Cristian J. Palma Foster

Hey! I'm a third-year PhD student in Operations Research at Cornell University, and very fortunate to be advised by Éva Tardos. My research interests include algorithmic game theory, learning in games, online learning and bandits, approximation algorithms, and combinatorial optimization.

Previously, I studied Mathematical Engineering at Universidad de Chile and École CentraleSupélec, and later earned an MSc in Applied Mathematics at Universidad de Chile, advised by José Soto.

News

August 2026: Visiting NYU for the 2026–27 academic year, hosted by Anupam Gupta.

July 2026: I presented our work on strategic queuing systems at EC'26 in Rome!

April 2026: Learning in Strategic Queuing Systems with Small Buffers was accepted to EC'26.

Publications

Learning in Strategic Queuing Systems with Small Buffers
Ariana Abel, Yoav Kolumbus, Jeronimo Martin Duque, Cristian Palma Foster, Eva Tardos.
27th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC'26), 2026.
Load Balancing Algorithms on Scheduling Problems with a Concave Function of the Load
Cristian Palma Foster.
Master's Thesis, 2024 (in Spanish).

Talks and Posters

Strategic Queuing Systems

ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC), Sapienza University of Rome. 2026

New York City Operations Day 2026, Baruch College. 2026

INFORMS Student Day, Georgia Institute of Technology. 2026

Algorithms and Game Theory Group, McGill University. 2026

Young Researchers Workshop 2025, Cornell University. 2025

ORIE PhD Colloquium, Cornell University. 2025

Algorithms, Game Theory, Combinatorics and Optimization Seminar, Chile. 2025

Concave Load Balancing

New York City Operations Day 2025, New York University. 2025

XIX Summer School in Discrete Mathematics, Center for Mathematical Modelling Chile. 2024

Discrete Mathematics Session of the XCI Annual Meeting of the SOMACHI. 2023

Algorithms, Game Theory, Combinatorics and Optimization Seminar, Chile. 2023

Seminar of Master Students, Mathematical Engineering, University of Chile. 2023

Symposium of Graduate Students, School of Engineering, University of Chile. 2023

Teaching Assistantships

Algorithmic Game Theory at Cornell University. 2025

Practical Tools for Operations Research at Cornell University. 2025

Graph Theory at University of Chile. 2023

Calculability and Computational Complexity at University of Chile. 2023

Mixed Integer Programming at University of Chile. 2023, 2022

Combinatorial Algorithms at University of Chile. 2022

Partial Differential Equations at École CentraleSupélec. 2021

Measure Theory and Probabilities at École CentraleSupélec. 2020

Multivariable Calculus at University of Chile. 2019

Algorithms and Data Structures at University of Chile. 2018

Honors

Eiffel Excellence Scholarship granted by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. 2019 - 2021

First Place on Engineering Generation Ranking, University of Chile. 2018

Andrés Bello Excellence Scholarship granted by the University of Chile. 2017 - 2022

Golden Medal at the National Mathematical Olympiad of SOMACHI, Chile. 2016

Contact

I'm always happy to connect! Feel free to reach out!