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Eunseong Jang, a Ph.D. student in the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Institute for Systems Research (ISR), has been named a winner of Colorado State University’s Business for a Better World Dissertation Proposal Competition. The award recognizes doctoral research with strong potential to improve societal well-being and includes $6,000 in research support and an invitation to present at the College’s Business for a Better World Research Symposium.
Jang, co-supervised by Professors Margrét Bjarnadóttir (Smith) and S. Raghu Raghavan (ISR/Smith School), is developing statistical and optimization models to help agencies better understand and disrupt illicit narcotic supply chains despite sparse and incomplete data. His dissertation, “Spatial Analysis and Optimization Models for Better Understanding of Illicit Drug Supply Chains With Sparse and Incomplete Data,” advances three key lines of inquiry:
- Hotspot identification in the United States through improved spatial analysis of trafficking activity.
- Drivers of trafficking patterns in Colombia using regression-based methods.
- Inference of cocaine flows across the U.S. using a data optimization framework robust to missing or obscured information, such as seizure records that do not capture full network behavior.
This research aligns with and extends an NSF-funded collaborative project led by Professor Raghavan, Discovery, Analysis, and Disruption of Illicit Narcotic Supply Networks. The five-year effort takes a multidisciplinary approach that integrates operations research, computer science, criminology, public policy, geography, and economics to analyze network structure and simulate interdiction strategies. The University of Maryland portion of the award totals $743,806, with UMD co-PIs Margret Bjarnadottir, John Dickerson, Greg Midgette, and Marcus Boyd. The team collaborates with Michigan State University faculty Siddharth Chandra (PI) and Galia Benitez (co-PI) on a companion project. The work is supported by NSF’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences through the Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks program.
Jang’s recognition highlights ISR’s and the Smith School’s commitment to applying systems science, analytics, and optimization to complex challenges that affect public safety and policy.
October 10, 2025
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