Natashia Boland

Natashia Boland
Born 1967 (1967) (age 49)
Perth, Australia
Alma mater University of Western Australia
Occupation Professor at University of Western Australia (2008 - 2014) Researcher at University of Waterloo & Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Natashia Boland (born 1967) was a professor in the mathematics department at the University of Western Australia, where she was born and raised, from 2008 to 2014. Afterwards she pursued research at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the USA. Presently, Boland has contributed to over 60 publications of research. She has made major contributions to airline scheduling problems,

Early life

Boland was born in Perth, Western Australia. Her parents exposed her from an early age to the toys that would influence her to become what she has today. Legos and Meccano were the first toys given to her by her parents.[1] She showed curiosity and aptitude for building better systems to transport toys back and forth from various places.

Boland attended Churchlands High School for her secondary schooling, and was inspired by her mathematics teacher, who taught her for four of her five years of secondary schooling. She also attended the National Mathematics Summer School in Canberra.

Higher education

Boland pursued degrees in both mathematics and computer science attending the University of Western Australia. She at first hated computer science, but later began to love it as she realized how intertwined mathematics and computers were.[2] She began to explore the limitless possibilities that computer science had to offer, especially by writing programs that could display equations in more than just letters and numbers. For her honor degree, Boland studied with another researcher on robotics. Her aim was to explore how a robot could be controlled, and how to make this most efficient or effective. Upon completion of her honors program, Boland went on to complete a PhD, after which she completed two Postdoctoral Fellowships, one at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and one at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Research

One of the first problems to catch Natashia Boland's attention was in airline crew scheduling. She wished to explore the most efficient combinations of a particular crew by evaluating the multitudes of different combinations of crew members.[3] During a conference in Singapore, Boland was influenced by a Professor George Nemhauser to apply her field of research to "a line much more practical."

Presently, Dr. Boland has contributed to over 60 publications. Her most recent publication has been split into two parts, addressing the various problems involved in airline crew scheduling. She takes a mathematical approach on how best to allocate the resources available most efficiently.[4][5] She has also received many grants from various institutions to help fund her research.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Heard, Marian (2001). Dr. Natashia Boland, Operations Researcher Publisher: Australian Academy of Science
  2. ↑ Mathematical Minds interview by Gazette (2011, October)
  3. ↑ University of Newcastle, Australia (2011, October)
  4. ↑ Airline Planning benchmark problems-Part I
  5. ↑ Dr. Natashia Boland ResearcherID (Accessed 2016)
  6. ↑ Conjoint Professor Natashia Boland
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