90-XX OPERATIONS RESEARCH, MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING
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Learning to Use Local Cuts
(2021)
We propose a machine learning approach to address a specific algorithmic question that arises during the solving process of a mixed-integer linear programming problem, namely, whether to use cutting planes only at the root node or also at internal nodes of the branch-and-bound search tree, or equivalently, whether to run a cut-and-branch or rather a branch-and-cut algorithm. Within a supervised regression framework, we develop three machine learning models, Linear Model, Random Forest and Neural Network, for predicting the relative performance between the two methods, local-cut and no-local-cut. Hence, through an extensive computational study conducted with FICO Xpress over a large test bed of problems, we evaluate the produced strategies, and we show that they are able to provide, upon the existing policies, a significant improvement to the performance of the solver.
In fact, a variant of the random forest suggested in the present work has already been implemented by the development team of Xpress, and released with version 8.13 of the software.
During the past years hospitals saw themselves confronted with increasing economical pressure (WB06, p. V). Therefore, optimizing the general operational procedures has gained in importance. The revenue of a hospital depends on the kinds and quantity of treatments performed and on the effcient use and utilization of the corresponding resources. About 25 − 50% of the treatment costs of a patient needing surgery incurs in the operating rooms (WB06, p. 58). Hence skillful management of the operating rooms can have a large impact on the overall revenue of a hospital. Belien and Demeulemeester (BD07) describe the planning of operating room (OR) schedules as a multi-stage process. In the first stage OR time is allocated to the hospitals specialties and capacities and resources are adjusted. In the second stage a master surgery schedule (MSS) is developed, that is a timetable for D days that specifies the amount of OR time assigned to the specialties on every individual day. After D days this schedule will be repeated without any changes. Hence, developing an MSS is a long-term problem. Finally, specialties will schedule specific surgeries within their assigned OR time. In this work we will focus on the development of the MSS that maximizes the revenue of the hospital. Our main focus will be to ensure that the capacities of the downstream resources, i.e. the bed capacities in the ICU and ward, will not be exceeded. Additionally, we hope that our formulation of the problem will lead to a leveled bed demand without significant peaks. We will incorporate the uncertainty of patient demand and case mix in our model. There have been several approaches on this subject, for example in (Fü15) and (BD07) and this work is in part inuenced by these advances.
The topic of this thesis is the examination of an optimization model
which stems from the clustering process of non-reversible markov processes.
We introduce the cycle clustering problem und formulate it as a mixed
integer program (MIP).
We prove that this problem is N P-hard and discuss polytopal aspects
such as facets and dimension. The focus of this thesis is the development of
solving methods for this clustering problem. We develop problem specific
primal heuristics, as well as separation methods and an approximation
algorithm. These techniques are implemented in practice as an application
for the MIP solver SCIP.
Our computational experiments show that these solving methods result
in an average speedup of ×4 compared to generic solvers and that our
application is able to solve more instances to optimality within the given
time limit of one hour.
Generic Branch-Cut-and-Price
(2010)
This thesis represents a game-theoretic investigation of the allocation of inspectors in a transportation network, comparing Nash and Stackelberg equilibrium strategies to a strategy in which inspections are conducted proportionally to the traffic volume. It contains specifications for the integration of space and time dependencies and extensive experimental tests for the application on the transportation network of German motorways using real data. Main results are that - although the formulated spot-checking game is not zero-sum - we are able to compute a Nash equilibrium using linear programming and secondly, that experimental results yield that a Nash equilibrium strategy represents a good trade-off for the Stackelberg equilibrium strategy between efficiency of controls and computation time.