Saman Lagzi
Welcome to my page!
I am Saman Lagzi, an Assistant Professor of Operations and Decision Sciences at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University. Satrting Fall 2023, I will be joining UNC Kenan–Flagler Business School. Broadly speaking, my primary research focus is on integrating data analytics into the process of decision-making. In my research, I use data, and design ways to use data, to better guide the decision-making process. My research interests are in the areas of Revenue Management and Pricing and Healthcare Operations Management.
Using mathematical modelling, integer programming and approximation algorithms, in one of my research projects I have shown how firms can use their gathered transaction data to price an assortment of products, without running the risk of a demand model misspecification. In another project, using empirical analysis and econometric methods, I shed light on the effects of employing piece-rate compensation schemes by firms whose workers have discretion over which tasks to work on.
More recently, I am focused on optimizing the output of a fitted neural network over its input. By showing a performance guarantee for this methodology, in terms of the generalization bound of the fitted neural network, when applied to certain stochastic optimization problems, I showcase how it can have significant advantages in solving some of the cornerstone problems in revenue management, such as the newsvendor problem with observable demand features, and the personalized assortment pricing problem.
Education
PhD, Operations Management and Statistics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (2022)
MMath, Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo (2016)
M. Eng, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Auburn University (2014)
B.Sc., Industrial Engineering, Sharif University of Technology (2012)
Awards, Fellowships, and Grants
Finalist: Jeff McGill student paper award, 2022
Runner-up: Canadian Operations Research Society, Best Student Paper Competition Open Category, 2022.
Finalist: Canadian Operations Research Society, Best Student Paper Competition Open Category, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Rotman Teaching Award: 2022
Ontario Graduate Scholarship: September 2020 — August 2021.
TD Management Data and Analytics Lab: 5000 CAD 2021 — 2022.
Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy: 15000 CAD 2021 — 2022.
TD Management Data and Analytics Lab: 7000 CAD 2022 — 2023.
University of Toronto Doctoral Completion Award: September 2021 — August 2022.
Rotman School of Management Fellowship: September 2016 — August 2022.
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