Neha | Carnegie Mellon University

About Me

I am a final-year Ph.D. candidate in Operations Management at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. I am very fortunate to be advised by Prof. Alan Montgomery and Prof. Peter Zhang. Prior to starting my PhD, I completed my five-year integrated B.S. and M.S. degree in Mathematics and Computing at IIT Kharagpur. For my Master’s thesis, I was advised by Prof. Bibhas Adhikari in the area of Social Network Analysis.

Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as a Research Engineer for two years in the Algorithms and Optimization group at the Xerox Research Centre India in Bangalore, working with Dr. Koyel Mukherjee. I subsequently worked as a Project Associate at the CiSTUP center at IISc Bangalore for one year, where I worked with Prof. Tarun Rambha.

Research Interests

My research lies at the nexus of Operations Research, Machine Learning, and Public Policy, with a primary focus on designing robust and sustainable transportation systems. I develop data-driven methodologies to enhance collaborative logistics and operational reliability, aiming to create adaptive networks that can effectively mitigate delays and uncertainties.

Awards

Awarded the William W. Cooper Doctoral Dissertation Award, 2026.
Awarded William Larimer Mellon Fellowship support, 2019–2024.
Awarded the Mitacs Globalink Fellowship Grant, 2015.
Received the INSPIRE Scholarship and mentorship grants from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, for outstanding academic performance, 2012–2016.

Talks

[Oct. 2025] Presented ‘Optimizing School Bus Pickups with Third-Party Coordination and Delay Prediction’ at INFORMS Annual Meeting 2025.

Selected Publications

Optimizing School Bus Pickups with Third-Party Coordination and Delay Prediction

Neha, Holly Wiberg, Peter Zhang

In preparation for submission to Transportation Research Part C
School Bus Sharing Across School Districts

Neha, Peter Zhang, Hai Wang

In preparation
Conditional Promotion Offers to Encourage Loyalty

Neha, Alan Montgomery

In preparation
Offline Optimization of Cab Supply for Ride-Sharing Applications using Hypergraph Matching

Neha, Tarun Rambha

Accepted for publication in World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR 2019)
Method and system for dynamic trust model for personalized recommendation system in shared and non-shared economy

Neha, Saurabh Srivastava

U.S. Patent, 20180003US01 (Filed November 2018)
Xhare-A-Ride (XAR): An efficient dynamic ride sharing service for Multi-modal trip planner

Neha, Koyel Mukherjee, Raja Subramaniam Thangaraj

Poster presentation at COMSNETS 2017

Beyond Work!

Outdoor Enthusiast: I love hiking and have visited quite a few National Parks here in US. (Pictures from my treks coming soon!)
Badminton & Sports: I am passionate about Badminton and any sports in general. I hold a District Level Gold medal in Singles and a Silver medal in Doubles for Badminton (India). Always up for a match!
Arts & Dance: I hold a Diploma in Kathak.
Reading: In my free time, I am an avid reader of fiction, though I have recently started exploring non-fiction as well. My favorite author is Khaled Hosseini. Two books that have left a lasting impact on me are The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.