A Multi-stage Stochastic Integer Programming Approach for Capacity Expansion under Uncertainty

This paper addresses a multi-period investment model for capacity expansion in an uncertain environment. Using a scenario tree approach to model the evolution of uncertain demand and cost parameters, and fixed-charge cost functions to model the economies of scale in expansion costs, we develop a multi-stage stochastic integer programming formulation for the problem. A reformulation … Read more

Near-optimal solutions to large scale facility location problems

We investigate the solution of large scale instances of the capacitated and uncapacitated facility location problems. Let n be the number of customers and m the number of potential facility sites. For the uncapacitated case we solved instances of size m x n=3000 x 3000; for the capacitated case the largest instances were 1000 x … Read more

Solving Steiner tree problems in graphs with Lagrangian relaxation

This paper presents an algorithm to obtain near optimal solutions for the Steiner tree problem in graphs. It is based on a Lagrangian relaxation of a multi-commodity flow formulation of the problem. An extension of the subgradient algorithm, the volume algorithm, has been used to obtain lowe r bounds and to estimate primal solutions. Due … Read more

A BFGS-IP algorithm for solving strongly convex optimization problems with feasibility enforced by an exact penalty approach

This paper introduces and analyses a new algorithm for minimizing a convex function subject to a finite number of convex inequality constraints. It is assumed that the Lagrangian of the problem is strongly convex. The algorithm combines interior point methods for dealing with the inequality constraints and quasi-Newton techniques for accelerating the convergence. Feasibility of … Read more

WASP: a Wavelet Adaptive Solver for boundary value Problems – Short Reference Manual

This is a short guide to use the Matlab package WASP designed for the numerical solution of two-point linear boundary value problems that arise typically in linear quadratic optimal control. The method relies upon an adaptive computation of discretization based on a wavelet analysis. On a given refined grid, finite differences of various order are … Read more

On some difficult linear programs coming from Set Partitioning

We deal with the linear programming relaxation of set partitioning problems arising in airline crew scheduling. Some of these linear programs have been extremely difficult to solve with the traditional algorithms. We have used an extension of the subgradient algorithm, the volume algorithm, to produce primal solutions that might violate the constraints by at most … Read more

A New and Efficient Large-Update Interior-Point Method for Linear Optimization

Recently, the authors presented a new large-update primal-dual method for Linear Optimization, whose $O(n^\frac23\,\log\frac{n}{\e})$ iteration bound substantially improved the classical bound for such methods, which is $O\br{n\log\frac{n}{\e}}$. In this paper we present an improved analysis of the new method. The analysis uses some new mathematical tools developed before when we considered a whole family of … Read more

Optimal location of intermodal freight hubs

Attempts at reducing the externalities of freight transport in Europe are generally focused on the incorporation of a more significant use of rail into freight itineraries. One new scenario for increasing the share of rail in intermodal transport involves the development of a dedicated subnetwork of freight rail lines. Within this European Union project, the … Read more

Convex optimization problems involving finite autocorrelation sequences

We discuss convex optimization problems where some of the variables are constrained to be finite autocorrelation sequences. Problems of this form arise in signal processing and communications, and we describe applications in filter design and system identification. Autocorrelation constraints in optimization problems are often approximated by sampling the corresponding power spectral density, which results in … Read more

Handling Nonnegative Constraints in Spectral Estimation

We consider convex optimization problems with the constraint that the variables form a finite autocorrelation sequence, or equivalently, that the corresponding power spectral density is nonnegative. This constraint is often approximated by sampling the power spectral density, which results in a set of linear inequalities. It can also be cast as a linear matrix inequality … Read more