PhD student on the subject of Robust Optimization (m/f/x)

Job description

The two PhD positions are within the scope of and funded by the NWO Vidi project “Robust Decisions with Wild Data”. 

From providing mortgages to screening resumes, algorithms make important decisions for us on a daily basis based on vast amounts of data. They have recently come under scrutiny as they can be dangerously gullible in uncertain environments. Robust optimization promises certified protection against uncertainty, following the maxim Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Robust decisions have proven more trustworthy when based on small curated data sets. Unfortunately, robust decisions, too, become gullible when using modern data sets scraped online typically outside of any stringent quality control.

In this project the idea is to advance direly needed decision methodologies ready for (i) the challenges associated with modern wild data sets and (ii) that offer certified performance beyond merely the worst case. As a PhD stu...