A multicommodity flow model for rerouting and retiming trains in real-time to reduce reactionary delay in complex station areas

By rerouting and retiming trains in real-time, the propagation of reactionary delay in complex station areas can be reduced. In this study, we propose a new optimisation model and solution algorithm that can be used to determine the best combination of route and schedule changes to make. Whilst several models have been proposed to tackle … Read more

Solving Previously Unsolved MIP Instances with ParaSCIP on Supercomputers by using up to 80,000 Cores

Mixed-integer programming (MIP) problem is arguably among the hardest classes of optimization problems. This paper describes how we solved 21 previously unsolved MIP instances from the MIPLIB benchmark sets. To achieve these results we used an enhanced version of ParaSCIP, setting a new record for the largest scale MIP computation: up to 80,000 cores in … Read more

Adversarial Classification via Distributional Robustness with Wasserstein Ambiguity

We study a model for adversarial classification based on distributionally robust chance constraints. We show that under Wasserstein ambiguity, the model aims to minimize the conditional value-at-risk of the distance to misclassification, and we explore links to adversarial classification models proposed earlier and to maximum-margin classifiers. We also provide a reformulation of the distributionally robust … Read more

A Personalized Switched Systems Approach for the Optimal Control of Ventricular Assist Devices based on Atrioventricular Plane Displacement

Objective: A promising treatment for congestive heart failure is the implementation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) that works as a mechanical pump. Modern LVADs work with adjustable constant rotor speed and provide therefore continuous blood flow; however, recently undertaken efforts try to mimic pulsatile blood flow by oscillating the pump speed. This work … Read more

Constant Depth Decision Rules for multistage optimization under uncertainty

In this paper, we introduce a new class of decision rules, referred to as Constant Depth Decision Rules (CDDRs), for multistage optimization under linear constraints with uncertainty-affected right-hand sides. We consider two uncertainty classes: discrete uncertainties which can take at each stage at most a fixed number d of different values, and polytopic uncertainties which, … Read more

A rolling-horizon approach for multi-period optimization

Mathematical optimization problems including a time dimension abound. For example, logistics, process optimization and production planning tasks must often be optimized for a range of time periods. Usually, these problems incorporating time structure are very large and cannot be solved to global optimality by modern solvers within a reasonable period of time. Therefore, the so-called … Read more

Computationally Efficient Approximations for Distributionally Robust Optimization

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is a modeling framework in decision making under uncertainty where the probability distribution of a random parameter is unknown while its partial information (e.g., statistical properties) is available. In this framework, the unknown probability distribution is assumed to lie in an ambiguity set consisting of all distributions that are compatible with … Read more

Γ-counterparts for robust nonlinear combinatorial and discrete optimization

Γ-uncertainties have been introduced for adjusting the degree of conservatism ofrobust counterparts of (discrete) linear optimization problems under interval uncertainty. Thisarticle’s contribution is a generalization of this approach to (mixed-integer) nonlinear optimizationproblems. We focus on the cases in which the uncertainty is linear but also derive formulationsfor the general case. We present cases where the … Read more

Consistent Second-Order Conic Integer Programming for Learning Bayesian Networks

Bayesian Networks (BNs) represent conditional probability relations among a set of random variables (nodes) in the form of a directed acyclic graph (DAG), and have found diverse applications in knowledge discovery. We study the problem of learning the sparse DAG structure of a BN from continuous observational data. The central problem can be modeled as … Read more

Submodular Function Minimization and Polarity

Using polarity, we give an outer polyhedral approximation for the epigraph of set functions. For a submodular function, we prove that the corresponding polar relaxation is exact; hence, it is equivalent to the Lov\’asz extension. The polar approach provides an alternative proof for the convex hull description of the epigraph of a submodular function. Computational … Read more