Introduction
Download PDFHello, my name is Daan Rutten. I am currently a Senior Applied Scientist working in inventory placement at Amazon. My Ph.D. research focused on the performance of large-scale systems and the optimization thereof by incorporating machine learning algorithms and making smart design decisions. My previous work has studied how to structure cloud networks in the presence of task-server constraints, how to implement machine learning predictions while maintaining robustness and how to learn optimal decision policies in dynamic environments.
Research areas
Large-scale online optimization and reinforcement learning Distributed and stochastic algorithms with applications to supply chains Probabilistic modeling and algorithmic analysis on complex networksProgramming languages
Java Python SQL C++ MATLAB RProgramming tools
AWS (EC2, S3, Redshift) PyTorch, NumPy, SciPy FICO Xpress GitEducation
Ph.D. in Operations Research
Georgia Institute of Technology | 2020 - 2024M.Sc. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Summa Cum Laude
Eindhoven University of Technology | 2018 - 2020B.Sc. in Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics Summa Cum Laude
Eindhoven University of Technology | 2016 - 2018Employment
Senior Applied Scientist
Amazon | Oct. 2025 - present- Lead scientist for product placement system processing over 10B units annually.
- Built simulation environments and reinforcement learning-based optimization for sortation in crossdocks.
Applied Scientist
Amazon | Feb. 2024 - Sept. 2025- Developed and deployed two new online learning algorithms world-wide.
- Improved legacy placement models, achieving a 1,000× speedup in solve time.
Visiting Scholar
Harvard University | Aug. 2023 - Dec. 2024- Invited by Prof. Michael Mitzenmacher to collaborate on stochastic optimization research.
Applied Scientist Intern
Amazon | May. 2022/2023 - Aug. 2022/2023- Created unsupervised clustering algorithms for delivery to rural destinations.
- Developed robust optimization models resilient to high forecast uncertainty.
Machine Learning Intern
Applied Materials | May. 2021 - Aug. 2021- Implemented a complex, numerical simulation to optimize an AR device.
- Applied advanced techniques to optimize the manufacturing workflow of AR devices.
Full Stack Engineer
Games for Health Europe | Mar. 2016 - July 2022- Creator and lead software engineer for Whappbot, a web-based chatbot.
Regional Department Lead
TopTutors | Aug. 2016 - May.2019- Responsible for managing the tutoring of more than 200 high-school students by over 40 tutors.
Manuscripts
Distributed Rate Scaling in Large-Scale Service Systems
Rutten, D., Zubeldia, M., & Mukherjee D. Operations Research | 2025Mean-field Analysis for Load Balancing on Spatial Graphs
Rutten, D., & Mukherjee D. The Annals of Applied Probability 34.6 | 2024Distributed Rate Scaling in Large-Scale Service Systems
Rutten, D., Zubeldia, M., & Mukherjee D. ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review | 2023Mean-field Analysis for Load Balancing on Spatial Graphs
Rutten, D., & Mukherjee D. In Abstract Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGMETRICS International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems (pp. 27-28) | 2023Smoothed Online Optimization with Untrusted Predictions
Rutten, D., Christianson N., Mukherjee D., & Wierman A. Proceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems, 7(1), 1-36 | 2023A New Approach to Capacity Scaling Augmented With Unreliable Machine Learning Predictions
Rutten, D., & Mukherjee, D. Mathematics of Operations Research | 2023Load Balancing Under Strict Compatibility Constraints
Rutten, D., & Mukherjee, D. Mathematics of Operations Research | 2022Capacity Scaling Augmented With Unreliable Machine Learning Predictions
Rutten, D., & Mukherjee, D. ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review, 49(2), 24-26 | 2022Load Balancing Under Strict Compatibility Constraints
Rutten, D., & Mukherjee, D. In Abstract Proceedings of the 2021 ACM SIGMETRICS/International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems (pp. 51-52) | 2021Modeling Rydberg Gases Using Random Sequential Adsorption on Random Graphs
Rutten, D., & Sanders, J. Physical Review A, 103(3), 033302 | 2021Awards
Ed Iacobucci Research Fellowship in Applied Probability and Simulation
Georgia Institute of Technology | Spring 2024George Nicholson Student Paper Competition Finalist
INFORMS conference | Fall 2023ACM SIGMETRICS Best Paper Award
ACM SIGMETRICS conference | Summer 2023ACM SIGMETRICS Student Grant $1000
ACM SIGMETRICS conference | Summer 2023INFORMS Junior Faculty Paper Award Finalist
INFORMS conference | Fall 2022Stochastic Networks Student Grant
Stochastic Networks conference | Summer 2022Alice and John Jarvis Ph.D. Student Research Award $500
Georgia Institute of Technology | Fall 2021ACM SIGMETRICS Student Grant
ACM SIGMETRICS conference | Summer 2021ARC-TRIAD Fellowship $5,000
Georgia Institute of Technology | Spring 2021ASML Young Talent Award €5,000
Royal Dutch Society of Sciences (KHWM) | Fall 2020Stewart Fellowship $10,000
Georgia Institute of Technology | Fall 2020Holland Scholarship €1,250
Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science | Fall 2019Young Talent Incentive Prize €500
Royal Dutch Society of Sciences (KHWM) | Fall 2016Teaching
Graduate Teaching Assistant for Stochastic Processes II
Georgia Institute of Technology | Spring 2022Graduate Teaching Assistant for Stochastic Processes 2
Eindhoven University of Technology | Spring 2020Mentorship
Improving Multi-armed Bandits with Confidence Estimates
Xie, Y., & Rutten, D. Georgia Institute of Technology | 2022Online Knapsack Problem
KandageDon, U., & Rutten D. SURE REU | 2021Get in touch
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I am always happy to know who is reading my website.