Esteban Leiva

I am a PhD student in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). My current research focuses on discrete optimization and machine learning.

I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Universidad de Los Andes in 2025. During this time, I also worked as a research assistant at the Center for Optimization and Applied Probability (COPA).

Contact: leivamon[at]usc.edu
GitHub  /  ORCID

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Research

I enjoy working on problems that involve optimization (a rather broad umbrella, I’ll admit).

project image An Exact Method for Reliable Shortest Path Problems with Correlation
Esteban Leiva, Santiago Morales, Daniel Yamín, and Andrés L. Medaglia
Networks, 2025    (Runner up poster. OW2024 )
code /

Extension of the pulse algorithm for reliable shortest path problems with correlation.
project image Apprenticeship learning with prior beliefs using inverse optimization
Mauricio Junca and Esteban Leiva
Arxiv, 2025   
arXiv / code /

A method for incorporating prior beliefs to apprenticeship learning using inverse optimization.

Research

I enjoy working on problems that involve optimization (a rather broad umbrella, I’ll admit).

project image An Exact Method for Reliable Shortest Path Problems with Correlation
Esteban Leiva, Santiago Morales, Daniel Yamín, and Andrés L. Medaglia
Networks, 2025    (Runner up poster. OW2024 )
code /

Extension of the pulse algorithm for reliable shortest path problems with correlation.
project image Apprenticeship learning with prior beliefs using inverse optimization
Mauricio Junca and Esteban Leiva
Arxiv, 2025   
arXiv / code /

A method for incorporating prior beliefs to apprenticeship learning using inverse optimization.