Lehigh ISE PhD Student wins awards for research in semidefinite optimization and quantum computing

Lehigh ISE is proud to announce that PhD candidate Pouya Sampourmahani received two notable honors for his research in semidefinite optimization and quantum computing. He was awarded the Runner-up Prize in the IISE Thesis Pitch Competition (Optimization Track) and the “Fans’ Favorite Talk” award at the 2025 YinzOR Conference. Pouya’s awarded research, titled “On Quadratic Convergence for Semidefinite Optimization Problems,” addresses a class of optimization problems in which the decision variables are matrices constrained by non-negativity, or “semidefinite,” bounds.

 

The IISE award was presented in June 2025 at the IISE Conference & Expo during a luncheon with the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads (CIEADH). The YinzOR distinction was granted in August 2025 at the 2025 YinzOR Conference, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. In both competitions, Pouya presented research on accelerating and strengthening interior-point methods (IPMs)—a class of optimization algorithms—by establishing fast convergence results for semidefinite problems and exploring how these advances can exponentially enhance quantum IPMs.

 

Pouya Sampourmahani is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Lehigh University’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, conducting research in the Quantum Computing and Optimization Lab under the supervision of Professor Tamás Terlaky. His work focuses on developing, analyzing, and implementing classical and quantum algorithms for linear and conic optimization, with additional interests spanning applications in air transportation, healthcare, and correctional systems.

 

Reflecting on the recognition, Pouya shared: “I am extremely grateful to the IISE and YinzOR Conference judges for recognizing my research. I’m glad I was able to draw the attention of our community to the intersection of optimization and quantum computing at these venues. These recognitions fuel my ambitions to work harder and excel in advancing research in linear, conic, and quantum optimization.”