The minimum connectivity inference (MCI) problem represents an NP-hard generalization of the well-known minimum spanning tree problem. Given a set of vertices and a finite collection of subsets (of this vertex set), the MCI problem requires to find an edge set of minimal cardinality so that the vertices of each subset are connected. Although the … Read more
Benders’ decomposition is a popular mathematical and constraint programming algorithm that is widely applied to exploit problem structure arising from real-world applications. While useful for exploiting structure in mathematical and constraint programs, the use of Benders’ decomposition typically requires significant implementation effort to achieve an effective solution algorithm. Traditionally, Benders’ decomposition has been viewed as … Read more
Tailored mixed-integer optimal control policies for real-world applications usually have to avoid very short successive changes of the active integer control. Minimum dwell time constraints express this requirement and can be included into the combinatorial integral approximation decomposition, which solves mixed-integer optimal control problems by solving one continuous nonlinear program and one mixed-integer linear program. … Read more
For sparse graphs, the odd cycle polytope can be used to compute useful bounds for the maximum stable set problem quickly. Yannakakis introduced an extended formulation for the odd cycle inequalities of the stable set polytope in 1991, which provides a direct way to optimize over the odd cycle polytope in polynomial time, although there … Read more
We consider a problem involving a set of agents who need to coordinate their actions to optimize the sum of their objectives while satisfying a common resource constraint. The objective functions of the agents are unknown to them a priori and are revealed in an online manner. The resulting problem is an online optimization problem … Read more
Cutting planes from the Boolean Quadric Polytope (BQP) can be used to reduce the optimality gap of the NP-hard nonconvex quadratic program with box constraints (BoxQP). It is known that all cuts of the Chvátal-Gomory closure of the BQP are A-odd cycle inequalities. We obtain a compact extended relaxation of all A-odd cycle inequalities, which … Read more
In state-of-the-art mixed-integer programming solvers, a large array of reduction techniques are applied to simplify the problem and strengthen the model formulation before starting the actual branch-and-cut phase. Despite their mathematical simplicity, these methods can have significant impact on the solvability of a given problem. However, a crucial property for employing presolving techniques successfully is … Read more
In this work, we consider a risk-averse ultimate pit problem where the grade of the mineral is uncertain. We propose a two-stage formulation of the problem and discuss which properties are desirable for a risk measure in this context. We show that the only risk measure that satisfies these properties is the entropic. We propose … Read more
There are currently two broad strategies for optimal Multi-agent Pathfinding (MAPF): (1) search-based methods, which model and solve MAPF directly, and (2) compilation-based solvers, which reduce MAPF to instances of well-known combinatorial problems, and thus, can benefit from advances in solver techniques. In this work, we present an optimal algorithm, BCP, that hybridizes both approaches … Read more
The distributed operating room (OR) scheduling problem aims to find an assignment of surgeries to ORs across collaborating hospitals that share their waiting lists and ORs. We propose a stochastic extension of this problem where surgery durations are considered to be uncertain. In order to obtain solutions for the challenging stochastic model, we use sample … Read more