Date:
Location:
MacKinnon 318
Title: "An integer optimization framework for dynamic resource allocations"
Abstract:
Many decision problems can be cast as dynamic resource allocation problems, i.e., they can be framed in the context of a set of requests requiring a complex time-based interaction amongst a set of available resources. For instance scheduling, one of the classic problem in Operations Research, belongs to this class.
For this class of problem we present a new optimization framework. The framework a) allows modeling flexibility by incorporating different objective functions, alternative sets of resources and fairness controls; b) is widely applicable in a variety of problems in transportation, services and engineering; and c) is tractable, i.e., provides near optimal solutions fast for large-scale instances. To justify these assertions, we model and report encouraging computational results on three widely studied problems - the Air Traffic Flow Management, the Aircraft Maintenance Problems and Job Shop Scheduling. Finally, we provide several polyhedral results that offer insights on its effectiveness.