PhD Researcher

Operations Research & Machine Learning

I'm Juan Pablo Morande, a PhD candidate in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Auburn University. I work on logistics, scheduling, and forecasting problems using optimization and machine learning.

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Focus Areas
Optimization Deep Learning Simulation Supply Chain Forecasting LLM Applications
Expected Graduation

PhD, Auburn University — Early 2027

Looking For

Full-time industry jobs in the US. Open for relocation.

Work Authorization
Currently F-1 Visa STEM OPT Eligible H-1B1 Eligible (Chile & Singapore only visa)
01

About Me

I'm a fifth-year PhD candidate in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Auburn University. My research covers operations research, machine learning, optimization, and simulation, with a dissertation on advanced methods for complex logistics problems. I've been involved in the INFORMS student chapter since 2022, serving as Secretary, Vice-President, and President.

My projects have included two-dimensional truck loading optimization, military aircraft and crew scheduling for U.S. Air Force wargaming simulations, deep learning applied to illicit supply chain detection, freight rate forecasting with explainable AI, and drone-based order-picking in warehouses. In 2024, I spent a semester as a visiting researcher at NTNU in Norway, developing closed-loop supply chain models. More recently, I've been working on LLM-based systems, focused on a multi-agent framework for automated algorithm design, alongside projects in fine-tuned RAG legal advising and agent-based economic simulation.

I'm originally from Chile and fluent in both Spanish and English. I got into research through humanitarian logistics simulation at Universidad de los Andes, and I'm now looking for an Applied Research Engineer role where I can put optimization, data science, and ML to work on real problems.

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Experience

2021 — Present

Research & Teaching Assistant

Auburn University

  • Developed optimization models and heuristics for aircraft/crew scheduling (WASP project, AFMC through Frontier Technology Inc.).
  • Researched deep learning and reinforcement learning for illicit supply chains, focusing on opioid precursor trafficking patterns (DHS CAOE Grant through Arizona State University).
  • Formulated 2D vehicle loading optimization for a Colombian motorcycle assembler.
  • Forecasted freight rates in Chilean ports using LSTM, Transformers, and TFT models, with LIME and SHAP for interpretability.
  • TA for Engineering Economics, Statistical Quality Control, Data Mining, and Adaptive Optimization.
Feb — May 2024

Visiting Researcher

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

  • Developed closed-loop supply chain MILP models for strategic and product design decisions.
  • Published in Omega (2025): Stochastic programming framework for supply chain viability.
Oct 2020 — Jul 2021

Research Assistant

Universidad de los Andes, Chile

  • Developed simulation-based optimization for humanitarian logistics in natural disaster scenarios.
  • Work culminated in a conference presentation.
Dec 2019 — Feb 2020

Software Development Intern

Snow Consulting

  • Supported the development area with data analysis and Business Intelligence applications.
  • Explored and implemented data mining techniques.
Dec 2018 — Aug 2019

Teaching & Research Assistant

Universidad de los Andes, Chile

  • Taught weekly review sessions for the Statistical Methods course.
  • Assisted in researching and developing discrete-event simulation techniques, culminating in a teaching guide and user manual.

Education

PhD Industrial & Systems Engineering Auburn University 2021 — 2026 (expected)
MS Industrial & Systems Engineering Auburn University 2023
BS Industrial Engineering, Minor in Political Science Universidad de los Andes, Chile 2012 — 2020

Awards & Leadership

INFORMS AU Student Chapter Leadership Secretary, VP, President, VP (current) • Magna Cum Laude Chapter Award (2025) 2022 — Present
Amazon SCOT INFORMS Scholarship Scholarship to attend the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting 2022
SPEC Cybersecurity Summer Program Hands-on cybersecurity program at UVA at Wise, Virginia 2019
Founder Political Student Organization Universidad de los Andes, Chile 2014 — 2016
03

Featured Projects

Research

01

Freight Rate Forecasting with XAI

Forecasted shipping freight rates in Chilean ports using Temporal Fusion Transformers, LSTMs, and attention-based architectures, with LIME and SHAP for interpretability and Bayesian methods for hyperparameter tuning. The explainability analysis surfaced the main drivers behind rate changes, providing actionable insights for maritime logistics decision making.

PyTorchTransformersLIMESHAPTime Series
02

Multi-Objective Flight Scheduling

Developed optimization models and heuristics for U.S. Air Force wargaming simulations, scheduling military aircraft and crews across missions subject to range, refueling, and personnel constraints. The solution approach combines MILP formulations with metaheuristic solvers, including Simulated Annealing, Tabu Search, and Genetic Algorithms.

PyomoGenetic AlgorithmsMILPMulti-Objective
03

Closed-Loop Supply Chain Optimization

Developed a stochastic programming framework that integrates product development and design decisions into supply chains facing disruptive events, informed by two Norwegian circular manufacturing case studies. Results showed resilience improvements of 4–5% and budget savings of 2–10% while enhancing sustainability and circularity. Published in Omega (2025); developed during a research visit at NTNU in Norway.

Stochastic ProgrammingMILPSupply Chain
Read Paper →
04

Two-Dimensional Truck Loading Optimization

Developed a three-stage matheuristic combining MILP models to solve a two-dimensional vehicle loading problem faced by a Colombian motorcycle assembler operating a heterogeneous fleet. The approach maximizes on-time deliveries, minimizes the number of trucks used, and reduces unloading rehandles during delivery stops. Results showed increased demand fulfillment compared to one-dimensional methods, particularly under relaxed credit constraints.

MILPMatheuristicTwo-Dimensional Bin PackingLogistics
05

Drone Order-Picking Optimization

Modeled cooperative order picking by drones and workers in warehouses, starting from independent routing and building up to fully coordinated systems with synchronization, battery constraints, and multi-trip drone scheduling. Formulated the problem as a CVRP with MTZ subtour elimination and Big-M linearizations, minimizing makespan across multiple scenarios.

MILPCVRPDronesWarehousing
06

Iterative Semantic Knowledge Distillation for Multi-Agent Algorithm Design

A research prototype in which a swarm of LLM worker agents generate Python heuristics for optimization problems in parallel. The core contribution is a memory management layer: a team of analyst LLMs distill each iteration's results into evolving knowledge documents, and a historian keeps a factual record, both of which the coordinator reads before steering the next round of assignments. Benchmarked on single-machine tardiness, job shop scheduling (OR-Library instances), and MAX-SAT.

LLMPydanticAIMulti-AgentOptimizationMemory Management
07

Mining Robotics Simulation

Built a discrete-event simulation model for a mining company evaluating proposed changes to the robots that lay out detonation grids at active sites. The model simulated grid fulfillment under different robot configurations, comparing alternatives on completion time and throughput to support the company's assessment of upgrade options.

SIMIODiscrete-Event SimulationRoboticsMiningThroughput Analysis

Applied Projects

08

Web Development & Showcase Sites

Built a range of portfolio and business websites, including bilingual company pages, personal sites, and this portfolio itself, each with responsive layouts and clean visual design.

HTML/CSSJavaScriptNext.jsResponsive Design
09

Health & Fitness Mobile App

Cross-platform mobile application for health and fitness tracking across iOS, Android, and the web, featuring nutrition logging, weight tracking, and progress dashboards. Started as an excuse to try AI-powered development tools (and to avoid paying for fitness apps).

React NativeSQLiteiOSAndroid
10

Chilean Pension Fund Legal Advisor

A compliance advisor for Chilean pension fund administrators (AFPs). The system combines a hybrid RAG pipeline, with bi-encoder retrieval and cross-encoder reranking over more than 4,500 legal document chunks, with a QLoRA fine-tuned Qwen2.5-7B model that answers regulatory questions while citing the relevant legal documentation.

LLMHybrid RAGQLoRACross-Encoder Reranker
11

Emergent Small Town Economy with LLM Agents

A simulation in which LLM agents autonomously run the economy of a small town: they work, start businesses, set their own prices, socialize, and reflect at the end of each day. Business types, products, and custom actions are generated dynamically by the model, with dedicated judge agents validating the plausibility of new businesses and actions before they enter the world. Runs locally on vLLM with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.

Agent-Based SimulationEmergent EconomyLLM JudgesLoRARLHF
04

Skills & Expertise

Optimization & OR

  • Mixed-Integer Linear Programming
  • Heuristics, Metaheuristics & Matheuristics
  • Stochastic Programming
  • Multi-Objective Optimization
  • Simulation (SIMIO, Arena, Plant Simulation, SimPy)

Machine Learning & AI

  • Deep Learning Architectures (LSTM, Transformers, TFT)
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Explainable AI (XAI)
  • Time Series Forecasting
  • Bayesian Statistics & Optimization
  • LLM Applications (Hybrid RAG, LoRA Fine-Tuning, RLHF)

Programming & Tools

  • Python, R, Java, SQL
  • PyTorch, Pyomo, MILP Solvers
  • Statistical Modeling & Six Sigma
  • Experimental Design (DOE)
  • Data Visualization & Minitab
  • Git & Hugging Face
05

Publications

2025
Published

Supply chain viability by integrating R-imperatives, product development, and design decisions: A stochastic programming framework

Omega — Journal of Management Science

doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2025.103317 →

Other manuscripts in preparation on freight rate forecasting with explainable AI and two-dimensional truck loading optimization.

Conference Presentations

INFORMS Annual Meeting Atlanta, GA • Phoenix, AZ • Indianapolis, IN 2025 • 2023 • 2022
IFORS 23rd Triennial Conference Santiago, Chile 2023
OPTIMA XV Chilean Conference on OR Coquimbo, Chile 2025
ICPR ICPR Americas 2020 Virtual 2020
06

Contact

I would love to talk. Whether it's a job opportunity, a collaboration, or just to connect on LinkedIn, don't hesitate to reach out.

Send me an Email Connect on LinkedIn Download Resume
Email jpm0112@auburn.edu LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/jpmorande GitHub github.com/jpm0112 Google Scholar View Publications