What Could a Million Cores Do To Solve Integer Programs?

Given the steady increase in cores per CPU, it is only a matter of time until supercomputers will have a million or more cores. In this article, we investigate the opportunities and challenges that will arise when trying to utilize this vast computing power to solve a single integer linear optimization problem. We also raise … Read more

Customizing the Solution Process of COIN-OR’s Linear Solvers with Python

Implementations of the Simplex method differ only in very specific aspects such as the pivot rule. Similarly, most relaxation methods for mixed-integer programming differ only in the type of cuts and the exploration of the search tree. Implementing instances of those frameworks would therefore be more efficient if linear and mixed-integer programming solvers let users … Read more

A Parallel Bundle Method for Asynchronous Subspace Optimization in Lagrangian Relaxation

An algorithmic approach is proposed for exploiting parallelization possibilities in large scale optimization models of the following generic type. Objects change their state over time subject to a limited availability of common resources. These are modeled by linear coupling constraints and result in few objects competing for the same resource at each point in time. … Read more

Inexact Restoration method for Derivative-Free Optimization with smooth constraints

A new method is introduced for solving constrained optimization problems in which the derivatives of the constraints are available but the derivatives of the objective function are not. The method is based on the Inexact Restoration framework, by means of which each iteration is divided in two phases. In the first phase one considers only … Read more

TACO – A Toolkit for AMPL Control Optimization

We describe a set of extensions to the AMPL modeling language to conveniently model mixed-integer optimal control problems for ODE or DAE dynamic processes. These extensions are realized as AMPL user functions and suffixes and do not require intrusive changes to the AMPL language standard or implementation itself. We describe and provide TACO, a Toolkit … Read more

A C++ application programming interface for biased random-key genetic algorithms

In this paper, we describe brkgaAPI, an efficient and easy-to-use object oriented application programming interface for the algorithmic framework of biased random-key genetic algorithms. Our cross-platform library automatically handles the large portion of problem-independent modules that are part of the framework, including population management and evolutionary dynamics, leaving to the user the task of implementing … Read more

COIN-OR METSlib: a Metaheuristics Framework in Modern C++.

The document describes COIN-OR METSlib, a C++ framework for local search based metaheuristics. METSlib has been used to implement a massively parallel VRP algorithm, a state of the art Vertex Coloring Problem solver, a Timetabling software, and in many other projects. Article Download View COIN-OR METSlib: a Metaheuristics Framework in Modern C++.

PuLP: A Linear Programming Toolkit for Python

This paper introduces the PuLP library, an open source package that allows mathematical programs to be described in the Python computer programming language. PuLP is a high-level modelling library that leverages the power of the Python language and allows the user to create programs using expressions that are natural to the Python language, avoiding special … Read more

Trajectory-following methods for large-scale degenerate convex quadratic programming

We consider a class of infeasible, path-following methods for convex quadratric programming. Our methods are designed to be effective for solving both nondegerate and degenerate problems, where degeneracy is understood to mean the failure of strict complementarity at a solution. Global convergence and a polynomial bound on the number of iterations required is given. An … Read more

A Python/C library for bound-constrained global optimization with continuous GRASP

This paper describes libcgrpp, a GNU-style dynamic shared Python/C library of the continuous greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (C-GRASP) for bound constrained global optimization. C-GRASP is an extension of the GRASP metaheuristic (Feo and Resende, 1989). After a brief introduction to C-GRASP, we show how to download, install, configure, and use the library through an … Read more