The University of Texas at Austin
College of Engineering

Elmira Popova

Dr. Elmira Popova earned her Ph.D. in operations research from Case Western Reserve University in 1995. She joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in that same year.

Dr. Popova specializes in stochastic processes, Bayesian statistics and stochastic optimization. She is interested in reliability analysis and design of optimal maintenance strategies for randomly failing systems. Popova studies quantitative finance such as trading strategies, equity pricing calculations and asset allocation decisions. She has also worked with researchers from Brazil to forecast energy pricing and load. One of her current projects, in collaboration with the McCombs School of Business, concerns risk-informed asset management for electric and nuclear power generation. The project addresses risk assessment, risk management, and reliability problems that arise in electric power generation. The research seeks to help industry officials make the best operational and executive management decisions by more accurately accounting for seemingly unpredictable issues such as outage duration and regulatory safety constraints, as well as uncertainty related to energy prices, mechanism failures, repair costs and other factors.

Research interests:

  • Stochastic modeling of systems
  • Reliability modeling and estimation
  • Risk management

Most Significant Journal Articles

  1. Damien P., Galenko A., Popova E., Hanson T., "Bayesian semiparametric analysis for a single item maintenance optimization", European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 182, (2007), pp. 794-805
  2. Morton D., Popova E., Popova I, " "Efficient fund of hedge funds construction under downside risk measures", Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 30, (2006), pp. 503-518
  3. Morton D. and E. Popova, "A Bayesian stochastic programming approach to an employee scheduling problem", IIE Transactions of Operations Engineering, Vol. 36, (2004), pp. 155-167
  4. Chen, T-M , E. Popova, "Bayesian maintenance policies during a warranty period", Communications in Statistics: Stochastic Models, Vol. 16, (2000), 1, pp. 121-142
  5. Popova E., Yu W., Kee E., Sun A., Richards D., Grantom R., "Basic factors to forecast maintenance cost and failure processes for nuclear power plants", Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 236, (2006), pp. 1641-1647