Lucas Waddell Problem Definition: Final exam scheduling is a common but challenging optimization problem. At Bucknell University, a small liberal arts institution, the problem is particularly complex and has historically required the Registrar’s Office to spend months manually designing an exam schedule each semester. Methodology: We worked in close collaboration with the Registrar’s Office. First, we created … Read more
We introduce a polyhedral framework for characterizing instances of quadratic combinatorial optimization programs (QCOPs) as being linearizable, meaning that the quadratic objective can be equivalently rewritten as linear in such a manner that preserves the objective function value at all feasible solutions. In particular, we show that an instance is linearizable if and only if … Read more
The quadratic assignment problem (QAP) is an extremely challenging NP-hard combinatorial optimization program. Due to its difficulty, a research emphasis has been to identify special cases that are polynomially solvable. Included within this emphasis are instances which are linearizable; that is, which can be rewritten as a linear assignment problem having the property that the … Read more