Abstract

Optimization of medicinal development pipelines and supply chains is imperative for timely and successful in vivo trials in the pharmaceutical industry. Disruption can lead to delay and unavailability of a drug, which can compromise the efficiency and completeness of a trial, or even jeopardize the validity of the trial itself. A myriad of scientific, logistical, and real-world constraints shape the formulation of the optimization problems required to tackle these problems.

In this project, the student will explore and test novel optimization and constraint analysis techniques as applied to varying scenarios within the drug pipeline. The goal is to advance capabilities around identifying, classifying, and solving differing optimization problems which occur in the development and delivery of medicines. This project is relatively open-ended, as there is no ab initio finished product described. Therefore, the student should be ready to explore and evaluate current academic work and applicable solutions. The student should also be prepared, with aid from supervisors and contacts within the company, to demonstrate their findings in the form of visualizations, code-based models, or another appropriate medium.