To all participants of Optimization Days 2020,

GERAD and the Optimization Days organizing committee take the evolution of the Coronavirus epidemic very seriously and follow closely the directives of the governments of Québec and Canada regarding travel and social events restrictions.

With the health and well-being of all in mind, it is with regret that we decided to cancel Optimization Days 2020.

We hope everyone stays healthy and we look forward to welcoming you to Montreal for Optimization Days 2021.

The Optimization Days 2020 organizing committee

In the context of the measures put in place to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, our team will be teleworking as of Monday, March 16, 2020 until further notice.

The face-to-face research activities are suspended until May 3 inclusive. Our offices will be closed. We invite members to conduct their meetings online or by phone whenever possible.

We ask you to respect the Québec public health governmental directives (https://www.quebec.ca/sante/problemes-de-sante/a-z/coronavirus-2019/) as well as those of your university.

We therefore remain available and continue our ongoing operations. Adjustments to upcoming training and events, if any, will be communicated.

Thank you for your collaboration.

Consult the latest directives:
HEC Montréal: https://www.hec.ca/en/notice/
Université de Montréal: https://urgence.umontreal.ca/

Best Presentation Award
Charles Cossette, "The Basics of Multi-Robot Formation Control"

2nd Best Presentation Award (ex aequo)
Narges Sereshti, "Epidemic Models and Coronavirus"
Rosemarie Santa González, "Humanitarian Relief with Mobile Clinics"

Congratulations!

The first series of the Edge Intelligence Workshop was held successfully in 2-3 March 2020 with more than 100 participants from academia and industry.

Title: Improvements on column-generation-based algorithms for vehicle routing and other combinatorial optimization problems

We are proud to announce that Mr. Tayed Mhamedi, candidate presented by Marilène Cherkesly and Guy Desaulniers and Mrs. Narges Sereshti, candidate presented by Raf Jans and Yossiri Adulyasak are the winners of the 2019-2020 – FRQNT International Internship Program.

Congratulations!

Here are the winners who will each receive a half-fellowship of $30,000:

• Aldair Alvarez Diaz, candidate proposed by Jean-François Cordeau and Raf Jans;
• Azadeh Maroufmashat, candidate proposed by Olivier Bahn and Peter Caines;
• Alfredo Daniel Moreno Arteaga, candidate proposed by Marilème Ckerkesly.

Congratulations!

A scholarship of $3500 will be attributed to:

* Luc Laporte, sponsored by Jean-Pierre Dussault and Dominique Orban.
* Aurélien Mombelli, sponsored by Sébastien Le Digabel.

Congratulations!

The GERAD is collaborating with the OR Montreal student chapter and Concordia University to promote operations research to the high school student by proposing a competition that will take place on March 14, 2020, at Concordia University, at Concordia University. Registration is free and the competition will be in French and in English. website

Title: Résolution exacte du problème de partitionnement de données avec minimisation de variance sous contraintes de cardinalité par programmation par contraintes

Register for the 2020 Optimization Days.

March 10, 2020 - Deadline for submission of abstracts for the Optimization Days
April 3, 2020 - Deadline for the registration fee discount

The last issue of the Newsletter is now available. Enjoy!
* Spotlights on ... - GERAD’s new director: Olivier Bahn
* Collaborations - Numerical optimization in Julia with the JuliaSmoothOptimizers framework
* Impact papers - Tight-and-cheap conic relaxation for the AC optimal power flow problem
* Where are they now? - R. Montagné, É. Prescott-Gagnon, O. Rubel
* Postdoctoral fellows - M. Diago Martínez, M. Gasse, S. A. Mojallal, J. A. Rodríguez
* Who are they? - J. Jalbert, W. Qi

At the December 12, 2019, members' meeting, a resolution to highlight Hugues Delmaire's important contribution to GERAD was adopted. Through this initiative, the members wanted to thank Hugues for his efforts and success in bringing researchers and entrepreneurs together. Hugues joined GERAD in May 2018 as a research coordinator seconded to GERAD by IVADO. Its main mission is to forge links between GERAD researchers and industry.

Title: Dynamique de l'évolution du couvert végétal forestier des agrosystèmes sahéliens du nord du Burkina Faso après les sécheresses des années 1970-1980: implication des pratiques d'aménagement des terres

Title: Contribution méthodologique à l'évaluation environnementale stratégique de l'aménagement des ports minéraliers en zone côtière tropicale: cas de la Guinée

Title: Apprentissage machine pour l’accélération de l’optimisation des blocs mensuels d’équipages aériens

Title: Ré-optimisation de plans d’expédition de marchandises par cargos aériens

Title: Combiner intelligence artificielle et programmation mathématique pour la planification des horaires des équipages en transport aérien

Title: Génération de colonnes en nombres entiers pour les problèmes de type partitionnement d'ensemble

Please take note that GERAD offices will be closed for the Christmas Holidays, from Tuesday, December 24, 2019 until Tuesday, January 2, 2020 inclusively.