Machine Learning for Optimization-Based Separation: the Case of Mixed-Integer Rounding Cuts

Mixed-Integer Rounding (MIR) cuts are effective at improving the dual bound in Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MIP). However, in practice, MIR cuts are separated heuristically rather than using optimization as the latter is prohibitively expensive. We present a hybrid cut generation framework in which we train a Machine Learning (ML) model to inform cut generation for … Read more

The Blessing of Strategic Customers in Personalized Pricing

We consider a feature-based personalized pricing problem in which the buyer is strategic: given the seller’s pricing policy, the buyer can augment the features that they reveal to the seller to obtain a low price for the product. We model the seller’s pricing problem as a stochastic program over an infinite-dimensional space of pricing policies … Read more

Optimizing the lead time of operational flexibility trading from distributed industrial energy systems in future energy and flexibility markets

To meet the challenges of increasing volatile and distributed renewable energy generation in the electric grid, local flexibility and energy markets are currently investigated. These markets aim to encourage prosumers to trade their available flexible power locally, to be used if a grid congestion is being predicted. The markets are emerging, but the characterizing parameter … Read more

Global Optimization of Non-Linear Systems of Equations by Simulating the Flight of a Projectile in the Conformational Space

A new heuristic optimization algorithm is presented based on an analogy with the physical phenomenon of a projectile launched in a conformational space under the influence of a gravitational force. Its implementation simplicity and the option to enhance it with local search methods make it ideal for the optimization of non-linear systems of equations. The … Read more

The Overflowing Bin Packing Problem: Theoretical Results and a New Flow Formulation

We consider a recently proposed one-dimensional packing problem, called the overflowing bin packing problem (OBPP). In this scenario, we are given a set of items (of known sizes) and a set of bins (of known capacities). Roughly speaking, the task is to assign the items to the bins in such a way that the total … Read more

An adaptive relaxation-refinement scheme for multi-objective mixed-integer nonconvex optimization

In this work, we present an algorithm for computing an enclosure for multi-objective mixed-integer nonconvex optimization problems. In contrast to existing solvers for this type of problem, this algorithm is not based on a branch-and-bound scheme but rather relies on a relax-and-refine approach. While this is an established technique in single-objective optimization, several adaptions to … Read more

Forecasting Urban Traffic States with Sparse Data Using Hankel Temporal Matrix Factorization

Forecasting urban traffic states is crucial to transportation network monitoring and management, playing an important role in the decision-making process. Despite the substantial progress that has been made in developing accurate, efficient, and reliable algorithms for traffic forecasting, most existing approaches fail to handle sparsity, high-dimensionality, and nonstationarity in traffic time series and seldom consider … Read more

Properties of Two-Stage Stochastic Multi-Objective Linear Programs

We consider a two-stage stochastic multi-objective linear program (TSSMOLP) which is a natural generalization of the well-studied two-stage stochastic linear program (TSSLP) allowing modelers to specify multiple objectives in each stage. The second-stage recourse decision is governed by an uncertain multi-objective linear program (MOLP) whose solution maps to an uncertain second-stage nondominated set. The TSSMOLP … Read more

A new framework to generate Lagrangian cuts in multistage stochastic mixed-integer programming

Based on recent advances in Benders decomposition and two-stage stochastic integer programming we present a new generalized framework to generate Lagrangian cuts in multistage stochastic mixed-integer linear programming (MS-MILP). This framework can be incorporated into decomposition methods for MS-MILPs, such as the stochastic dual dynamic integer programming (SDDiP) algorithm. We show how different normalization techniques … Read more