1. 2 Takes on CyberInfrastructure for OR
2004 NSF Design, Service and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference
Workshop on CyberInfrastructure
January 6, 2004
Craig Tovey
ISyE & COC, Georgia Tech

2. Cyberinfrastructure - Current Activities Operations Research: take 1
Repositories for implemented algorithms. Informs resource collection: > 100 packages and online programs
COIN - OR
NEOS Server
Specific algorithms e.g. Ye’s semidefinite opt code
Repositories for test problems. Informs resource: 25 instance sets & generators.
DIMACS combinatorial challenge sets
MIPLIB, LP test sets
Problem specific sets e.g. TSP,QAP,VRPTW.
Simulation tools: relatively few, often commercial-linked
Stat tools: several libraries and web-available routines

3. Cyberinfrastructure - Current Activities Operations Research: take 1
Education
Lecture notes for many courses
Tutorials on specialized topics
Implementation
Commercial optimization and modeling software
Commercial simulation software
Spreadsheet add-ins

4. Cyberinfrastructure – Vision for DMII Operations Research- Take 1
Unified, robust algorithms. Make it the standard that researchers add to the repository. We would build more on each other’s work. Quality and development speed would increase.
Simulation building blocks
Modeling
Output analysis
Parameter search
Problem testbeds and instance generators.
Education and Implementation
More general modeling language, unifying CP, IP/LP, NLP.

5. Cyberinfrastructure – Vision for DMII Operations Research- Take 2
What are the big opportunities in OR?

6. Cyberinfrastructure – Vision for DMII Operations Research- Take 2
Claim: OR is unusual among science/engineering disciplines in that the applicability of present technology, as perceived internally, is times the present level.
What’s wrong? OR is about decision making, not just solving models. Old news…
but CyberInfrastructure could increase the applicability of OR by an order of magnitude.

7. Cyberinfrastructure – Vision for DMII Operations Research- Take 2
How can CI help?
CASE STUDIES.
Gap exists between business problem and model
We have ~50 times as many algorithm sites as case study sites.
Computing and web resources now capable of storing and transmitting the large, unstructured variegated info accompanying a real problem
Use testbeds for both research and education

8. Cyberinfrastructure – Vision for DMII Operations Research- Take 2
TOOLS FOR ORGANIZING, VISUALIZING, CLEANING, EXTRACTING DATA FOR USE IN MODELING.
Organizing and cleaning data blocks many applications.
Expose students to messy problems and data. Greatly increase the number of graduates competent to use serious OR tools on real problems. B.S.-Ph.D.
Collaborative work between statistics and OR might produce useful tools for linking data, forecasting, uncertainty in models.

9. Cyberinfrastructure – Vision for DMII Operations Research- Take 2
AUTOMATED OR INTELLIGENT-AGENT-GUIDED WEB-BASED MODELING.
Enable end-user modeling (perhaps crude, perhaps if-then)
It succeeds if it helps the decision-maker realize that the problem calls for OR methods
Seamless links between modeling languages & simulations, and spreadsheets & databases.

10. Cyberinfrastructure – Vision for DMII Operations Research- Take 2
Virtual domains: e.g. jobshop
Descriptive modeling tools: e.g. warehouse, supply chain