Jiayu Kamessi Zhao
Ph.D. in Operations Research at MIT, 2020-2025
B.S. in Operations Research at Columbia University, 2016-2020
kamessi@mit.edu [✉️]
My Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Google scholar
About Me
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Waymo's marketplace and supply optimization team. I graduated from the Operations Research Center at MIT, where I was fortunate to be advised by Prof. Daniel Freund. Prior to MIT, I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Columbia University in 2020 with a B.S. degree in Operations Research.
My research studies how two-sided service platforms, via algorithm and market designs, can incentivize agents' flexibility to enhance operational efficiency. Through the lens of flexibility designs, I (i) manage incentives across both supply and demand sides of platforms to improve matching efficiency, and (ii) align agents' incentives to adopt new technologies, such as deploying autonomous vehicles on mobility platforms. In tackling these challenges, I apply tools from game theory and stochastic decision-making to transportation, e-commerce, and other platform applications. In summer 2023 and 2024, I worked at Uber Eats Realtime Pricing Team as an applied scientist intern.
NEWS: I will join Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology in July 2026.
Publications and Preprints
-
Two-sided Flexibility in Platforms
with Daniel Freund and Sébastien Martin.
Major Revision at Operations Research, 2025.- Winner of MIT Operations Research Center (ORC) Best Student Paper Award, 2024
- Accepted for presentation at 2024 INFORMS Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM) Conference
- Accepted for presentation at 2024 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing (RMP) Conference
- Accepted for presentation at 2024 Marketplace Innovation Workshop
-
On the Supply of Autonomous Vehicles in Platforms
with Daniel Freund and Ilan Lobel.
Accepted by Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2025.- Earlier version accepted at the Twenty-Fifth ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC'24), 2024.
- Accepted for presentation at 2024 INFORMS MSOM Supply Chain Management SIG Conference
- Accepted for presentation at 2023 INFORMS RMP Conference
- Accepted for presentation at 2023 Marketplace Innovation Workshop
-
On the Power of Delayed Flexibility: Balls, Bins, and a Few Opaque Promotions
with Daniel Freund and Chamsi Hssaine.
Under Review at Operations Research, 2025.- Accepted for presentation at 2025 Marketplace Innovation Workshop
-
Overbooking with Bounded Loss
with Daniel Freund.
Mathematics of Operations Research, Sept 2022.- Earlier version accepted at the Twenty-Second ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC'21), 2021.
- Accepted for presentation at 2021 Marketplace Innovation Workshop
Work in Progress
-
The Value of a Little Flexibility in Stable Matching
with Daniel Freund and Sébastien Martin.
Teaching
- Introduction To Operations Management, MIT 15.761 | Teaching Assistant
- Common Experience in Operations Research, MIT 15.S25 | Teaching Assistant
- Graduate (PhDs), Summer 2022. (20 students)
- Ordinary Differential Equations, Columbia University Math 2030 | Teaching Assistant
- Undergraduate, Fall 2018. (40 students)
- Probability for Engineers, Columbia University IEOR E3658 | Teaching Assistant
- Undergraduate, Fall 2018. (80 students)
Recent Talks
- The Value of a Little Flexibility in Stable Matchings
- INFORMS APS Conference, Jul 2025, Atlanta GA
- On the Power of Delayed Flexibility: Balls, Bins, and a Few Opaque Promotions
- Marketplace Innovation Workshop, May 2024, Virtual
- Two-sided Flexibility in Platforms
- INFORMS APS Conference, Jul 2025, Atlanta GA
- University of British Columbia, Imperial College, London Business School, University College London, National University of Singapore, New York University, University of Toronto, Duke University, Stanford University, Columbia University
- INFORMS Annual Meeting, Oct 2024, Seattle WA
- Inaugural OM Rookiepalooza at Kellogg, Oct 2024, Evanston IL
- MIT ORC Fall Seminar Series, Nov 2024, Cambridge MA
- MSOM Conference, Jul 2024, Minneapolis MN
- Marketplace Innovation Workshop, May 2024, Virtual
- MIT LIDS Student Conference, Feb 2024, Cambridge MA
- Xi'an Jiaotong University, Jan 2024, Xi'an
- Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Dec 2023, Shanghai
- On the Supply of Autonomous Vehicles in Platforms
- MIT Operations Management Seminar, Oct 2024, Cambridge MA
- MSOM Conference Supply Chain Management SIG, Jun 2024, Minneapolis MN
- INFORMS Annual Meeting, Oct 2023, Phoenix AZ
- Cornell Young Researchers Workshop, Oct 2023, Ithaca NY
- MSOM Conference, Jun 2023, Montreal
- INFORMS Annual Meeting, Oct 2022, Indianapolis IN
- Marketplace Innovation Workshop, May 2023, Virtual
- Overbooking with Bounded Loss
- EC'21, Jul 2021, Virtual
- INFORMS Annual Meeting, Oct 2021, Virtual
- ORC Student Seminar, Apr 2022, Cambridge MA
Experiences
- MIT Operations Research Center, Research Assistant, 2020 - present
- Supervisor: Daniel Freund
- Incentivizing flexibility in platform operations
- Uber Eats Eater Realtime Pricing Team (ERTP), Applied Scientist Intern, Summer 2023 & 2024
- Managers/Mentors: Ali Sadighian, Shaiza Qayyum, AJ Friend
- Pricing and incentives optimization for eaters
- Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley, Visiting Student, Fall 2022
- Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR), Columbia University, Research Assistant, 2018 - 2020
- Supervisors: Jay Sethuraman, Soulaymane Kachani
Professional Services
- MIT ORC Seminar Series student coordinator, Fall 2023
- MIT Operations Management Seminar student co-organizer, 2021-2023
Awards and Honors
- MIT Operations Research Center (ORC) Best Student Paper Award, 2024
- The Sebastian B. Littauer Award in IEOR, Columbia University, 2020
- Tau Beta Pi Honor Society, Columbia University (NY alpha Chapter), 2020
- The Dean’s List, Columbia University, 2016-2020
- C.P. Davis Scholar, Columbia University, 2016