Paula Navarrete

Education

2022 - 2028 PhD in Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Supervised by Yair Zick. GPA: 4.0.
• Coursework: Probabilistic Graphical Models, Advanced Algorithms, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Game Theory and Fairness, Database Design and Implementation.

2016 - 2019 M.S. in Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC)

• Supervised by Rodrigo Cienfuegos. GPA: 3.89.
• Thesis title: Assessment of the tsunami forecast capacity using sea surface data assimilation.

2012 - 2016 B.S. in Mathematical Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC)

• Minor in Industrial Engineering. GPA: 3.64
• Relevant Coursework: Linear Algebra, Probabilities, Statistical Inference, Stochastic Models, Multivariate Calculus, Real Analysis, Theory of Integration, Optimization under uncertainty, Simulation, Finance, Operations Management.

Current

2022 - Graduate Research Assistant, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

• Combinatorial Optimization, Scalable and Interpretable Algorithm Design.
• Researching on fair division settings such as course allocation, chore division and food donation.
• Algorithm analysis and implementation, data collection and experiment design.

Experience

Summer 2025 Research Scientist Intern, Amazon, Seattle, WA

• Researched on optimal policies for Whole Foods stores staff planning on the Grocery Science team.
• Built Bayesian inference model to learn labor availability patterns from real grocery data.
• Proposed simple staffing rule with potential cost reductions of up to 30%

Spring 2025 Special Research Student, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

• Explored market-based approaches and heuristics to achieve fair and efficient outcomes in chore division settings.
• Implemented algorithms and tested performance on synthetic and real-world datasets.

Summer 2024 Data Science Intern, Data Science for the Common Good (DS4CG), Amherst, MA

• Developed web tool for iNaturalist team to improve species range predictions with expert feedback.
• Designed and implemented a backend database to store machine learning predictions and user annotations. Built interactive front-end features, including a hexagonal grid for map annotations.

2021 - 2022 Data Scientist, Energy and Complex Systems Lab, Santiago, Chile

• Project lead on short and long term time series forecasting for solar energy and electric demand.
• Integrated deep learning models into solar operation management software.Designed and implemented data pipelines to ingest real-time measurements and connect models to production databases.

2019 - 2021 Researcher, Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), Santiago, Chile

• Researched on techniques for non-seismic data-based Near-Real time Tsunami forecasting.
• Implemented data assimilation algorithm; built PCA algorithm to select and cluster candidate observation points; designed heuristic to optimize observation networks. Achieved state-of-the-art forecasts by adding only three additional stations to existing network.
• Formulated and implemented Bayesian inference approach for tsunami source reconstruction by solving an inverse problem based on propagated Green functions.

Publications and Academic Works

2025 Navarrete Diaz, P., Cousins, C., Bissias, G., and Zick, Y. (2025). Scaling Fair and Efficient Course Allocation: From Theory to Practice. 10th interdisciplinary workshop series on Computational Social Choice (COMSOC), TU Vienna.

2024 Navarrete Diaz, P., Cousins, C., Bissias, G., and Zick, Y. (2024). Deploying Fair and Efficient Course Allocation Mechanisms. Incentives of Academia Workshop of the 25th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC'24), New Haven, CT.

2023 M. Gonzalez-Castillo, Navarrete Diaz, P., Tapia, T., Lorca, A., Olivares, D., and Negrete-Pincetic,M. (2023). Cleaning scheduling in photovoltaic solar farms with deterministic and stochastic optimization. Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, vol. 36, p. 101 147.

2021 Wang, Y., Tsushima, H., Satake K., and Navarrete Diaz, P. (2021). Review on recent progress in near-field tsunami forecasting using offshore tsunami measurements: Source inversion and data assimilation. Pure and Applied Geophysics, pp. 1–20.

2020 Navarrete Diaz, P., Cienfuegos, R., Satake, K., Wang, Y., Urrutia, A., Benavente, R., Catalan, P., Crempien, J., and Mulia, I. (2020). Sea surface network optimization for tsunami forecasting in the near field: Application to the 2015 illapel earthquake. Geophysical Journal International, vol. 221, no. 3, pp. 1640–1650.

2019 Wang, Y., Satake, K., Cienfuegos, R., Quiroz, M., Navarrete Diaz, P., (2019). Far-field tsunami data assimilation for the 2015 illapel earthquake. Geophysical Journal International, vol. 219, no. 1, pp. 514–521.

Pre-prints

2025Bissias, G., Cousins, C., Navarrete Diaz, P., and Zick, Y. (2025). Deploying Fair and Efficient Course Allocation Mechanisms.

Teaching

Spring 2024 Teaching Assistant, COMPSCI 683: Artificial Intelligence at University of Massachusetts Amherst

Fall 2023 Instructor, CICS 110: Introduction to Python at University of Massachusetts Amherst

Summer 2023 Teaching Assistant, COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty at University of Massachusetts Amherst

Spring 2023 Teaching Assistant, COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty at University of Massachusetts Amherst

Fall 2022 Teaching Assistant, COMPSCI 250: Introduction to Computation at University of Massachusetts Amherst

2020 - 2022 Adjunct Professor, ICS 2123: Stochastic Models at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

2013 - 2018 Teaching Assistant, Calculus II, Linear Algebra, Stochastic Models at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

Skills