Opportunities to Join or Collaborate with SECQUOIA
SECQUOIA welcomes inquiries from motivated prospective Ph.D. and M.S. students, postdoctoral associates, undergraduate researchers, visiting scholars, and academic, national-laboratory, or industrial collaborators working at the interface of mathematical optimization, process systems engineering, quantum and emerging computing, and scientific machine learning.
Important note on graduate and postdoctoral inquiries: Prospective Ph.D. students, M.S. students, and postdoctoral researchers interested in working with Prof. David E. Bernal Neira should not apply through Purdue University admissions for new openings. Instead, please reach out directly through the Contact & Inquiries form below to discuss current opportunities and institutional pathways.
Who Should Reach Out
- Prospective Ph.D. Students and Postdoctoral Associates — Candidates with strong quantitative preparation in chemical engineering, operations research, industrial and systems engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, physics, or closely related disciplines. Experience with mathematical programming (
MILP,MINLP,GDP), scientific software development (Python/PyomoorJulia/JuMP), quantum/Ising algorithms, or machine learning for physical and engineering systems is especially valued. - Prospective M.S. Thesis Researchers — Graduate students interested in thesis or project-based research in nonlinear/disjunctive optimization, scientific machine learning, or quantum/hybrid computing should inquire directly via the Contact & Inquiries form below (not through Purdue admissions) with their research interests and timeline.
- Current Purdue Undergraduate Researchers — Motivated undergraduate students currently enrolled at Purdue University (in chemical engineering, computer science, electrical/computer engineering, mechanical engineering, mathematics, physics, or related majors) interested in semester research, senior thesis projects, or summer programs such as SURF/CISTAR may reach out through the Contact & Inquiries form below with their transcript/CV, programming experience, and weekly availability.
- Visiting Graduate and Undergraduate Researchers — Scholars with external fellowships, exchange support, or institutional sponsorship interested in multi-month research visits are encouraged to inquire ahead of their target dates via the Contact & Inquiries form below.
- Academic, National-Laboratory, and Industrial Collaborators — We actively partner on joint research projects, benchmark problem suites, industrial optimization case studies, guest tutorials, and open-source software development (
MindtPy,QUBO.jl,GDPLib,Pyomo.GDP).
How to Inquire
Please send a message to Prof. David E. Bernal Neira using the Contact & Inquiries form below and include:
- Intended role and timeline — Specify whether you are inquiring as a prospective Ph.D. or M.S. student, postdoctoral fellow, undergraduate researcher, visiting scholar, or collaborator, along with your target start window.
- Research alignment — Briefly highlight one or two research themes, publications, or open-source software tools from SECQUOIA that connect with your technical interests and prior work.
- CV and scholarly links — Include links to your CV, Google Scholar, GitHub, ORCID, or academic webpage so we can review your background and code/publications.
Group Values, Mentoring & Open-Science Practices
SECQUOIA is built around active mentorship, intellectual curiosity, open-source stewardship, and scientific rigor:
- Collaborative Mentoring & Inclusion — Researchers work closely with Prof. Bernal Neira and peers across chemical engineering, operations research, computer science, and physics, with regular individual advising, subgroup technical deep-dives, and inclusive community standards detailed on Mission & Vision and DEI and Outreach.
- Open Science & Reproducible Software — We release documented, peer-reviewed software (
Pyomo.GDP,MindtPy,QUBO.jl,GDPLib) and benchmark datasets (QOBLIB) so computational claims can be independently reproduced and extended. - Responsible Use of AI & Computational Tools — We study and use modern AI and agentic research tools transparently: human authors remain fully accountable for mathematical proofs, code correctness, experimental verification, citations, and scholarly writing, as illustrated in our agentic research methodology.
Meet our current researchers and alumni on Members and learn more about Prof. Bernal Neira on Principal Investigator.