The Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) group at IIT Delhi was honored to host Dr. Rajan Batta, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University at Buffalo, USA, for an insightful seminar on March 10, 2025. Dr. Batta is internationally recognized for his extensive contributions to optimization, operations research, and disaster response planning, with decades of impactful research in these fields.
In his talk, titled “UAV Search and Routing Planning in a Disaster Area”, Dr. Batta explored how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be strategically deployed to enhance casualty detection and aid response efforts during disasters. Drawing from his recent research, he presented mathematical modeling techniques, including Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) and Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP), as well as clustering heuristics for solving complex routing problems in real-world disaster environments.
A key highlight of the seminar was a case study based on the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes, where these models and heuristics were applied to simulate and optimize UAV deployment strategies. Through this example, Dr. Batta demonstrated how advanced operations research methods can significantly improve disaster management outcomes, from efficient search patterns to faster identification of critical areas needing assistance.
The session ended with an insightful interaction, encouraging students and researchers to explore innovative solutions for real-world disaster management.