Investigator(s): Kiavash Kianfar kianfar@tamu.edu (Principal Investigator)
The research objective of this award is to create and evaluate new cutting plane methods for mixed integer programming using a new approach here called Complex Integer Rounding. Cutting planes are a crucial part of the algorithms used for solving mixed integer programming problems. Mixed integer programming is an optimization framework with numerous applications in science, engineering, and business. The proposed approach consists of deriving novel forms of three major elements and making innovative use of them: one or multiple facets of base polyhedra and/or one or multiple sub-additive functions are utilized within a relaxation/combination procedure which is applied on the original constraints and a series of intermediate inequalities to eventually obtain a cut generator function. Both single-constraint and multi-constraint cuts will be considered and facet-defining properties of the developed cuts will be investigated. The customization of the cuts to a collection of important special-structure problems will be studied. In order to evaluate performance of the developed cuts, efficient separation methods will be developed and comprehensive computational experiments will be performed.
Mixed integer programming is a powerful and flexible optimization paradigm with ubiquitous applications in science, engineering, and business ranging from flight crew scheduling to molecular biology. Yet solving mixed integer programs is generally very difficult. Through introduction of new strong cutting planes, this research, if successful, will result in faster solution algorithms for mixed integer programming and will increase the size of the problems that we are able to solve. Consequently, it will have a significant impact on all aforementioned areas. Moreover, the methodological developments in this research open doors to several new research avenues regarding cutting plane methods.
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