Yuan Qu

曲源

OptiMax AI, CEO and Director
The University of Hong Kong, Honorary Research Assistant Professor,
Department of Data and Systems Engineering
yuanqu 'at' optimax.hk · yuanqu 'at' hku.hk

I am the CEO and Director of OptiMax AI, where we are building a data-driven AI supply chain management platform. I also serve as an Honorary Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Data and Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, and remain actively engaged in academic research, collaborating with Prof. Max Zuo-Jun Shen and other researchers. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at HKU (2023-2026) and an Instructor at Rutgers University (2019-2022).

I got my Ph.D. degree, with the concentration on Operations Research, from the Department of Management Science and Information Systems at Rutgers University, under the supervision of Prof. Jian Yang. Before that, I received my M.Sc. in Information Technology and Analytics from Rutgers University, under the supervision of Prof. Hui Xiong, and my B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and B.A. in Business Administration from University of Electronics Science and Technology of China (UESTC).

Research Interests: Pricing and Revenue Management, Inventory Control, Game-theoretic Applications, Data-driven Modeling, Transportation, AI in Operations Management


Education

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Doctor of Philosophy
Management (with concentration on Operations Research)
Dissertation: Understanding Opaque Selling from an Inventory-control Perspective
Adviser: Jian Yang

Committee: Andrzej Ruszczynski, Endre Boros, Thomas Lidbetter, and Ming Hu

Sep. 2018 - May 2023

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Master of Science
Information Technology & Analytics

Adviser: Hui Xiong

Jan. 2017 - May 2018

University of Electronics Science and Technology of China (UESTC)

Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Management
Electrical Engineering & Business Administration
Sep. 2013 - May 2017

Research

Publications

An Adaptive Model-based Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for Matching-while-learning Problem in Shared Manufacturing Platforms
Liu Yang, Yuan Qu, Pengyu Yan, Chengbin Chu
International Journal of Production Research, 64(9):3495-3517, 2026.

Everyone Contributes! Incentivizing Strategic Cooperation in Multi-LLM Systems via Sequential Public Goods Games
Yunhao Liang, Yuan Qu, Jingyuan Yang, Shaochong Lin, Max Z.J. Shen
Proceedings of AAMAS, 2026. Available on arXiv

How Many Are Too Many? Analyzing Dockless Bikesharing Systems with a Parsimonious Model
Hongyu Zheng, Kenan Zhang, Macro Nie*, Pengyu Yan*, Yuan Qu
Transportation Science, 58(1):152-175, 2023.

Under Review

Enactive Artificial Intelligence: A Decision-Centric Architecture for Complex Systems
Max Z.J. Shen, Yuan Qu, Pujun Zhang, Anbang Liu, Yunhao Liang, Feier Yan
Under Review, Available on arXiv.

Graph Optimization Foundation Model: Tokenizing Graph via A Language-Model Paradigm
Yunhao Liang, Pujun Zhang, Yuan Qu, Jingyuan Yang, Shaochong Lin, Max Z.J. Shen
Under Review, Available on arXiv.

SCOPE: Supply-Chain Operations through Coupled Policies for End-to-End Coordination
Yunhao Liang, Xianqi Cao, Pujun Zhang, Yuan Qu, Yongzhi Qi, Ningxuan Kang, Max Z.J. Shen
Under Review, Available on arXiv.

Who Should Pay for the Sharing? Mechanism Design of Resource Allocation in Headquarters-Subsidiary Networks
Shan Li, Yuan Qu, Shaochong Lin, Ming Dong, Ran Liu, and Max Z.J. Shen
Under Review.

Opaque Selling to Strategic Buyers
Yuan Qu*, Jian Yang
Under Review. Available on SSRN

Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Matching on Shared Manufacturing Platforms under Non-stationary Arrivals
Liu Yang, Pengyu Yan, Dong Li, Yuan Qu
Under Review.

Dynamic Inventory-price Control during Opaque Selling of Horizontally-differentiated Products
Yuan Qu*, Jian Yang
Under Review. Available on SSRN

Diminishing Social Capital Returns from Employee Ambassadorship: Evidence from WeChat
Chaitanya Kaligotla, Sarah Wittman, Jingyuan Yang, Yuan Qu, Wei Zeng
Under Review, Available on SSRN

Research in Progress

Research on Cooperation Mechanism behind AI Harness
with Xinxue (Shawn) Qu, Jingyuan Yang, Pujun Zhang, Yunhao Liang, Feier Yan, and Max Z.J. Shen

Operation Strategy for Styling Box Platform
with Max Z.J. Shen

Personalized Online Learning Framework for Styling Box Recommendation
with Pujun Zhang and Max Z.J. Shen

Charge Smarter, Not Harder: The Delicate Balance of Shared E-Bike Operations
with Lingyun Zhang, Shaochong Lin, and Max Z.J. Shen

Dynamic Operation Management Considering Customer Engagement for Styling Box Platform
with Pujun Zhang and Max Z.J. Shen

How Large Are Too Large? Deployment Region Analysis of Dockless Electronic Bike-Sharing Systems
with Pengyu Yan and Max Z.J. Shen

One Size Does Not Fit All: Personal Match and Marketing Message Effectiveness on Social Networks
with Jingyuan Yang and Wei Zeng


Experience

Chief Executive Officer & Director

OptiMax AI, Hong Kong SAR, China
Sept. 2025 - present

Honorary Research Assistant Professor

Department of Data and Systems Engineering,
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Aug. 2026 - present

Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Data and Systems Engineering,
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Collaborated in research principally with Professor Max Z.J. Shen of the Department of Data and Systems Engineering, or other researchers as appropriate.
Advanced Industrial Engineering Technology Seminar 2024-25, IMSE7002, Spring 2025

Sept. 2023 - Jul. 2026

Instructor & Lecturer

Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University, Newark & New Brunswick, NJ

Product and Operations Management, Undergraduate, 29:623:311, Fall 2022
Management Information System, Undergraduate, 33:136:370, Spring 2020 - Spring 2022
Statistical Methods for Business, Undergraduate, 33:136:385, Fall 2019
Business Data Management, Graduate, 26:198:603 & 26:544:603, Fall 2019

Sept. 2019 - Dec. 2022

Seasonal Data Scientist

Allianz Partners, Richmond, VA

Built an offline evaluation pipeline for online recommendation algorithms.

May. 2021 - Aug. 2021

Teaching Assistant

Rutgers University, Newark, NJ

Business Data Management, Graduate, 544:603, Spring 2018
Data Mining, Graduate, 198:650, Spring 2018

Jan. 2018 - Jun. 2018

Co-founder

Chengdu Value-fan Information Service, Chengdu, China

Develop web system and stock evaluation system. Collect all financial report data from SZSE & SSE. Estimate stock price by using absolute & relative value assessment model.
Develop stock investment strategy system. Build auto-investment system based on specific strategy.

Jan. 2016 - Jun. 2017

Professional Activities

  • Presentations

    Operation Strategy for Styling Box Platform
    The Seventeenth International Conference of CSAMSE, Chengdu, China, 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, 2024
    Invited Research Seminar, UESTC, Chengdu, China, 2024

    Inventory Control involving Opaque Selling
    14th POMS-HK International Conference, Hong Kong, 2024
    INFORMS Annual Meeting, Phenix, AZ, 2023

    Understanding Opaque Selling from an Inventory-control Perspective
    Invited Research Seminar, UESTC, Chengdu, China, 2023
    Northeast Decision Sciences Institute Annual Conference, Washington, DC, 2023
    INFORMS Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, 2022
    Invited Research Seminar, Stony Brook University, Virtual, 2020

    Drivers For Personal Social Marketing Effectiveness: A Joint View Of Content And Diffusion
    INFORMS Annual Meeting, Virtual, 2020
    Invited Research Seminar, UESTC, Chengdu, China, 2020
    Rutgers-NJIT Business School Joint Ph.D. Seminar, Newark, NJ, 2019
    INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, 2019

  • Conferences

    Organizing Committee & Session Chair, The Seventeenth International Conference of CSAMSE, Chengdu, China, 2025

    Session Chair, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, 2024

  • Reviews
    Ad hoc Reviewer for
  • Operations Research Letters
  • Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS)
  • INFORMS Workshop on Data Science (DS 2022)
  • Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS 2022)
  • ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD)
  • International Conference on Knowledge Science, Engineering and Management (KSEM)
  • Supervising
    Dissertation Superviser for
    M.Sc. Students at HKU (co-advise with Max Z.J. Shen and Shaochong Lin)
    Class of 2024: Jiaxuan Bai, Sijia Liu, Yiting Cai, Jiayu Li, Ziang Liang, and Zhongda Yang
    Class of 2025: Min Lin, Lang Wang, Yuanjie Cai, Shangyu Yao, Siyuan Cheng, Jingchen Zhou, Shilu Huang, Yuanyan Song, Kanghui Li, Yaowu Cui, Yifan Yang, Kaiou Hu, and Qidong Ge
    Class of 2026: Yanjun Wang, Fangyuan Zheng, Honglin Wang, Yicong Li, Jiahong Liu, Sihan Rong, Junrong Wang, and Xinye Shen
    Tianyun Jin, Siyuan Cheng, Shangyu Yao, Dissertation Award, Department of Data and Systems Engineering, HKU
    Tianyun Jin, Best Conference Paper Award, 2nd Prize, Frontiers of Digital Twins in Intelligent Manufacturing and Smart Cities, NSFC/RGC Conference, Hong Kong, 2025
  • Funding
    Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme (RAISe+), Jun. 2025 - Jun. 2030
    HK$ 50,149,000, HKU and OptiMax AI
    Title: Data-driven AI Supply Chain Management Platform.
    National Key Research and Development Project - Key Special Project, Dec. 2024 - Nov. 2027
    ¥27,000,000, HKU-SIRI (¥1,440,000)
    Role: Co-I (Co-PI: Shaochong Lin)
    Title: New-generation Smart Manufacturing ERP.

Awards & Certifications

  • Best Conference Paper Award, 2nd Prize, Frontiers of Digital Twins in Intelligent Manufacturing and Smart Cities, NSFC/RGC Conference, Hong Kong, 2025
  • Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Rutgers Graduate School-Newark, 2022
  • Dean’s Competition for Summer Ph.D. Research Assistants, Rutgers Business School, 2022
  • Dean’s Competition for Summer Ph.D. Research Assistants, Rutgers Business School, 2021
  • Dean's Office Summer Scholarships, Rutgers Business School, 2020
  • Graduate School-Newark Scholarship, Rutgers University, 2020
  • University Merit Graduate Scholars Award, Rutgers University, 2019
  • The Sceond Prize People's Scholarship, UESTC, 2016
  • China National College Student Information Security Contest, Bronze Award, 2016
  • China National College Student Entrepreneurship Contest, Bronze Award, 2016
  • China National College Student Information Security Contest, Bronze Award, 2015
  • The Western Star of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 4th Place - Bronze Award, 2015
  • China Mathematical Olympiad, First Prize, Shanxi Province, 2012
  • The Second Level Athletic in China, Weiqi (Go), 2012
  • Weiqi (Go) Amateur 5 dan, 2012