RCN: DIMACS/Simons Collaboration on Bridging Continuous and Discrete Optimization

优化工具和算法已经改变了从生物学到金融的各个领域，它们通过更高效的供应链、更好的交通管理和更安全的电网触及日常生活。新的应用程序，特别是那些源于机器学习和数据科学的应用程序，正在挑战该领域在更短的时间内在更小的设备上解决更大、更复杂的问题。该领域正在采用创新的方法来应对，例如更快的最大流量算法和近实时逼近，更有效的内点方法和更快的切割平面方法。许多这些突破将连续优化和离散优化的思想结合在一起。DIMACS/Simons在桥接连续和离散优化方面的合作旨在通过促进许多优化社区之间的合作来加速进展。计划中的活动将计算机科学家、数学家、运筹学研究人员、工程师、统计学家和算法开发人员聚集在一起，以推进优化的基础和应用。该项目始于2017年秋季学期在Simons研究所开展的一个密集项目，该项目启动了合作，并为随后两年开展的活动建立了势头，作为DIMACS特别关注桥接连续和离散优化的一部分。DIMACS的特别重点包括七个研讨会，这些研讨会将使该项目持续到2019年底，并将其扩展到包括更多的人和更多的主题。该项目旨在通过改进物流、供应链、工程、基础设施和金融等领域的传统应用，以及在机器学习和数据科学领域不断增长的应用，提高优化方法在具有挑战性的现实环境中的性能，从而有可能对社会产生积极影响。该项目将涉及各个科学界的大量人员，并使他们接触到新思想、新问题和新的合作机会。参与者将在各个方面多样化，包括妇女和其他代表性不足的群体；初级和高级参与者的混合；来自多个学科的人；以及工业界和学术界的参与者。还将与mathassmatiques研究中心和蒙特利尔理工学院进行国际协调。

Optimization tools and algorithms have transformed fields ranging from biology to finance, and they touch everyday lives through more efficient supply chains, better traffic management, and more secure power grids. New applications, particularly those stemming from machine learning and data science, are now challenging the field to solve larger and more complex problems on smaller devices in less time. The field is responding with innovative approaches leading to advances such as faster algorithms for maximum flow and near-real-time approximations, more efficient interior-point methods, and faster cutting-plane methods. Many of these breakthroughs bring together ideas from both continuous and discrete optimization. The DIMACS/Simons Collaboration on Bridging Continuous and Discrete Optimization aims to accelerate progress by stimulating collaboration across the many communities of optimization. The planned activities bring together computer scientists, mathematicians, operations researchers, engineers, statisticians, and algorithm developers to advance both the foundations and applications of optimization. The project begins with an intensive program at the Simons Institute during the fall semester of 2017 that launches the collaboration and builds momentum for activities conducted over the ensuing two years as part of the DIMACS Special Focus on Bridging Continuous and Discrete Optimization. The DIMACS special focus includes seven workshops that sustain the project through the end of 2019 and expand it to include more people and more topics. The project aims to improve the performance of optimization methods in challenging real settings with the potential to positively impact society by improving traditional applications in logistics, supply chains, engineering, infrastructure, and finance, as well as growing applications in machine learning and data science. The project will involve a large number of people in various scientific communities and expose them to new ideas, new problems, and new opportunities for collaboration. Participants will be diverse across a variety of dimensions, including women and other under-represented groups; a mix of junior and senior participants; people from multiple disciplines; and both industry and academic participants. There will also be international coordination with the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques and Polytechnique Montreal.