Advances in the theory and technology for integer programming have, over the past decade, transformed practitioners' ability to solve industrial discrete optimisation problems. Now more than ever before we can solve real problems, in all their complexity. In this talk I will present a diverse range of applications, such as open-pit mine production scheduling, airline planning, high-school timetabling, and logistics optimisation, and will review some of the mathematical ideas and techniques that can be used for their solution. I will conclude by discussing the challenges for the future of the field.

...........................................................................

About the speaker:

Natashia Boland received her BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Western Australia in 1988, and her PhD in Mathematics from the same institution in 1992. Presently she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, and a member of the Department's Operations Research Group. Previously she held postdoctoral research fellowships at the Georgia Intitute of Technology and the University of Waterloo. Prior to these academic appointments, she spent 6 months in 1992 working with a Melbourne software company, The Preston Group, on airline applications of operations research. A/Prof Boland has a number of active research projects in both theoretical and applied operations research. She has successfully graduated six PhD students, and is currently supervising five PhD and two Honours projects, almost all industry-sponsored. Dr Boland has regularly provided consulting services to industry in a number of areas, particularly in airline planning, transportation logistics and scheduling. She is now dedicated to the delivery of professional consulting services, with the creation of Melbourne Operations Research - MORe (http://www.more.ms.unimelb.edu.au/), a consulting group which she directs.

Colloquia are designed to be of interest to a general mathematical audience and to be accessible without specialist knowledge.

There will be wine and cheese afterwards.
 

Convenor: Ian Wanless - firstname.lastname@sci.monash.edu.au