CAREER: Foundations of Machine Learning-Enhanced Branch-and-Bound Algorithms for Scalable Global Optimization

NSF Award Search · 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $639,433 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant will advance national energy security and economic welfare by developing improved tools for optimizing complex energy and industrial systems. Critical infrastructures, such as electric power grids and chemical refineries, depend on solving large optimization problems to determine safe and efficient operating conditions. Current optimization tools are inadequate for large-scale planning and operational needs, limiting the ability to operate these energy systems efficiently, modernize them, and maintain resilient operations. This project will create a new generation of optimization algorithms that use machine learning to leverage shared structure in real-world applications, significantly accelerating solution times while preserving mathematical guarantees. It will develop new machine learning techniques to guide key algorithmic decisions in optimization algorithms while ensuring scalability, generalizability, and data efficiency. These advances have the potential to transform how energy systems are designed and operated, enabling more efficient operations, improved reliability, and lower operational costs and environmental impact. The educational plan will introduce optimization and machine learning concepts into high-school classrooms through an interactive web-based tool, teacher workshops, and partnerships with regional schools. Undergraduate research, new graduate modules, and interdisciplinary workshops will prepare the next-generation workforce at the interface of artificial intelligence, optimization, and engineering. This research will build a unified, theory-driven framework that leverages machine learning to enhance branch-and-bound algorithms for the guaranteed global optimization of mixed-integer nonlinear programs. It will (1) formulate new expert branching policies and develop supervised graph-based machine learning methods to imitate them; (2) create semi-supervised learning methods to gene

Key facts

NSF award ID
2543398
Awardee
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VA)
SAM.gov UEI
QDE5UHE5XD16
PI
Rohit Kannan
Primary program
01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
OPTIMIZATION & DECISION MAKING, CAREER-Faculty Erly Career Dev, OPERATIONS RESEARCH
Estimated total
$639,433
Funds obligated
$639,433
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
05/15/2026 → 04/30/2031