Hongyu Chen - Research

My research agenda is problem-oriented, aiming to solve practical decision-making and data-related challenges in real operational settings, such as experimentation, revenue management, and smart data collection. I draw on a broad toolkit spanning statistics, econometrics, online learning, and optimization.

My current focus is on integrating generative AI into decision-making as a data augmentation mechanism, developing robust methods with theoretical guarantees that enable smarter, faster, and more cost-effective operational decisions.

Publications

[1] Switchback Experiments with Surrogate Variables: Estimation and Experimental Design
with David Simchi-Levi, Management Science, 2025

[2] Optimal Control for Parallel Queues with a Single Batch Server
with Zizhuo Wang, Operations Research Letters, 2022

[3] Enhance Curvature Information by Structured Stochastic Quasi-Newton Methods
with Minghan Yang, Dong Xu, Zaiwen Wen, and Mengyun Chen, CVPR, 2021

Working Papers

[1] Online Resource Allocation with Average Budget Constraints
with Ruicheng Ao, David Simchi-Levi, and Feng Zhu, Major Revision at Operations Research
- Finalist for INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing 2025 Jeff McGill Student Paper Award.

[2] Utilizing External Predictions for Data Collection: Joint Optimization of Sampling and Measurement
with Ruicheng Ao and David Simchi-Levi, Major Revision at Management Science

[3] Assortment Display, Price Competition and Fairness in Online Marketplaces
with Hanwei Li, David Simchi-Levi, Michelle Wu, and Weiming Zhu, Major revision at Production and Operations Management

[4] Retailer-Initiated Inventory-Based Financing
with Weiming Zhu, working paper
- Accepted for presentation at MSOM iFORM SIG 2022

[5] Partial Identification under Missing Data Using Weak Shadow Variables from Pretrained Models.
with David Simchi-Levi and Ruoxuan Xiong, working paper, Manuscript available upon request

[6] Best Arm Identification with LLM Judges and Limited Human Audits
with Ruicheng Ao, Siyang Gao, Hanwei Li, and David Simchi-Levi, working paper

[7] PPI-SVRG: Unifying Prediction-Powered Inference and Variance Reduction for Semi-Supervised Optimization
with Ruicheng Ao, Haoyang Liu, David Simchi-Levi, and Will Wei Sun, working paper

Publications

[1] Switchback Experiments with Surrogate Variables: Estimation and Experimental Designwith David Simchi-Levi, Management Science, 2025

[2] Optimal Control for Parallel Queues with a Single Batch Serverwith Zizhuo Wang, Operations Research Letters, 2022

[3] Enhance Curvature Information by Structured Stochastic Quasi-Newton Methodswith Minghan Yang, Dong Xu, Zaiwen Wen, and Mengyun Chen, CVPR, 2021

Working Papers

[1] Online Resource Allocation with Average Budget Constraintswith Ruicheng Ao, David Simchi-Levi, and Feng Zhu, Major Revision at Operations Research - Finalist for INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing 2025 Jeff McGill Student Paper Award.

[2] Utilizing External Predictions for Data Collection: Joint Optimization of Sampling and Measurementwith Ruicheng Ao and David Simchi-Levi, Major Revision at Management Science

[3] Assortment Display, Price Competition and Fairness in Online Marketplaceswith Hanwei Li, David Simchi-Levi, Michelle Wu, and Weiming Zhu, Major revision at Production and Operations Management

[4] Retailer-Initiated Inventory-Based Financingwith Weiming Zhu, working paper - Accepted for presentation at MSOM iFORM SIG 2022

[5] Partial Identification under Missing Data Using Weak Shadow Variables from Pretrained Models.with David Simchi-Levi and Ruoxuan Xiong, working paper, Manuscript available upon request

[6] Best Arm Identification with LLM Judges and Limited Human Auditswith Ruicheng Ao, Siyang Gao, Hanwei Li, and David Simchi-Levi, working paper

[7] PPI-SVRG: Unifying Prediction-Powered Inference and Variance Reduction for Semi-Supervised Optimizationwith Ruicheng Ao, Haoyang Liu, David Simchi-Levi, and Will Wei Sun, working paper