Description
Leader of the group Networks and Optimization: Guido Schäfer.
In today’s society, complex systems surround us. From transport and traffic, to behavioral economics and operations management, real-world applications often demand that we identify simple, optimal solutions among a huge set of possibilities. Our research group Networks and Optimization (N&O) does fundamental research to tackle such challenging optimization problems.
We develop algorithmic methods to solve complex optimization problems efficiently. Our research provides efficient algorithms to some of the most challenging problems, for example, in planning, scheduling and routing. To come up with the best optimization algorithms, we combine and extend techniques from different disciplines in mathematics and computer science.
N&O covers a broad spectrum of optimization aspects. Our expertise ranges from discrete to continuous optimization and applies to centralized and decentralized settings. We focus on both problem-specific methods and universal toolkits to solve different types of optimization problems. The key in our investigations is to understand and exploit combinatorial structures, such as graphs, networks, lattices and matroids. Our research is of high scientific impact and contributes to various fields.
In several cooperations with industry partners, the algorithmic techniques that we develop in our group have proven useful to solve complex real-world problems. We are always interested in new algorithmic challenges arising in real-world applications and are open to new cooperations.
Watch our group video to get a glimpse of our activities.
Video about our collaboration with ProRail (in Dutch)
Vacancies
No vacancies currently.
News
CWI researcher Monique Laurent elected as KNAW member
Researcher and MT member Monique Laurent from Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) was elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The KNAW announced this on 19 April 2018. KNAW members are prominent scientists who are nominated by fellow researchers within and outside the Academy.
Vici grants for Nikhil Bansal and Roeland Merks
CWI researchers Nikhil Bansal and Roeland Merks have been awarded Vici grants from NWO. With the 1.5 million euro grant, Bansal and Merks can develop their own research lines in the next five years.
CWI and ProRail predict railway incidents
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica and ProRail recently started a research collaboration in the area of the handling of incidents at the Dutch railways. It concerns a public private partnership between CWI and ProRail striking up a four year period. The research is aimed at prevention and handling of a broad spectrum of railway incidents, like disturbance of the railway infrastructure, people walking on the tracks and collisions.
Large H2020 grant for optimisation research project ‘MINOA’
Recently, the EU granted the Mixed-Integer Non-Linear Optimisation Applications (MINOA) project, as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme. The project is a collaborative European Training Network, with 12 research partners, CWI being one of them.
Current events
Dutch Seminar on Optimization (online series)
- 2021-01-28T16:00:00+01:00
- 2021-01-28T17:00:00+01:00
Dutch Seminar on Optimization (online series)
Start: 2021-01-28 16:00:00+01:00 End: 2021-01-28 17:00:00+01:00
The Dutch Seminar on Optimization is an initiative to bring together researchers from the Netherlands and beyond. The objective is to establish a new forum for the Dutch optimization community to come together, to help provide a spotlight for up and coming local talent, and to bring in high quality international speakers.
Next talk by David de Laat (TU Delft)
For more information please visit the website.
- Web
- Email: Daniel Dadush
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iCal
NMC 2021 (Dutch Mathematical Congress)
- 2021-01-28T16:00:00+01:00
- 2021-01-28T17:00:00+01:00
NMC 2021 (Dutch Mathematical Congress)
Start: 2021-01-28 16:00:00+01:00 End: 2021-01-28 17:00:00+01:00
The organizing committee of NMC has composed a programme containing various online activities at different times during the year: we proudly present the NMC 2021 Series!
Opening date 28 January 2021 with the Stieltjes Prize award ceremony.
For more information and registration please visit the website.
Members
Associated Members
Publications
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Dadush, D.N, & Huiberts, S. (2020). A friendly smoothed analysis of the simplex method. SIAM Journal on Computing, 49(5). doi:10.1137/18M1197205
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Dadush, D.N, & Huiberts, S. (2020). Smoothed analysis of the simplex method. In T Roughgarden (Ed.), Beyond the Worst-Case Analysis of Algorithms. Cambridge University Press.
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Dadush, D.N, Huiberts, S, Natura, B, & Végh, L.A. (2020). A scaling-invariant algorithm for linear programming whose running time depends only on the constraint matrix. In Proceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (pp. 761–774). doi:10.1145/3357713.3384326
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Bienkowski, M, Byrka, J, Coester, C.E, & Jeż, L. (2020). Unbounded lower bound for k-server against weak adversaries. In Proceedings of the Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on Theory of Computing (pp. 1165–1169). doi:10.1145/3357713.3384306
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van Apeldoorn, J.T.S, Gilyén, A.P, Gribling, S.J, & de Wolf, R.M. (2020). Quantum SDP-Solvers: Better upper and lower bounds. Quantum, 4. doi:10.22331/q-2020-02-14-230
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van Apeldoorn, J.T.S. (2020, February 6). A quantum view on convex optimization. ILLC Dissertation Series.
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de Klerk, E, & Laurent, M. (2020). Worst-case Examples for Lasserre’s Measure–Based Hierarchy for Polynomial Optimization on the Hypercube. Mathematics of Operations Research, 45(1). doi:10.1287/moor.2018.0983
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Slot, L.F.H, & Laurent, M. (2020). Improved convergence analysis of Lasserre’s measure-based upper bounds for polynomial minimization on compact sets. Mathematical Programming, 2020. doi:10.1007/s10107-020-01468-3
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van Apeldoorn, J.T.S, Gilyén, A.P, Gribling, S.J, & de Wolf, R.M. (2020). Convex optimization using quantum oracles. Quantum, 4. doi:10.22331/q-2020-01-13-220
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Bansal, N, & Meka, R. (2020). On the discrepancy of random low degree set systems. In Proceedings of the Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms. doi:10.1137/1.9781611975482.157
Current projects with external funding
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Continuous Methods in Discrete Optimization ()
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Wiskundecluster DIAMANT ()
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Smart Heuristic Problem Optimization
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Mixed-Integer Non-Linear Optimisation Applications (MINOA)
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Optimization for and with Machine Learning (OPTIMAL)
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Polynomial Optimization, Efficiency through Moments and Algebra (POEMA)
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Vóórkomen en voorkómen van incidenten op het spoor (PPS Prorail)
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Towards a Quantitative Theory of Integer Programming (QIP)
Related partners
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Alma Mater Studiorum-Universita di Bologna
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Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
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CNR Pisa
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CNRS
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Dassault Systèmes B.V.
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IBM
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INRIA
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Prorail
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Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelmus Universitaet Bonn
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Technische Universität Dortmund
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Tilburg University
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Tromsø, Norway
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Universita degli Studi di Firenze
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Universität Konstanz
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University of Birmingham
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Universiteit van Tilburg