We are happy to announce the 3rd AIMMS/MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition!
Finalists
The finalists for the competition have been chosen!
ISE-NUS
– Institution: National University of Singapore, Singapore
– Team: Nguyen Viet Anh, Tran Trung Hieu
– Advisor: Teo Kwong Meng
Team ORTEC
– Institution: ORTEC, The Netherlands
– Team: Arno Witte, Harwin de Vries, Rianne Langenberg
– Advisor: Cindy de Groot
Team RANDOM
– Institution: University of Twente, The Netherlands
– Team: Rick van Urk, Arturo E. Perez Rivera
– Advisor: Bodo Manthey
We want to thank all participants this year as it has been a great success. We received submissions from 8 countries, all of which approached the problem in a unique and interesting way. We look forward to seeing the presentations of the finalists at the MOPTA 2011 conference.
(The original announcement of the competition follows below.)
Localization of Ad-Hoc Sensor Networks
The mapping of a distribution of a physical quantity (e.g., temperature, radiation levels, etc.) over a terrain is often complicated by the presence of measurement errors and obstructions. In this case study your team will develop a tool to find the location of sensors in a rough terrain given pairwise distances between them and use that information to approximate a temperature profile over the field. See the case study for more information:
Case Study
Data Sets
(Note: There is a small typo in the case study in the definition of the terrain function on page 3; x/my should be x/mx. However, the difference is insignificant and the problem is as hard in either case. Thus, while mx is preferred, it is fine for teams to use either my or mx.) After you register your team (see below), you will receive license files and download paths of the software. There is no deadline for the registration, only for the submission of the final project.
Eligibility
Teams of at most three students can participate. The team leader has to be a graduate student, the other members of the team can be advanced undergraduate students. Each member of the team must be registered as a full-time student at a recognized educational institution during the Spring term of the 2010-2011 academic year. Students with a background in optimization, regardless of their actual field of study are eligible. Collaboration between students from different departments is strongly encouraged. Each team needs to declare a team advisor with which the team may consult about the problem and their solution. It is the team advisor’s responsibility to ensure that the students have appropriate knowledge for the competition. The team advisor should not be involved as a participant in the solution process.
As the conference is international, so is the competition. Teams from all over the world can participate, as long as at least one team member can come to the conference, should the team make it to the final. The official language of the competition is English. Each team needs to register (see below) to participate in the competition and to receive the software. There is no deadline for the registration, only for the submission of the final project.
Competition format
The competition consists of a couple stages. In the first stage the teams have to model an optimization problem (see the case study above) using AIMMS. They will need to submit a complete solution to the problem, including:
- details of the mathematical model they used to solve the problem,
- implementation of the model in AIMMS, including a graphical user interface,
- selection of the appropriate solver(s) from the pool of CPLEX, Gurobi, Mosek, XA, CONOPT, MINOS, SNOPT, LGO, AOA, PATH, IPOPT, and CBC, solver options and parameters, and the solution of the optimization problem,
- a report (at most 15 pages, 12pt font, single spaced, 1 inch margins) describing the model, the implementation and the results.
A panel of judges, including representatives from both the conference organization committee and Paragon Decision Technology (the developer of AIMMS) evaluates the submissions, provides feedback to the teams and invites finalists to continue in the second stage of the project and present their work at a dedicated session of the conference. In this second stage, the finalists will receive advice from the panel on judges on ways in which they can improve their model and solution and have time before the conference to continue to improve their solution. After the presentations at the conference, the judges will ask a few questions. The finalists are ranked based on a combined score for their model, implementation, report, solution, oral presentation, and answers to the judges’ questions. The decision of the judges is final and cannot be appealed.
Important dates
| Case Study Posted | March 23, 2011 |
| Submissions Due | June 15, 2011 (23:59 EDT) |
| Finalists Chosen | July 1, 2011 |
| Finalists Updated Submissions Due | August 5, 2011 |
| Conference | August 17-19, 2011 |
If you have any questions please contact for software and licensing related issues or Frank E. Curtis at for other questions about the competition and the case study. You are encouraged to check the submissions of the three finalists from last year’s competition.
Registration
(Registration has been disabled.)
Solution submission
(Solution submission has been disabled.)
Copyright
By submitting an entry to the competition you agree that the organizers own the copyright to a copy of your submission. This does not limit your rights to publish your work, give talks, posters, etc., but grants us the right to use your work.