This textbook provides an introduction to the use and understanding of optimization and modeling for upper-level undergraduate students in engineering and mathematics. The formulation of optimization problems is founded through concepts and techniques from operations research: Combinatorial Optimization, Linear Programming, and Integer and Nonlinear Programming (COLIN). Computer Science (CS) is also relevant and important given the applications of algorithms and Apps/algorithms (A) in solving optimization problems. Each chapter provides an overview of the main concepts of optimization according to COLINA, providing examples through App Inventor and AMPL software applications. All apps developed through the text are available for download. Additionally, the text includes links to the University of Wisconsin NEOS server, designed to handle more computing-intensive problems in complex optimization. Readers are encouraged to have some background in calculus, linear algebra, and related mathematics.

Graduate students and researchers in applied mathematics, optimization, engineering, computer science, and management science will find this book a useful reference which provides an introduction to applications and fundamental theories in nonlinear combinatorial optimization. Nonlinear combinatorial optimization is a new research area within combinatorial optimization and includes numerous applications to technological developments, such as wireless communication, cloud computing, data science, and social networks. Theoretical developments including discrete Newton methods, primal-dual methods with convex relaxation, submodular optimization, discrete DC program, along with several applications are discussed and explored in this book through articles by leading experts.

Nonlinear Assignment Problems (NAPs) are natural extensions of the classic Linear Assignment Problem, and despite the efforts of many researchers over the past three decades, they still remain some of the hardest combinatorial optimization problems to solve exactly. The purpose of this book is to provide in a single volume, major algorithmic aspects and applications of NAPs as contributed by leading international experts. The chapters included in this book are concerned with major applications and the latest algorithmic solution approaches for NAPs. Approximation algorithms, polyhedral methods, semidefinite programming approaches and heuristic procedures for NAPs are included, while applications of this problem class in the areas of multiple-target tracking in the context of military surveillance systems, of experimental high energy physics, and of parallel processing are presented. Audience: Researchers and graduate students in the areas of combinatorial optimization, mathematical programming, operations research, physics, and computer science.

Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization Problems and Solution Methods discusses the results of a recent multi-objective combinatorial optimization achievement that considered metaheuristic, mathematical programming, heuristic, hyper heuristic and hybrid approaches. In other words, the book presents various multi-objective combinatorial optimization issues that may benefit from different methods in theory and practice. Combinatorial optimization problems appear in a wide range of applications in operations research, engineering, biological sciences and computer science, hence many optimization approaches have been developed that link the discrete universe to the continuous universe through geometric, analytic and algebraic techniques. This book covers this important topic as computational optimization has become increasingly popular as design optimization and its applications in engineering and industry have become ever more important due to more stringent design requirements in modern engineering practice. - Presents a collection of the most up-to-date research, providing a complete overview of multi-objective combinatorial optimization problems and applications - Introduces new approaches to handle different engineering and science problems, providing the field with a collection of related research not already covered in the primary literature - Demonstrates the efficiency and power of the various algorithms, problems and solutions, including numerous examples that illustrate concepts and algorithms

Many engineering, operations, and scientific applications include a mixture of discrete and continuous decision variables and nonlinear relationships involving the decision variables that have a pronounced effect on the set of feasible and optimal solutions. Mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems combine the numerical difficulties of handling nonlinear functions with the challenge of optimizing in the context of nonconvex functions and discrete variables. MINLP is one of the most flexible modeling paradigms available for optimization; but because its scope is so broad, in the most general cases it is hopelessly intractable. Nonetheless, an expanding body of researchers and practitioners — including chemical engineers, operations researchers, industrial engineers, mechanical engineers, economists, statisticians, computer scientists, operations managers, and mathematical programmers — are interested in solving large-scale MINLP instances.

This monograph develops an algorithmic theory of nonlinear discrete optimization. It introduces a simple and useful setup, which enables the polynomial time solution of broad fundamental classes of nonlinear combinatorial optimization and integer programming problems in variable dimension. An important part of this theory is enhanced by recent developments in the algebra of Graver bases. The power of the theory is demonstrated by deriving the first polynomial time algorithms in a variety of application areas within operations research and statistics, including vector partitioning, matroid optimization, experimental design, multicommodity flows, multi-index transportation and privacy in statistical databases. This monograph is intended for graduate students and researchers. It is accessible to anyone with standard undergraduate knowledge and mathematical maturity.

This is a supplementary volume to the major three-volume Handbook of Combinatorial Optimization set. It can also be regarded as a stand-alone volume presenting chapters dealing with various aspects of the subject in a self-contained way.

Historically, there is a close connection between geometry and optImization. This is illustrated by methods like the gradient method and the simplex method, which are associated with clear geometric pictures. In combinatorial optimization, however, many of the strongest and most frequently used algorithms are based on the discrete structure of the problems: the greedy algorithm, shortest path and alternating path methods, branch-and-bound, etc. In the last several years geometric methods, in particular polyhedral combinatorics, have played a more and more profound role in combinatorial optimization as well. Our book discusses two recent geometric algorithms that have turned out to have particularly interesting consequences in combinatorial optimization, at least from a theoretical point of view. These algorithms are able to utilize the rich body of results in polyhedral combinatorics. The first of these algorithms is the ellipsoid method, developed for nonlinear programming by N. Z. Shor, D. B. Yudin, and A. S. NemirovskiI. It was a great surprise when L. G. Khachiyan showed that this method can be adapted to solve linear programs in polynomial time, thus solving an important open theoretical problem. While the ellipsoid method has not proved to be competitive with the simplex method in practice, it does have some features which make it particularly suited for the purposes of combinatorial optimization. The second algorithm we discuss finds its roots in the classical "geometry of numbers", developed by Minkowski. This method has had traditionally deep applications in number theory, in particular in diophantine approximation.

Problems with multiple objectives and criteria are generally known as multiple criteria optimization or multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. So far, these types of problems have typically been modelled and solved by means of linear programming. However, many real-life phenomena are of a nonlinear nature, which is why we need tools for nonlinear programming capable of handling several conflicting or incommensurable objectives. In this case, methods of traditional single objective optimization and linear programming are not enough; we need new ways of thinking, new concepts, and new methods - nonlinear multiobjective optimization. Nonlinear Multiobjective Optimization provides an extensive, up-to-date, self-contained and consistent survey, review of the literature and of the state of the art on nonlinear (deterministic) multiobjective optimization, its methods, its theory and its background. The amount of literature on multiobjective optimization is immense. The treatment in this book is based on approximately 1500 publications in English printed mainly after the year 1980. Problems related to real-life applications often contain irregularities and nonsmoothnesses. The treatment of nondifferentiable multiobjective optimization in the literature is rather rare. For this reason, this book contains material about the possibilities, background, theory and methods of nondifferentiable multiobjective optimization as well. This book is intended for both researchers and students in the areas of (applied) mathematics, engineering, economics, operations research and management science; it is meant for both professionals and practitioners in many different fields of application. The intention has been to provide a consistent summary that may help in selecting an appropriate method for the problem to be solved. It is hoped the extensive bibliography will be of value to researchers.

Covering network designs, discrete convex analysis, facility location and clustering problems, matching games, and parameterized complexity, this book discusses theoretical aspects of combinatorial optimization and graph algorithms. Contributions are by renowned researchers who attended NII Shonan meetings on this essential topic. The collection contained here provides readers with the outcome of the authors’ research and productive meetings on this dynamic area, ranging from computer science and mathematics to operations research. Networks are ubiquitous in today's world: the Web, online social networks, and search-and-query click logs can lead to a graph that consists of vertices and edges. Such networks are growing so fast that it is essential to design algorithms to work for these large networks. Graph algorithms comprise an area in computer science that works to design efficient algorithms for networks. Here one can work on theoretical or practical problems where implementation of an algorithm for large networks is needed. In two of the chapters, recent results in graph matching games and fixed parameter tractability are surveyed. Combinatorial optimization is an intersection of operations research and mathematics, especially discrete mathematics, which deals with new questions and new problems, attempting to find an optimum object from a finite set of objects. Most problems in combinatorial optimization are not tractable (i.e., NP-hard). Therefore it is necessary to design an approximation algorithm for them. To tackle these problems requires the development and combination of ideas and techniques from diverse mathematical areas including complexity theory, algorithm theory, and matroids as well as graph theory, combinatorics, convex and nonlinear optimization, and discrete and convex geometry. Overall, the book presents recent progress in facility location, network design, and discrete convex analysis.