Optimization Models and Algorithms for Emergency Response Planning

该项目将制定更好的计划，有效部署医疗用品，以应对大规模传染病暴发。有效的物流反应涉及多个决策，再加上目前存在的不确定性，导致了大规模的优化/决策问题，这些问题用目前的方法是难以解决的。提出的研究将建立模型，为不确定性提供稳健的解决方案，提出并开发大规模混合整数非线性规划的自适应分解和分支算法。这些算法将使用不确定问题敏感性度量的新结果，以及内点法的热启动策略。最近的事件，如2004年印度洋海啸和2005年卡特里娜飓风，突出了大规模突发事件可能对社会造成的巨大影响。周密的规划可以优化物流对这类紧急情况的反应，减少其对人口的影响。该项目将开发新的建模方法和算法，以便能够制定更好的医疗用品发放计划，以应对传染病暴发。归根结底，提高防备水平有助于在紧急情况下拯救生命。文中提出的方法可用于提高其他问题的预备性，此外，所开发的优化技术也可用于求解其他凸混合整数规划。该项目包括通过南加州大学国土安全部资助的研究中心CREATE研究中心的政府咨询委员会与地方、州和联邦利益攸关方进行接触的部分。这个项目将导致物流和优化课程的发展，涉及一名博士生，并通过南加州大学麦克奈尔学者项目让少数族裔本科生参与暑期研究项目。

This project will develop better plans for an effective deployment of medical supplies in response to a large-scale infectious disease outbreak. The multiple decisions involved in an efficient logistics response compounded with the uncertainty present leads to large-scale optimization/decision problems that are intractable using current methods. The proposed research will create models that provide robust solutions to the uncertainty present and develop adaptable decomposition and branching algorithms for large-scale mixed integer nonlinear programs. These algorithms will use new results on sensitivity measures for problems under uncertainty, and warm start strategies for interior point methods.Recent events, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, have highlighted the massive impact that large-scale emergencies can inflict on society. Careful planning can optimize the logistics response to such emergencies reducing their impact on the population. This project will develop new modeling methods and algorithms that will enable the development of better plans for the disbursement of medical supplies in response to an infectious disease outbreak. Ultimately, improving preparedness can help save lives in emergencies. The methods developed here can be applied to improving preparedness in other problems and, in addition, the optimization techniques developed can be applied to solve other convex mixed integer programs. This project includes an outreach component to local, state and federal stakeholders through the Governmental Advisory Committee of the CREATE Research Center, a Department of Homeland Security funded research center at USC. This project will lead to curricular developments in logistics and optimization, involve a Ph.D. student, and involve minority undergraduate students in summer research projects through USC's McNair Scholar's Program.