Cong Han Lim The dual decomposition of stochastic mixed-integer programs can be solved by the projected subgradient algorithm. We show how to make this algorithm more amenable to parallelization in a master-worker model by describing two approaches, which can be combined in a natural way. The first approach partitions the scenarios into batches, and makes separate use of … Read more
We study valid inequalities for optimization models that contain both binary indicator variables and separable concave constraints. These models reduce to a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) when the concave constraints are ignored, or to a nonconvex global optimization problem when the binary restrictions are ignored. In algorithms designed to solve these problems to global optimality, … Read more
The Birkhoff polytope (the convex hull of the set of permutation matrices) is frequently invoked in formulating relaxations of optimization problems over permutations. The Birkhoff polytope is represented using Θ(n^2) variables and constraints, significantly more than the n variables one could use to represent a permutation as a vector. Using a recent construction of Goemans … Read more
Sample-average approximations (SAA) are a practical means of finding approximate solutions of stochastic programming problems involving an extremely large (or infinite) number of scenarios. SAA can also be used to find estimates of a lower bound on the optimal objective value of the true problem which, when coupled with an upper bound, provides confidence intervals … Read more