Will Ma
Roderick H. Cushman Associate Professor
Decision, Risk, and Operations, Graduate School of Business
and Data Science Institute, Columbia University
Visiting Associate Professor, Cornell Tech
I am currently a research scientist at Percepta.ai, where we build superhuman decision systems that incorporate AI agents and Operations Research. Join us.
Research
I work on the theory of online algorithms and decision-making under uncertainty. I specialize in developing data-driven methods for problems in operations and revenue management, including inventory, e-commerce fulfillment, assortment optimization, and online resource allocation. Algorithms from my research have been deployed at several businesses, with measurable impact reported: Alibaba, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Dream11.
Teaching & Students (I am unable to respond to most inquiries regarding openings for Ph.D. positions, as admissions are handled at the departmental level.)
Service
- Associate Editor for journals: Operations Research, Management Science
- Program Committee for conferences: EC 2026 (track chair), WINE 2025 (senior), EC 2025 (senior), EC 2024 (senior), WINE 2023 (senior), EC 2023, WINE 2022, EC 2022, WINE 2021, EC 2021
- Board Member of INFORMS Revenue Management & Pricing (RMP) section
- Conference/Workshop Organization: GenAI for Operational Decision-Making Workshop 2026, RMP 2025, DSL70, NYC Ops Day 2024, NYC Ops Day 2023, RMP cluster chair at INFORMS 2022
Miscellaneous
- I play piano at Sid Gold's karaoke bar in Manhattan! most recent event // song list
- ♠♥I used to be a poker player and taught a poker course that is on MIT OpenCourseWare
- I co-founded video game start-up Lunarch Studios and designed the strategy game Prismata
Book Chapters
- Randomized Rounding Approaches to Online Allocation, Sequencing, and Matching, INFORMS Tutorials, 2024
- Assortment Optimization: An Annotated Reading Assortment, ACM SIGecom Exchanges, 2024
Papers