Abhishek K. Umrawal

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Education

• Purdue University, Ph.D., Industrial Engineering, 2023
• Purdue University, MS, Economics, 2021
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, MS, Statistics, 2011

Academic Positions

• Tch. Assistant Professor, Univ. of Illinois, Electrical and Computer Eng., Aug 2023 to Present
• Visiting Lecturer, Univ. of Maryland, Computer Sci. and Electrical Eng., Aug 2022 to Jun 2022

Resident Instruction

• ECE 120 Intro. to Computing, Fall 2024
• CS/ECE 374 Intro. to Algorithms and Models of Computation, Summer 2024
• CS/ECE 374 Intro. to Algorithms and Models of Computation, Spring 2024
• CS/ECE 374 Intro. to Algorithms and Models of Computation, Fall 2023

Research Interests

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Generative AI, Causal AI, and Trustworthy AI
• Machine Learning (ML): Statistical Learning and Reinforcement Learning
• Theory and Algorithms: Combinatorial Optimization, Approximation Algorithms, and Game Theory
• Applications: Social Networks, Product Recommendations, Conversational Systems, Responsible Text/Code Generation, Intelligent Transportation

Research Topics

• Computational science and engineering
• Game theory
• Machine learning
• Network science and engineering

Selected Articles in Journals

• Umrawal, A. K., Quinn, C. J., and Aggarwal, V.  (2023). A Community-Aware Framework for Social Influence Maximization. IEEE Trans. Emerg. Top. Comput. Intell. (TETCI).
• Agarwal, M., Aggarwal, V., Umrawal, A. K., and Quinn, C. J. (2022). Stochastic Top-k Subset Bandits with Linear Space and Non-Linear Feedback with Applications to Social Influence Maximization. ACM/IMS Trans. Data Sci. (TDS).
• Manchella, K., Umrawal, A. K., and Aggarwal, V. (2021). FlexPool: A Distributed Model-Free Deep Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Shared Passengers and Goods Delivery. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. (T-ITS).

Articles in Conference Proceedings

• Bhimaraju, A., Robson, E., Varshaney, P. L., and Umrawal, A. K. (2024). Fractional Budget Allocation for Influence Maximization under General Marketing Strategies. Int. Conf. Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM).
• Robson, E. W., Reddy, D., and Umrawal, A.K. (2024). CyNetDiff: A Python Library for Accelerated Implementation of Network Diffusion Models. Int. Conf. Very Large Data Bases (VLDB).
• Umrawal, A. K., Aggarwal, V., and Quinn, C. J. (2023). Fractional Budget Allocation for Influence Maximization. IEEE Conf. Decision and Control (CDC).
• Umrawal, A. K. (2023). Leveraging Causal Graphs for Blocking in Randomized Experiments. Conf. Causal Learning and Reasoning (CLeaR).
• Nie, G., Agarwal, M., Umrawal, A. K., Aggarwal, V., and Quinn, C. J. (2022). An Explore-then-Commit Algorithm for Submodular Maximization under Full-bandit Feedback. Conf. Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI).
• Umrawal, A. K., Lane, S. P., and Hennes, E. P. (2022). GeneticPower: A Genetic Algorithm-Based Framework for Learning Statistical Power Manifold. Int. Meet. Psychometric Society (IMPS).
• Umrawal, A. K. and Aggarwal, V. (2022).  Leveraging the Community Structure of a Social Network for Maximizing the Spread of Influence. ACM SIGMETRICS/IFIP PERFORMANCE.
• Chen, J., Umrawal, A. K., Lan, T., and Aggarwal, V. (2021). DeepFreight: A Model-Free Deep-RL-Based Algorithm for Multi-Transfer Freight Delivery. Int. Conf. Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS).
• Agarwal, M., Aggarwal, V., Quinn, C. J., and Umrawal, A. K. (2021). DART: aDaptive Accept RejecT Algorithm for Non-Linear Combinatorial Bandits. AAAI Conf. on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
• Agarwal, M., Aggarwal, V., Quinn, C. J., and Umrawal, A. K. (2021). Stochastic Top-k Subset Bandits with Linear Space and Non-Linear Feedback. Int. Conf. Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT).

Invited Lectures

• Fractional Budget Allocation for Influence Maximization
• Fractional Budget Allocation for Influence Maximization

Other Scholarly Activities

• Session Chair for CIKM '25.
• Reviewer for ICLR '25, ICML '24, UAI '24, CLeaR '24, UAI '23, PAKDD '23, AAAI-GCLR '23, ECML '22, AISTATS '20.  
• Reviewer for IEEE T-ITS, Springer Transportation Research, IEEE/ACM ToN.

Professional Societies

• Member of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS)
• Member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS)
• Member of the IEEE Computer Society (CS)
• Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Service on Department Committees

• Member of Scholarships, Student Awards, and Honors Committee, 2024 - 2025
• Member of Curriculum Committee, 2024 - 2025
• Member of Colloquium Committee, 2024 - 2025

Teaching Honors

• Grad. Mentor Award by Vertically Integrated Projects, Purdue Univ., Apr 2020.
• Grad-Track Mentorship by the College of Eng., Purdue Univ., May 2022 & May 2023.

Research Honors

• Research Travel Grant by IEEE Control Society, Sep 2023.
• Research Travel Grant by the College of Eng., Purdue Univ., Feb 2023.
• Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship by the Grad. School, Purdue Univ., May 2022.
• Trailblazers in Eng. Fellowship by the College of Eng., Purdue Univ., Oct 2021.
• Cert. of Exc. in Research by the Office of Interdiscip. Grad. Programs, Purdue Univ. May 2022.
• Research Travel Grant by ACM SIGMETRICS, May 2022.
• Research Travel Award for International Meeting by Psychometric Society, Apr 2022.
• Winner in Poster Competition by ABE Grad. Student Assoc., Purdue Univ., Mar 2022.
• Runner-up in Poster Competition by ABE Grad. Student Assoc., Purdue Univ., Feb 2021.
• OSG User School Travel Grant by Open Sci. Grid, Apr 2019 & Apr 2020.

Improvement Activities

• The Narrative Engineer: Transforming Learning through Story Workshop, Aug. 2024, Georgia Inst. of Tech. and Emory Univ.
• Collins Scholar 2023-2024, The Grainger College of Eng., Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Grainger Engineers Accelerating Research (GEAR) Scholar 2023-2024, The Grainger College of Eng., Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.