A Tight Lower Bound for the Adjacent Quadratic Assignment Problem

In this paper we address the Adjacent Quadratic Assignment Problem (AQAP) which is a variant of the QAP where the cost coefficient matrix has a particular structure. Motivated by strong lower bounds obtained by applying Reformulation Linearization Technique (RLT) to the classical QAP, we propose two special RLT representations for the problem. The first is … Read more

Tight and Compact MIP Formulation of Configuration-Based Combined-Cycle Units

Private investors, flexibility, efficiency and environmental requirements from deregulated markets have led the existence and building of a significant number of combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) in many power systems. These plants represent a complicated optimization problem for the short-term planning unit commitment (UC) carried out by independent system operators due to their multiple operating configurations. … Read more

Maximal Covering Location Problems on networks with regional demand

Covering problems are well studied in the Operations Research literature under the assumption that both the set of users and the set of potential facilities are finite. In this paper we address the following variant, which leads to a Mixed Integer Nonlinear Program (MINLP): locations of p facilities are sought along the edges of a … Read more

An Inertia-Free Filter Line-Search Algorithm for Large-Scale Nonlinear Programming

We present a filter line-search algorithm that does not require inertia information about the linear system to ensure global convergence. The proposed approach performs curvature tests along the search step to ensure descent. This feature permits more modularity in the linear algebra, enabling the use of a wider range of iterative and decomposition strategies. We … Read more

A collision detection approach for maximizing the material utilization

We introduce a new method for a task of maximal material utilization, which is is to fit a flexible, scalable three-dimensional body into another aiming for maximal volume whereas position and shape may vary. The difficulty arises from the containment constraint which is not easy to handle numerically. We use a collision detection method to … Read more

Block-wise Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers with Gaussian Back Substitution for Multiple-block Convex Programming

We consider the linearly constrained convex minimization model with a separable objective function which is the sum of m functions without coupled variables, and discuss how to design an efficient algorithm based on the fundamental technique of splitting the augmented Lagrangian method (ALM). Our focus is the specific big-data scenario where m is huge. A … Read more

Semidefinite Optimization Approaches to Applications in Facility Layout and Logistics

The main contributions of this thesis are the comparison of existing and the design of new exact approaches based on linear, quadratic and semidefinite relaxations for row layout problems and several applications in logistic. In particular we demonstrate that our suggested semidefinite approach is the strongest exact method to date for most row layout problems. … Read more

Scenario-Tree Decomposition: Bounds for Multistage Stochastic Mixed-Integer Programs

Multistage stochastic mixed-integer programming is a powerful modeling paradigm appropriate for many problems involving a sequence of discrete decisions under uncertainty; however, they are difficult to solve without exploiting special structures. We present scenario-tree decomposition to establish bounds for unstructured multistage stochastic mixed-integer programs. Our method decomposes the scenario tree into a number of smaller … Read more