Alum spotlight: Vipul Jain

Twenty years after Vipul Jain ('99) wrote his dissertation, part of it was granted an award for having important contributions to its field. He was surprised, but pleased; of the five papers making up his Ph.D. dissertation, this one was his favorite.

INFORMS Journal on Computing awarded its Test of Time Paper Award to "Algorithms for hybrid MILP/CP models for a class of optimization problems." Co-author Ignacio Grossmann was Jain's advisor in Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Chemical Engineering.

The paper discusses methods for solving scheduling problems, such as trying to schedule classes in the most efficient manner given limited time slots. When Jain was a student, mathematicians would solve these problems using operations research methods, while computer scientists solved them algorithmically. In their paper, Jain and Grossmann showed that using techniques from both disciplines was more efficient than using one alone. Jain believes that this approach is what has allowed the paper to have the impact that it has.

Combining the knowledge and processes of several disciplines is an approach Jain has also drawn from in his career. He started in mathematical modeling to solve supply chain problems. After the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s, he made a career change into finance, where he has spent the last 19 years.

Now, Jain is a managing director at Mizuho Americas. He is one of the industry experts in a sector called mortgage-backed securities, in which he monitors consumer behavior with regards to mortgage payments. He analyzes how consumer behavior affects the value of securities made from home loans, which is an $8 trillion market and "one of the most liquid markets in the world," he says.

When the housing market was unraveling and impacting the financial system in unexpected ways, that's where my systems engineering mindset came in very handy.

Vipul Jain, Managing Director, Mizuho Americas

Jain sat in on several finance courses while he was a student at CMU, which is what sparked his interest in the field. He switched into finance right before the housing crash of 2008, which he describes as "tough but interesting, because the housing market was unraveling at that time and it was impacting the financial system in unexpected ways. And that's where my systems engineering mindset came in very handy." His background in engineering, not in business, did not hinder him in this environment; instead, it allowed him to thrive. "The difference between how long you'd spent in the financial industry suddenly didn't matter as much because nobody had experienced problems like these in the housing market since the Great Depression," he says.

Jain studied engineering because he likes solving practical problems involving large amounts of data. He has found that his work as a financial analyst involves many of the same thought processes as when he was an engineer. "I think of my job as research on steroids," he says. "Here, in some ways, I'm writing a paper every week." The rigor and discipline of his doctoral program has been very useful in his career, as has the ability to quickly become an expert in a new field. "The process of becoming an expert in a field that I don't know much about is what I learnt at CMU. So, that's why I've managed to switch domains, switch to new topics, and I can, in a matter of a year or two, become an expert in the field."

Jain's job is incredibly interdisciplinary, requiring skills in finance, math, data analysis, and writing. He discourages current students from being siloed in their approach. "Just try out many different things you like; learn many new and different things," he says. At the core of his advice are flexibility and the ability to work across disciplines. They have been defining qualities for him since his days in the interdisciplinary environment at CMU.