Optimisation research group

OPTIMISATION

The Science of Taking Better Decisions

Description

Solving an optimisation problem is about finding solutions that satisfy constraints. One is often interested in the best solutions. Our group focuses on discrete optimisation, where a solution might be an allocation of resources (say a personnel roster, with work regulations and employee preferences as constraints), a packing (say of containers), a plan, a set of routes (say of vehicles in logistics, or of dataflows in a communication network), a schedule (say a school timetable), or a plan for energy usage (say for the charging of electric buses).

The challenge is to find good solutions fast. Our research focuses on identifying new and efficient optimisation models and methods, often driven by real-world applications, and usually drawing from the subfields of mathematical programming, constraint programming, and local search.

Research Topics

  • Constraint programming (CP) is an AI approach to optimisation: modelling languages; high-level constraints; high-level types for decision variables; symmetry breaking
  • Local search (LS): modelling languages; search languages; solver design; autonomous search
  • Mathematical optimisation (MP): efficient mathematical modelling; linear programming (LP); mixed integer (linear) programming (MIP)
  • Applied optimisation: air traffic management; resource allocation in networks and mobile communications; cutting patterns for sawmills; software testing, analysis, and verification; vehicle routing for waste management; vehicle routing for winter road maintenance; charging of electric buses; etc

Faculty Members

Events

  • We organised CPAIOR 2024, the 21st International Conference on the Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research.
  • We are the founding node of NordConsNet, the Nordic Network for researchers and practitioners of Constraint programming: if you want to be informed of its annual workshops, then sign up to its email list by contacting Justin Pearson.

Research Awards

Software

Education

  • 1DL442: Combinatorial Optimisation and Constraint Programming (10 credits): CP, LS
  • 1DL451: Modelling for Combinatorial Optimisation (5 credits): CP, LS, MP, SAT, SMT
  • 1DL481: Algorithms and Data Structures III (5 credits): LS, MP, SAT, SMT
  • 1TD184: [Continuous] Optimisation (5 credits): MP

Contact

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