Saunak Kumar Panda

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Human-Centered AI Institute in the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. I received my PhD in Industrial Engineering, with a specialization in Operations Research, from the University of Houston in 2025, where I worked with Dr. Yisha Xiang.

My research focuses on developing reinforcement learning and statistical methods for sequential decision-making under uncertainty in engineering and operational systems. My work spans risk-sensitive learning, statistical inference, optimization, and AI-assisted decision support, with applications in manufacturing process control, resource allocation, personalized healthcare recommendations, and procurement auctions.

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