventory control with stockout substitution and demand
learning. Management Science, 66(11), 5108-5127.
(Accepted by Big Data Analytics)
 van de Klundert, J. (2016). Healthcare analytics: Big data, little evidence. In Optimization challenges
in complex, networked and risky systems (pp. 307-328). INFORMS.
 Bardhan, I., Oh, J. H., Zheng, Z., & Kirksey, K. (2015). Predictive analytics for readmission of
patients with congestive heart failure. Information Systems Research, 26(1), 19-39.
 Ryzhov, I. O., Han, B., & Bradić, J. (2016). Cultivating disaster donors using data
analytics. Management Science, 62(3), 849-866.
 Merdan, S., Barnett, C. L., Denton, B. T., Montie, J. E., & Miller, D. C. (2021). OR Practice–Data
Analytics for Optimal Detection of Metastatic Prostate Cancer. Operations Research.
 Mišić, V.V. and Perakis, G., 2020. Data analytics in operations management: A
review. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 22(1), pp.158-169.
 Hekimoğlu, M. H., Kazaz, B., & Webster, S. (2017). Wine analytics: Fine wine pricing and selection
under weather and market uncertainty. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 19(2),
202-215.
 Jin, C., Levi, R., Liang, Q., Renegar, N., Springs, S., Zhou, J., & Zhou, W. (2021). Testing at the
Source: Analytics-Enabled Risk-Based Sampling of Food Supply Chains in China. Management
Science, 67(5), 2985-2996.
 Bertsimas, D., Brynjolfsson, E., Reichman, S., & Silberholz, J. (2015). Or forum—tenure analytics:
Models for predicting research impact. Operations research, 63(6), 1246-1261.

Responsible for module: Prof. Dr. Jingui Xie ([email protected]).