Do community first responder networks have potential?
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Applications – OR and Management Sciences
A Dynamic Strategic Plan for the Transition to a Clean Bus Fleet using Multi-Stage Stochastic Programming with a Case Study in Istanbul
In recent years, the transition to clean bus fleets has accelerated. Although this transition might bring environmental and economic benefits, it requires a long-term strategic plan due to the large investment costs involved. This paper proposes a multi-stage stochastic program to optimize strategic plans for the clean bus fleet transition that explicitly considers the uncertainty … Read more
An optimization framework to provide volunteers with task selection autonomy and group opportunities
Abstract Nonprofit Organizations (NPOs) rely on volunteers to support community needs but struggle with making strategic volunteer-to-task assignments to enable volunteer satisfaction, and completion of complex tasks. Creation of volunteer groups and their assignment to NPO tasks can help achieve these goals by providing volunteers with opportunity for networking, collaboration, and peer learning. However, strategically … Read more
Simple and Effective: A Deterministic Auction with Support Information
We study an auction design problem where a seller aims to sell a single item to multiple bidders with independent private values. The seller knows only an upper bound on these values and does not know their distribution. The objective is to devise a deterministic auction mechanism effective across a broad set of distributions. We … Read more
Integrated Optimization of Timetabling and Electric Vehicle Scheduling: A Case Study of Aachen, Germany
We tackle the integrated planning problem of periodic timetabling and electric vehicle scheduling, crucial for cities transitioning to electric bus fleets. Given existing timetables, we allow only minor modifications and propose an iterative solution approach that addresses the Electric Vehicle Scheduling Problem (EVSP) in each iteration. Due to the NP-hard nature of EVSP, we employ … Read more
Robust Appointment Scheduling for General Convex Uncertainty Sets
The Appointment Scheduling Problem (ASP) involves scheduling a finite number of customers with uncertain service times, served consecutively by a single server, with the goal of minimizing the weighted costs of waiting time, idle time, and overtime. Previous studies employing stochastic programming were limited to small instances or constrained by restrictive assumptions. We introduce a … Read more
Energy-efficient Timetables for Railway Traffic: Incorporating DC Power Models
Efficient operation of underground railway systems is critical not only for maintaining punctual service but also for minimizing energy consumption, a key factor in reducing operational costs and environmental impact. To evaluate the energy consumption of the timetables, this paper delves into the development of mathematical models to accurately represent energy dynamics within the underground … Read more
Social Classroom Seating Assignment Problems
University students benefit academically, personally and professionally from an expansion of their in-class social network. To facilitate this, we present a novel and broadly applicable optimization approach that exposes individuals to as many as possible peers that they do not know. This novel class of ‘social seating assignment problems’ is parameterized by the social network, … Read more
Designing sustainable diet plans by solving triobjective integer programs
We present an algorithm for triobjective nonlinear integer programs that combines the epsilon-constrained method with available oracles for biobjective integer programs. We prove that our method is able to detect the nondominated set within a finite number of iterations. Specific strategies to avoid the detection of weakly nondominated points are devised. The method is then … Read more
Analysis and discussion of single and multi-objective IP formulations for the Truck-to-dock Door Assignment Problem
This paper is devoted to the Truck-to-dock Door Assignment Problem. Two integer programming formulations introduced after 2009 are examined. Our review of the literature takes note of the criticisms and limitations addressed to the seminal work of 2009. Although the published adjustments that followed present strong argument and technical background, we have identified several errors, … Read more