Illya V. Hicks

Industrial Engineering

(979) 458-4182

Zachry Engineering Center

(979) 847-9005 (fax)

Texas A&M University

ivhicks@tamu.edu

College Station TX 77843-3131

http://ie.tamu.edu/People/faculty/Hicks/default.htm

PERSONAL DATA

  • Born in Waco, TX.
  • Married: wife Casmin, one child

EDUCATION

Degree

Field

Institution

Date

Ph.D

Computational and Applied Mathematics

Rice University

2000

M.A.

Computational and Applied Mathematics

Rice University

2000

B.S.

Mathematics

Southwest Texas State University

1995

 

RESEARCH AREA

Combinatorial optimization, graph theory, integer programming

EXPERIENCE

  • Texas A&M University, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering (Present)
  • University of Houston-Main Campus, Instructor (Fall 1999 - Spring 2000)
    Instructed undergraduate students in college algebra (Fall 1999) and pre-calculus (Spring 2000).
  • Rice University, AGEP Program (Summers 1999, 1998, 1995)
    Conducted ongoing research relevant to thesis while mentoring undergraduates and high school students.
  • Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies), Summer Intern (Summer 1997)
    Implemented traveling salesman problem solver using the Held-Karp algorithm.
  • AT&T Labs, Summer Intern (Summer 1996)
    Worked on a min-cost network flow solver.

JOURNAL PAPERS

  • "Branchwidth Heuristics", Congressus Numerantium 159, 2002, 31-50
  • “Optimization Procedures for simultaneous Road Rehabilitation and Bridge Replacement Decisions in Highway Networks” with M.A. Bonyuet and A. Garcia-Diaz, Engineering Optimization, 2002, vol 34(5), 445-459
  • "Branch Decompositions and Minor Containment", Networks 43(1), 2004, 1-9
  • "Service Restoration in Shipboard Electric Power Systems" with K.L. Butler-Purry and N.D.R. Sarma, IEE Proceedings Generation, Transmission and Distribution (an international EE journal) 151(1), 2004, 95-102
  • “Planar Branch Decompositions I:  The Ratcatcher", INFORMS Journal on Computing 17(4), 2005, 402-412
  • “Planar Branch Decompositions II:  The Cycle Method”, INFORMS Journal on Computing 17(4), 2005, 413-421
  • “Graphs, Branchwidth, and Tangles!  Oh My!”, Networks 45(2), 2005, 55-60
  • “A Branch-and-Price Approach for the Maximum Weight Independent Set Problem”, with D. Warrier, W. Wilhelm, and J. Warren,  Networks 46 (14), 2005, 198-209
  • “Restricted b-factors in Bipartite Graphs and t-designs”, with I. Arambula, Journal of Combinatorial Designs, to appear
  • “On Greedy Construction Heuristics for MAX CUT problem”, with S. Kahruman, E. Kolotoğlu, and S. Butenko, International Journal on Computational Science and Engineering, to appear

PAPERS SUBMITTED

  • “New Facets for the Planar Subgraph Polytope”
  • “The Branchwidth of Graphs and their Cycle Matroids”,  with N. McMurray
  • “Combinatorial Branch-and-Bound for the Maximum Weight Independent Set Problem”, with J. Warren, under revision

RESEARCH PROJECTS

  • “A New Decomposition Approach for a Class of NP-hard Graph Problems”, with W. Willhelm, NSF (DMI-0217265), $175K, 9-1-02 to 8-31-04, REU grant (12K)
  • “SGER:  Branch Decomposition Techniques for Independence Systems”, NSF (DMI-0521209),  $80K, 8-1-05 to 7-31-06

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

·         “3-Separations and the Stable Set Polytope”, INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2005

·         “Tutorials:  Branch and Tree Decomposition Techniques for Discrete Optimization”, INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2005 (with A. M. C. A. Koster)

·         “Optimal Branch Decompositions and Tangle Bases”,  INFORMS Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 2004

·         “Partitioning Methods for the Maximum Weight Independent Set Problem”, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 2004 (with S. Sachdeva, J. Warren*, D. Warrier, W. Wilhelm)

·         “Tight Inequalities for t-designs”, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 2004 (with I. Arambula*)

  •  “A New Decomposition Approach for a Class of NP-hard Graph Problems”, NSF Grantees Conference, Dallas TX, January 2004
  • “Graphs, Planarity, and Facets! Oh My!”, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Atlanta GA, October 2003
  • “Maximum Planar Subgraph Problems and Branch Decompositions”, INFORMS Annual Meeting, San Jose CA, November 2002
  • "Branchwidth Heuristics", Thirty-third Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory and Computing, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, March 2002
  • "Graphs, Branchwidth and Tangles! Oh My!!", Conference for African-American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS), Duke University, Durham, NC, June 2001 (invited)
  • "Maximum Weight Planar Subgraph via Branch Decomposition", INFORMS International Meeting, Maui, HI, June 2001 (session chair)
  • "Graph Minors and Branch Decompositions", NAM Granville-Brown Session, Joint Mathematics Meeting, New Orleans, LA, January 2001 

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • President of Minority Issues Forum of INFORMS, Fall 2003-present, Vice President/President Elect (2000-2003)
  • Member of Junior Member Focus Committee, SIAM
  • Member of Diversity Committee, SIAM
  • participant, NCI/NSF Workshop on Operations Research and Radiation Therapy, Washington D.C., February 2002 (invited)
  • referee, European Journal of Operational Research
  • referee, INFORMS Journal on Computing
  • referee, SIAM Journal of Discrete Mathematics
  • referee, Networks
  • referee, ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms 2005
  • NSF panelist, 2001, 2003
  • co-organizer, Professional Development Evening, SIAM Annual Meeting, 2002, 2004

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

  • Mentor:  Sloan Foundation Minority Ph.D. Program, NSF-funded CSEMS/CONNECTS Program, Texas A&M University’s EXCEL Program
  • Graduate Committee, member (Fall 2000-Spring 2003) 
  • African-American Professional Organization, member (Fall 2000-present), faculty member-at-large (2001-2003)
  • NSBE, faculty co-advisor

GRADUATE ADVISOR

  • William J. Cook

THESIS ADVISOR (3 doctoral students)

  • Ivette  Arámbula,,  PROS Revenue Management  (graduated May 2004)
  • Elif Kolotoglu, Texas A&M University (current)
  • Jeffery Warren,  Texas A&M University (expected May 2006)

HONORS

  • 2005 Optimization Prize for Young Researchers, Optimization Society, INFORMS
  • AT&T Labs Graduate Fellowship
  • Golden Key National Honor Society
  • Who's Who Among American Colleges and Universities

OUTREACH

  • Invited speaker: "You are needed at the next level!", Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Retreat, Southwest Texas State University (July 2000)