The Lagrangian Relaxation for the Combinatorial Integral Approximation Problem

We are interested in methods to solve mixed-integer nonlinear optimal control problems (MIOCPs) constrained by ordinary di erential equations and combinatorial constraints on some of the control functions. To solve these problems we use a rst discretize, then opti- mize approach to get a specially structured mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP). We decompose this MINLP into an … Read more

Improved Load Plan Design Through Integer Programming Based Local Search

We present integer programming models of the service network design problem faced by less-than-truckload (LTL) freight transportation carriers, and a solution approach for the large-scale instances that result in practical applications. To accurately represent freight consolidation opportunities, the models use a fine discretization of time. Furthermore, the models simultaneously route freight and empty trailers, and … Read more

Layered Formulation for the Robust Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

This paper studies the vehicle routing problem with time windows where travel times are uncertain and belong to a predetermined polytope. The objective of the problem is to find a set of routes that services all nodes of the graph and that are feasible for all values of the travel times in the uncertainty polytope. … Read more

Exact and heuristic approaches to the budget-constrained dynamic uncapacitated facility location-network design problem

Facility location-network design problems seek to simultaneously determine the locations of fa- cilities and the design of the network connecting the facilities so as to best serve a set of clients accessing the facilities via the network. Here we study a dynamic (multi-period) version of the problem, subject to a budget constraint limiting the investment … Read more

Solving multi-stage stochastic mixed integer linear programs by the dual dynamic programming approach

We consider a model of medium-term commodity contracts management. Randomness takes place only in the prices on which the commodities are exchanged, whilst state variable is multi-dimensional, and decision variable is integer. In our previous article, we proposed an algorithm based on the quantization of random process and a dual dynamic programming type approach to … Read more

On feasibility based bounds tightening

Mathematical programming problems involving nonconvexities are usually solved to optimality using a (spatial) Branch-and-Bound algorithm. Algorithmic efficiency depends on many factors, among which the widths of the bounding box for the problem variables at each Branch-and-Bound node naturally plays a critical role. The practically fastest box-tightening algorithm is known as FBBT (Feasibility-Based Bounds Tightening): an … Read more

A New Approach to the Feasibility Pump in Mixed Integer Programming

The feasibility pump is a recent, highly successful heuristic for general mixed integer linear programming problems. We show that the feasibility pump heuristic can be interpreted as a discrete version of the proximal point algorithm. In doing so, we extend and generalize some of the fundamental results in this area to provide new supporting theory. … Read more

Boosting the Feasibility Pump

The Feasibility Pump (FP) has proved to be an effective method for finding feasible solutions to mixed integer programming problems. FP iterates between a rounding procedure and a projection procedure, which together provide a sequence of points alternating between LP feasible but fractional solutions, and integer but LP relaxed infeasible solutions. The process attempts to … Read more

Optimal Response to Epidemics and Cyber Attacks in Networks

This paper introduces novel formulations for optimally responding to epidemics and cyber attacks in networks. In our models, at a given time period, network nodes (e.g., users or computing resources) are associated with probabilities of being infected, and each network edge is associated with some probability of propagating the infection. A decision maker would like … Read more

Using Symmetry to Optimize Over the Sherali-Adams Relaxation

In this paper we examine the impact of using the Sherali-Adams procedure on highly symmetric integer programming problems. Linear relaxations of the extended formulations generated by Sherali-Adams can be very large, containing on the order of n choose d many variables for the level-d closure. When large amounts of symmetry are present in the problem … Read more