Please join ISE on Tuesday, March 17 at 4:00 PM in CII3206 for a colloquium featuring Dr. Emily Tucker's research on A Non-Variational Quantum Approach to Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems: Iterative-QAOA!

Quantum computers introduce new opportunities for modeling and solving decision problems. In this talk, we will first discuss the unique positioning of Industrial Engineering in the quantum research landscape that motivates new directions at the intersection of application and theory. Then as an example, we will present a new algorithm, Iterative-QAOA, for combinational optimization problems. It is a variant of the heuristic Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) that is non-variational and includes iterative warm-starts. We study its performance with the Just-in-Time Job-Shop Scheduling problem (JIT-JSSP) in comparison with two benchmark algorithms (LR-QAOA and VarQITE). We solve instances up to 36 qubits on IonQ Forte hardware and simulate 50- and 97-qubit instances with an ideal Matrix Product State (MPS) simulator. We observe that the proposed approach finds better quality solutions than benchmark algorithms and that the ramping approach in general is robust to misspecified parameters.

Dr. Emily Tucker is the Dean’s Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. Her research focuses on developing new stochastic and quantum optimization approaches to improve access to social goods. Major application areas include pharmaceutical supply chains, health operations, and community resilience. Dr. Tucker has been recognized with the Public Engagement Award from the INFORMS Advocacy Governance Committee and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the IISE Logistics and Supply Chain Division. She received her PhD and MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a Research Health Economist as RTI International and received her BS in Industrial Engineering from NC State.

All are welcome to attend!