WILLIAM L. COOPER

Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
111 Church Street S.E.
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Email: billcoop@me.umn.edu

Research Interests

  • Stochastic Models
  • Revenue Management
  • Inventory Theory
  • Markov Decision Processes

Employment

  • University of Minnesota, Department of Mechanical Engineering
    Graduate Program in Industrial and Systems Engineering
    • Associate Professor (Fall 2005 -- Present)
    • Assistant Professor (Fall 1999 -- Summer 2005)

Education

  • Ph.D., Industrial Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999
  • B.A., Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, 1993

Publications

  • D. Zhang and W. L. Cooper. Managing clearance sales in the presence of strategic customers. Production and Operations Management, 17(4), 416-431, 2008. [journal; abstract]
  • D. Zhang and W. L. Cooper. Pricing substitutable flights in airline revenue management. To appear in European Journal of Operational Research, 2008. [journal; abstract]
  • K. Amaruchkul, W. L. Cooper, and D. Gupta. Single-leg air-cargo revenue management. Transportation Science, 41(4), 457-469, 2007. [paper; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper and T. Homem-de-Mello. Some decomposition methods for revenue management. Transportation Science, 41(3), 332-353, 2007. [paper; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper, T. Homem-de-Mello, and A. J. Kleywegt. Models of the spiral-down effect in revenue management. Operations Research, 54(5), 968-987, 2006. [paper; appendix; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper and D. Gupta. Stochastic comparisons in airline revenue management. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 8(3), 221-234, 2006. [paper; abstract]
  • D. Zhang and W. L. Cooper. Revenue management for parallel flights with customer-choice behavior. Operations Research, 53(3), 415-431, 2005. [paper; abstract]
  • S. Benjaafar, W. L. Cooper, and J.-S. Kim. On the benefits of pooling in production-inventory systems. Management Science, 51(4), 548-565, 2005. [paper; abstract]
  • D. Gupta and W. L. Cooper. Stochastic comparisons in production yield management. Operations Research, 53(2), 377-384, 2005. [paper; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper, S. G. Henderson, and M. E. Lewis. Convergence of simulation-based policy iteration. Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences, 17(2), 213-234, 2003. [journal; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper. Asymptotic behavior of an allocation policy for revenue management. Operations Research, 50(4), 720-727, 2002. [paper; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper and R. L. Tweedie. Perfect simulation of an inventory model for perishable products. Stochastic Models, 18(2), 229-243, 2002. [journal; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper. Pathwise properties and performance bounds for a perishable inventory system. Operations Research, 49(3), 455-466, 2001. [paper; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper, V. Schmidt, and R. F. Serfozo. Skorohod-Loynes characterizations of queueing, fluid, and inventory processes. Queueing Systems, 37(1-3), 233-257, 2001. [journal; abstract]
  • W. L. Cooper. Negative binomial sums of random variables and discounted reward processes. Journal of Applied Probability, 35(3), 589-599, 1998. [journal; abstract]

Working Papers

  • S. Benjaafar, W. L. Cooper, and S. Mardan. Production-inventory systems with imperfect advance demand information and updating. 2006. [manuscript under revision; abstract]

Funded Research

  • Model accuracy and learning in revenue management and dynamic pricing. PIs: W. L. Cooper, T. Homem-de-Mello (Northwestern), A. J. Kleywegt (Georgia Tech). National Science Foundation, 2007-2010.
  • Stochastic optimization for revenue management. PI: W. L. Cooper, Co-PI: T. Homem-de-Mello (Northwestern). National Science Foundation, 2001-2005.
  • Joint optimization of resource allocation and operational decisions for improving random yield. PI: D. Gupta (Minnesota), Co-PI: W. L. Cooper. National Science Foundation, 2001-2004.
  • Air-cargo revenue management in the presence of intermediaries. PI: D. Gupta (Minnesota), Co-PI: W. L. Cooper. National Science Foundation, 2004-2006.

Teaching

  • IE 4521 Statistics, Quality, and Reliability (Taught eight times)
  • IE 8532 Stochastic Processes and Queueing Systems (Taught six times)
  • IE 8533 Advanced Stochastic Processes and Queueing Systems (Taught three times)
  • IE 8534 Advanced Topics: Pricing and Revenue Management (Taught once)
  • IE 8534/8990 Advanced Topics: Markov Decision Processes (Taught twice)

Service Activities

  • Associate Editor, Operations Research (2006-Present)
  • Associate Editor, IIE Transactions (2005-Present)
  • Senior Editor, Production and Operations Management (2006-Present)
  • Frequent referee for journals including Operations Research; Management Science; Mathematics of Operations Research; Manufacturing & Service Operations Management; Transportation Science; IIE Transactions; Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences; Stochastic Models; Queueing Systems; Naval Research Logistics; Production and Operations Management; IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics; European Journal of Operational Resarch; The Engineering Economist; INFOR; Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management; INFORMS Transactions on Education

Graduated Ph.D. Advisees

  • Dan Zhang. Graduated 2005. Dissertation: Revenue management with customer choice. Current Position: Assistant Professor, Operations Management, McGill University.
  • Setareh Mardan. Graduated 2006 (co-advised with S. Benjaafar). Dissertation title: Control policies for stochastic production-inventory systems. Current Position: Associate Scientist, PROS Revenue Management, Houston, TX.
  • Kannapha Amaruchkul. Graduated 2007 (co-advised with D. Gupta). Dissertation: Models for air-cargo allotment management and booking control. Current Position: Lecturer, School of Applied Statistics, National Institute of Development Administration, Bangkok, Thailand.