Competition

AIMMS Announces the 2023 MOPTA Competition Winner!

Selected Teams:

Winner: Team “OptiCoffee"
Institution: Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
Members: Ariel Rojas and Juan Betancourt
Advisor: Daniel Yamín

2nd Place: Team "Vultures"
Institution: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
Members: Fergus Hathorn and Iker Olarra Maldonado
Advisor: Alessandro Zocca

3rd Place: Team "Clean Air Avengers"
Institution: University of Bern, Switzerland
Members: Nicklas Klein
Advisor: Norbert Trautmann

15th AIMMS-MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition

Planning Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Introduction

   Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular due to their environmental and economic benefits. They offer a viable alternative to petrol and diesel vehicles, and generate fewer total greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel vehicles. They are becoming more affordable, efficient, and powerful, with advances in battery technology and improved charging infrastructure. EVs can now travel longer distances, faster, and with greater efficiency than ever before. The Biden administration has recently introduced an electric vehicle incentive that provides consumers with a tax credit when they purchase or lease a new electric vehicle. This incentive is part of the administration’s plan to reduce emissions and combat climate change. It is anticipated that this incentive will encourage more people to switch to electric vehicles, helping to reduce emissions and save money on fuel costs.
   While most electric vehicle charging occurs at home, there is an increasing trend of commercial electric vehicle charging stations being built across the country. These charging stations provide a safe and convenient way for electric vehicle owners to charge their vehicles. They are typically located near public places such as shopping malls, hotels, and other popular locations. The construction of these charging stations can help electric vehicle owners maximize their vehicle’s capabilities and decrease range anxiety for potential buyers. Hence, it can make electric vehicles more accessible and encourage more people to make the switch to electric vehicles.

See the full problem description for more information.

Problem description:  MOPTA2023_Competition.pdf
Data and Demonstration files:  MOPTA_2023_data_demo.zip - contains two files

Sponsor

Registration

You have to register here: registration

Solver Application Download

You are free to use any software of your choice, but it is recommended to use AIMMS for your submission. All source code must be included, properly documented, and results must be reproducible. AIMMS is an industry-leading rapid model building and deployment platform perfected for over 30 years. AIMMS provides an enjoyable and robust way to not only build optimization models but to deploy them as optimization applications to be used by business professionals. You can develop analytical models and highly interactive end-user interfaces all within the same AIMMS environment.

Your team can obtain AIMMS software and request the free academic license from this link.

Free introduction courses to AIMMS are available here.

Submission

All files should be submitted by the deadline as a single email with a single attached zip file to . Please start your submission email's subject line with [MOPTA Competition 2023]. The body of the email should forward the registration confirmation email received at registration time, as the way to authenticate the submitting team. Good luck!

Eligibility

Teams of at most three students can participate. The team leader must be a graduate student, though 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 2022-2023 Academic Year. Students with any background are eligible. Collaboration between students from different departments is strongly encouraged.

Each team must 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 round.

The official language of the competition is English.

Teams are asked to register to the competition as soon as they start working on the problem. There is a separate deadline for the submission of the solution (see Important dates).

If you have questions about the problem or the competition format in general, please contact Dr. Xiu Yang at . If you have questions about the AIMMS software and licensing related issues, please contact .

Competition Format

The competition consists of a few stages. In the first stage the teams are asked to develop models and solution methods (see the problem description above) and provide an implementation of the optimization models using the software you choose. The teams must submit a complete solution to the problem, including: implementation of the optimization models in the software you choose, ideally already including a graphical user interface that provides the user with graphical and textual output; solutions of the models for the given case study, and for other data sets generated by the teams, if any; a maximum 15 page report that discusses the models developed (along with mathematical background), the solutions obtained, and further recommendations. The AIMMS implementation is recommended for the optimization models only: the teams can use any tool of their choice build the proposed model(s) and/or solution method or run machine learning algorithms on the case study provided if this is a part of their approach (documented source codes should still be included). The teams should also keep in mind that opportunities to improve the solution approach and the interface will be offered in the next phase. A panel of judges, including representatives from both the conference organizing committee and 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 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 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.

Prizes

Updated - February 15, 2023

Each finalist team will receive free registration for the conference for up to two team members.

• $1200 for the winning team + full scholarship, not including travel, for the AIMMS Campus 2024 event
    + certificates for each team member
• $600 for the second team
    + certificates for each team member
• $300 for the third team
    + certificates for each team member

• Half-price tickets to the AIMMS Campus 2023 event are available to all teams that use AIMMS as the software platform for their submissions. To attend the AIMMS Campus 2023 event, each participant should register at https://www.aimms.com/about/events/aimms-campus and, in the comment section, mention that they are registered for the 15th AIMMS-MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition.


• The 10 best teams that use AIMMS as the software platform for their submissions will be awarded $100 in prize money. Teams will be ranked by a panel of judges, including representatives from both the conference organizing committee and AIMMS.

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 the organizers of the competition the right to use your work.