A Columbia Engineering team was the runner-up at the 2025 Pacific Gas and Electric Company Energy Analytics Challenge, securing a second-place finish among 44 competing teams.
The team consisted of IEOR Ph.D. student Millend Roy, IEOR Professor Agostino Capponi, Vladimir Pyltsov (MechE), Yinbo Hu (MechE), and Professor Vijay Modi (MechE, EE).
The award, sponsored by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) and co-organized with the IISE - Energy Systems Division and the INFORMS Quality, Statistics and Reliability Section, recognizes individuals and teams who excel in designing an analytics-based solution to a practical energy systems challenge.
This year’s competition aimed to engage students and researchers in forecasting loads within the California energy market, operated by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO).
About Millend Roy:
Roy’s current research interests lie at the intersection of Energy Systems and Technology for Emerging Markets broadly in AI/ML in power systems, smart grid optimization, and reinforcement learning. Previously, he was a SCAI (Societal Impact through Cloud and Artificial Intelligence) Research Fellow at Microsoft Research Lab India.
About Professor Capponi:
Capponi's research interests are in market microstructure, financial technology, economic networks, and machine learning in finance. Capponi's research has been published in major journals of his field, including Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Monetary Economics, Management Science, Operations Research, and Mathematical Finance. Capponi is co-editor of the book Machine Learning and Data Sciences in Financial Markets, published by Cambridge University Press.
In 2025, Capponi was recognized by the Biden administration with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.
