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Research Interests

Robust Optimization, Supply Chain Management, Chance-Constrained Programming, Risk-Averse Optimal Control

Education

• Ph D: Operations Management, (2014), University of Alabama - United States
• MS: Operations Management, (2012), University of Alabama - United States
• Sc M: Industrial Systems, Manufacturing & Management, (2007), University of Cambridge - United Kingdom
• BSc: Computer Science & Communications Engineering, (2006), Universität Duisburg-Essen - Germany

Selected Awards and Honors

• Finalist, Minority Issues Forum (MIF) INFORMS Paper Competition (2023)
• University of Mary Washington Jepson Research Fellowship (2019)
• Finalist, Minority Issues Forum (MIF) INFORMS Paper Competition (2018)
• Invitation to participate at the NSF-IMA Industrial Mathematics Workshop (2017)
• First Prize, Minority Issues Forum (MIF) INFORMS Paper Competition (2016)

Selected Publications

• Fontem, B., Hellman, K.L. (2024). Optimising batch withdrawal strategies for non-safety-related defects under risk sensitivity. International Journal of Production Research, 1-30.
• Fontem, B. (2023). Robust Chance-Constrained Geometric Programming with Application to Demand Risk Mitigation. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 197(2) 765-797.
• Fontem, B. (2022). An Optimal Stopping Policy for Car Rental Businesses with Purchasing Customers. Annals of Operations Research/Springer, 317 47-76.
• Fontem, B., Price, M. (University of Mary Washington) (2021). Joint Client Selection and Contract Design for a Risk-Averse Commodity Broker in a Two-Echelon Supply Chain. Annals of Operations Research/Springer, 307 111-138 .
• Fontem, B. (2020). Constrained Maximum Variance Stopping for a Finite Horizon Increasing Random Walk. Operations Research Letters/Elsevier, 48(4) 493-499.
• Fontem, B., Keskin, B. (University of Alabama), Melouk, S. (University of Alabama), Vaughn, C. (University of Mary Washington) (2019). An Exact Decomposition Algorithm for a Chance- Constrained New Product Risk Model. Operations Research Letters/Elsevier , 47(4) 250-256.
• Fontem, B., Smith, J. (2019). Analysis of a chance-constrained new product risk model with multiple customer classes. European Journal of Operational Research, 272(3) 999-1016.
• Fontem, B., Melouk, S.H., Keskin, B.B., Bajwa, N. (2016). A decomposition-based heuristic for stochastic emergency routing problems. Expert Systems with Applications, 59 47-59.

Selected Contracts, Fellowships, Grants and Sponsored Research

• PollWorker Assignment and Voting Machine Allocation across Electoral Precincts (2024), Grant - Internal Seed Funding Program
  Fontem, B. (Principal), Summerfield, N. (Co-Principal)