Advanced Modelling & Decision-Making under Uncertainty; Applications to Large-Scale Problems in Service Operations; Healthcare Operations Research; Patient Scheduling & Capacity Planning; Markov Decision Processes; Approximate Dynamic Programming.

The following list summarizes my contributions to date on Highly Qualified Personal (HQP) training.

Postdoctoral Fellow Co-Supervisor:
- Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa (2 fellows)

Ph.D. Student Co-Supervisor:
- Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (1 student)
- Ph.D. in Health Systems Management, University of Ottawa (2 students)
- Ph.D. in Stochastic Operations Research, University of Twente (1 student)

Master's Student Thesis Advisor:
- M.Sc. in Health Systems, University of Ottawa (2 students)

Master’s Student Project Advisor:
- Master in Management in Operations Research, University of British Columbia (5 students)

Master’s Student Thesis Committee Member:
- M.Sc. in Operations Management, University of Chile (4 students)
- MBA, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Chile (1 student)

Undergraduate Student Advisor:
- Industrial Engineering, University of Chile (4 students)

Undergraduate Thesis Committee Member:
- Industrial Engineering, University of Chile (15 students)
- Electrical Engineering, University of Chile (1 student)

Over the last six years, I have had the opportunity to supervise students from the Master in Management in Operations Research at the University of British Columbia (5), the M.Sc. in Health Systems at the University of Ottawa (2 students), and from three different Ph.D. programs (4 students). Please see details above. I have trained all these students so they can think critically about operational challenges and equipped them with the analytical skills and operations research methodologies needed to derive innovative solutions to complex problems. Three of the seven Master’s students are now working at health care organizations providing a tangible testimony to the fact that the knowledge they acquired while working with me is of value to health care organizations.

Two of the four Ph.D. students mentioned above are from external Ph.D. programs. Their thesis work is related to my approximate dynamic programming and dynamic resource allocation research. We communicate regularly through Skype and e-mail. Both of them came to Ottawa for two-three month visits.

Also, over the last several years, I was an active member of a multidisciplinary research team including researchers, oncologists and managers from the British Columbia Cancer Agency. During this time, I provided career and methodological advice to four (4) operations research analysts. Under my mentorship and supervision, they gained invaluable experience in developing and applying operations research techniques to patient scheduling and capacity planning projects as well as to other projects aimed to provide timely access to quality cancer care. Our joint work has resulted in several publications.

As much as possible, I try to co-supervise students with other colleagues as, in my opinion, it enhances a student’s learning experience and also helps in generating collaborative and interdisciplinary research.

List of applied projects I have been involved in:

- Project Co-Lead, The Ottawa Hospital (2018). Contributed to the development of a methodology for analyzing procedure notes and projecting the number of spinal surgery implants required on a quarterly basis.
- Project Co-Lead, The Ottawa Hospital (2017-2018). Led the development and implementation of an optimization-based tool for home-dialysis visit scheduling and nurse routing.
- Project Co-Lead, British Columbia Cancer Agency (2016-2017). Contributed to the analysis of data stored in multiple radiation therapy treatment units, and patient databases, and to the development of two optimization models for radiation therapy treatment scheduling.
- Project Advisor, Silver Standard Resources Inc. (2016). Helped identify ways to increase the amount of material moved per year by 2 million tonnes at the Marigold mine through optimized synchronization of loading and hauling operations.
- Project Advisor, Fraser Health (2016)Contributed to the development of a staff planning tool to support the design of a community health centre that will provide integrated care services.
- Project Advisor, British Columbia Cancer Agency (2015). Contributed to the development of a methodology for projecting the provincial life support budget (chemotherapy drugs expenditure) on a yearly basis.
- Management Consultant, British Columbia Rapid Transit Company Ltd. (2015) Conducted, as part of a team, an internal review and analysis of current staff work/shift schedules and performed an environmental scan of relevant shift models in the wider industry.
- Project Advisor, British Columbia Cancer Agency (2013-2014). Supervised the analysis of the base capacity required to meet new patient consults demand and explored alternative new patient scheduling practices at the Centre for the Southern Interior.
- Project Advisor, British Columbia Cancer Agency (2013). Supervised the implementation of an innovative optimization-based chemotherapy patient scheduling system, known as Chemo SmartBook, at the Abbotsford Cancer Centre.
- Project Lead, British Columbia Cancer Agency (2008-2010). Developed a method to dynamically schedule cancer treatments in radiation therapy units (as part of the CIHR Team in Operations Research for Improved Cancer Care – CIHR Grant AQC-83512)
- Management Consultant, Fraser Health Authority (2008). Developed and implemented an optimization-based system to help determine the mix of ambulatory care services to provide in a new outpatient facility.
- Project Co-Lead, British Columbia Cancer Agency (2007). Developed a discrete-event simulation model to improve radiation therapy planning processes (as part of the CIHR Team in Operations Research for Improved Cancer Care – CIHR Grant AQC-83512).
- Project Lead, Metro S.A. (2006-2007). Developed and implemented a simulation-optimization approach for improved fare collection staff scheduling at one of the most important subway companies in Latin America.
- Project Engineer, Treasury Agency of Chile (2001-2004). Developed and implemented a large-scale optimization model for improved debt collection planning (as part of my Master’s Thesis)
- Project Engineer, CODELCO (2003). Developed and implemented an evaluation and optimization system for long-term open-pit mining operations at one of the divisions of the largest copper producing company in the world.