Dr Vedat Bayram

Dr Vedat Bayram is a Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics at the Department of Analytics, Operations and Systems at Kent Business School. He holds a PhD Degree in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, an M.S. degree in Operations Research from U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a B.S. degree in Systems Engineering from the Turkish Army Academy.
Dr Bayram joined Kent Business School in January 2023. Prior to his current position, he was an Assistant Professor at TED University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Waterloo, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Management Sciences. He worked for many years as a Senior Operations Research Analysis Officer at the Scientific Decision Support Center and the Project Management Divisions of Turkish General Staff Headquarters.
His research interests include large scale optimisation, convex optimisation, stochastic programming, integer programming and data-driven (learning-based) optimisation applications with an emphasis on disaster management, transportation and logistics problems. He received the Seal of Excellence Award two times for project applications made to European Commission, Marie Curie Global Fellowship on Real Time Large Scale Urban Evacuation.

Dr Bayram is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences – INFORMS, INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Society, INFORMS Section on Public Sector Operations Research, INFORMS Section on Location Analysis, and Operational Research Society of Turkey. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Sustainability Analytics and Modeling Journal, IFORS, Elsevier.

Vedat has refereed for several leading Operations Research and Management Science journals, including Transportation Science, Production and Operations Management, European Journal of Operational Research, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Transportation Research Part B, C, E, IISE Transactions, Computers and Operations Research, Networks, Omega, Computers and Industrial Engineering, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction among others. He has also reviewed research applications for the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

Vedat’s research focuses on developing innovative methodologies to solve large-scale optimisation problems in various application areas such as Disaster Management, Humanitarian Logistics, Evacuation Planning and Management, City Logistics, and Warehouse Management Optimisation. He has published papers in high-ranking journals such as Transportation Science, Transportation Research Part B, INFORMS Journal on Optimisation, IISE Transactions among others.

Vedat aims to extend his research studies by using Operations Research on solving complex problems that will contribute to U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Action and to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in building resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate-related and other disasters.

Research Projects and Grants

• Evacuation Planning and Management for Istanbul City Marmara Sea Shores Against Tsunami Threat, Principal Investigator, 221M165, 2021–2024. In collaboration with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), 1001 – The Support Programme for Scientific and Technological Research Projects Grant, Earthquake Special Call, 599,800 TL, Funded, in progress. Related news in national newspaper: https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/turkiye/beklenen-istanbul-depremi-tsunami-riskine-karsi-onlemler-artiyor-1875915
• Network Design and Management Problems for Social Aid Distribution Operations, Researcher, 221M435, 2022–2025. In collaboration with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), 1001 – The Support Programme for Scientific and Technological Research Projects Grant, 388,289 TL, Funded, in progress.
• Hub Location under Congestion and Capacity Considerations, Principal Investigator, 218M520, 2019–2021. TUBITAK, CAREER, 231,106 TL, Completed.
• Nonlinear Mixed Integer Programming Models for Evacuation Planning, Researcher, 213M434, 2014–2016. TUBITAK, 1001, 87,500 TL, Completed.

Vedat has teaching experience in Operations Management/Operations Research related courses both at undergraduate and graduate levels such as Mathematical Modelling and Optimisation, Discrete Optimisation, and Humanitarian Logistics. He has coordinated and advised Senior Design (Capstone) projects.

Current Supervisees:

• Shiva Moslemi, Ph.D. student, Koc University, Evacuation Network Design under Evacuee Behavior Considerations
• Onkar Kulkarni, Ph.D. student, Georgia Institute of Technology, Network Design Optimization for Mixed Pedestrian and Vehicle-Based Evacuation
• Paul Morlock, M.S. student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Evacuation Road Network Capacity Expansion for Tsunamis considering Coordinated Dynamic Resource Allocation and Contraflow
• Ming Luo, M.S. student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Evacuation Zoning and Evacuation Management considering Evacuee Behavior
• Lina Mamouri, M.S. student, Koc University, Evacuation Zoning for Tsunamis

Past Supervisees:

• M. Saleh Farham, Ph.D. student, Middle East Technical University, A New Perspective on Hub Location Problems: A Path-Based Generalized Approach under Congestion, Capacity and Demand Uncertainty Considerations
• Ciya Aydogan, M.S. student, Middle East Technical University, Multi-Period Hub Location under Congestion, Capacity Considerations, Uncertainty in Demand, and a Dual Perspective: Network Owners and Network Users