Shixiang (Woody) Zhu
祝士祥
Assistant Professor
Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
Carnegie Mellon University
Address: 4800 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15213
Office: Hamburg Hall 2118H
Email: shixiangzhu (at) cmu (dot) edu
Phone: (412) 268-9083
CV, Google Scholar, Github
Research Interest
My research lies at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and operations research. My work aims to bridge the gap between data, uncertainty, and actionable decisions in complex real-world systems.
Methodology: I develop models and algorithms that integrate predictive learning, uncertainty quantification, robust optimization, and human–AI collaboration to enable reliable decisions in high-stakes environments.
Application: I focus on large-scale societal systems where uncertainty and risk play a central role, particularly energy infrastructure and power grid resilience under increasing climate extremes.
News
2026
We are guest-editing a special issue of the IJDS, inviting papers that explore the intersection of AI and energy.
Mar 16: receive Scott Institute Seed Grant for research on wildfire resilience planning for power systems.
Feb 2: our project (paper) is selected as the finalist of 2026 INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award. The work was conducted in collaboration with AES, and the main results have been incorporated into AES Indiana’s Integrated Resource Plan. The work has also been featured by Heinz and CMU.
Jan 23: our paper won the 1st place of 2026 Clifford Spiegelman Student Paper Competition. This is a joint work with Wenqian Xing and Yao Xie.
2025
Nov 20: give a talk at National Laboratory of the Rockies Computational Science Faculty Seminar.
Oct 26-29: our paper is selected as the Runner-up of 2025 INFORMS HAS Student Paper Competition. This is a joint work with Satyam Verma, Holly Wiberg, and Sridhar Tayur.
Oct 26-29: our paper is selected as the Runner-up of the 2025 INFORMS Data Mining Best Applied Paper.
Oct 25: co-organize the INFORMS 2025 Data Challenge Competition.
Oct 23: give a talk at University of Pittsburgh IE Seminar.
Sep 25: give a talk at Workshop on Human-AI Complementarity for Decision Making.
Sep 24: give a talk at University of Minnesota ISyE Seminar.
Sep 3: Ryan (paper) won the 2025 INFORMS ENRE Best Student Paper Award.
Aug 30: Wenbin (poster) won the first place in the Best Poster Competition for the 2025 YinzOR.
Jun 2: our team, led by Zekai, won the 3rd place (out of 44) in the 2025 PG&E Energy Analytics Challenge.
May 29: give a talk at TRB DATA Conference.
May 28: give a SPX Research Talk at Amazon.
May 23: our paper won the best paper award at 2025 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting.
May 8: give a talk at GenAI Fellows Seminar.
Mar 24: Wendy and Michelle received Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF).
2024
Dec 17: receive Block Center Seed Grant for research on human–AI collaboration in decision-making.
Nov 21: attend NSF Workshop on Data-driven Modeling and Prediction of Rare and Extreme Events.
Oct 19: co-organize the 19th INFORMS Workshop on Data Mining and Decision Analytics.
Oct 10: selected as 2024 Gen-AI fellows.
Oct 9: give a talk at Northwestern Kellogg Operations Seminar.
Aug 29: received NSF funding with Zhigang Peng for our project.
Aug 23: give a talk at 2024 YinzOR.
Aug 21: give a seminar talk on “Predictive Modeling and Robust Decision Making for Grid Resilience” at ANL.
Jun 16-29: participate in the IMSI Long Program “The Architecture of Green Energy”.
May 8: attend NSF OSEER Workshop: Operations Engineering for Hazard and Disaster Mitigation.
Mar 26: Aoran received Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF).
Mar 22: give a talk at 2024 INFORMS Optimization Society Conference.
2023
Dec 15: give a spotlight talk (paper) at 2023 NeurIPS DGM4H workshop.
Nov 3: give a talk (paper) at the OM Seminar in Tepper.
Oct 27: our paper is the spotlight (five out of 44 accepted papers) at DGM4H Workshop NeurIPS 2023.
Sep 26: our paper is selected as the finalist of 2023 QSR Best Student Paper Competition.
Sep 25: give a talk (paper) at the SQUALL seminar at CMU.
Sep 14: our paper is selected as the Best Applied Paper Finalist for the 18th INFORMS DMDA Workshop.
Aug 25-26: Wenbin (poster) won the first place in the Best Poster Competition for the 2023 YinzOR.