Halit Uster, Ph.D.

Halit Uster Headshot

Halit Uster, Ph.D

Professor of Operations Research & Engineering Management

Fellow in Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity

Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering (by Courtesy)

Office Location: 309 Caruth Hall

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Education

Ph.D. in Management Science/Systems, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
M.A. in B.Adm., Production/Operations Management, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Biography

Halit Üster is a Professor in the Department of Operations Research and Engineering Management (OREM) at SMU Lyle School. His research interests are in optimization models and efficient solution algorithms for design and analysis of networked systems with applications in logistics and communications. Societal impact is typically a central theme and emphasis in the applications of Uster’s research. Specifically, his recent research focuses on application areas including electric vehicle charging networks, emergency logistics networks for disaster preparedness, multi-commodity and relay networks in transportation to address driver turnover and shortage problems, biomass/bio-energy logistics networks for sustainable energy, closed-loop logistics and recycling networks, integrated production-distribution-inventory networks, and wireless sensor networks with environmental monitoring applications.

His publications appeared in Transportation Science, IIE Transactions, Naval Research Logistics, INFORMS Journal on Computing, and IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, among others. His research has been funded by National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, and industry. He serves as an Associate Editor for Transportation Science, IISE Transactions on Scheduling and Logistics, and Sustainability Analytics and Modelling. Üster is a member of INFORMS and IISE, and routinely serves the INFORMS and IISE communities in varying capacities.

Honors and Awards

Caterpillar Teaching Excellence Award, Dwight Look College of Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2011.
Eshbach Society Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, Northwestern University, 2009.
Faculty Appreciation Award, INFORMS Student Chapter, 2004 and 2009, Texas A&M University.
Research Featured in the IE Magazine, 2008, 2010, and 2017.
Moving Spirit Award, INFORMS, 2007.
Outstanding Faculty Member, voted by the IIE Chapter at the U of Alabama, 1999-2000.

Research

Transportation and logistics

Network design

Decomposition methods for optimization

Applied and computational optimization with applications in freight transportation, emergency response, bioenergy supply networks, closed loop supply chains, and telecommunications

Recent Publications

Uster, H. and Memisoglu, G., “Biomass Logistics Network Design under Price-based Supply and Yield Uncertainty,” Transportation Science, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 474–492, 2018.

Dalal, J. and Uster, H., “Combining Worst Case and Average Case Considerations in an Integrated Emergency Response Network Design Problem,” Transportation Science, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 171–188, 2018.

Mubarak, M., Uster, H., Abdelghany, K., and Khodayar, M. E., “Strategic Network Design and Analysis for In-Motion Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles,” Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 145, January, pp. 1-21, 2021.

Kewcharoenwong, P. and Uster, H., “Relay Network Design with Capacity and Link-Imbalance Considerations: A Lagrangean Decomposition Algorithm and Analysis,” Transportation Science, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 1177-1195 , 2017.

Uster, H. and Hwang, S., “Closed-loop Supply Chain Network Design under Demand and Return Uncertainty,” Transportation Science, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 1063-1085, 2017.

Personal website

https://s2.smu.edu/~uster/