At 2 pm on Wednesday 27th of March there will be a seminar from visiting academic Prof. Michael C. Ferris from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The seminar will be held in 439-G10 (70 Symonds St) and followed by refreshments in the Level 2 common room.
Speaker: Michael C. Ferris, Jacques-Louis Lions Professor of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: Modeling for design and impact
Time: 2 pm, Wednesday 27th of March
Location: 439-G10
Abstract:
Many of us build (computer/mathematical) models that capture physics, dynamics, stochastics, discrete choices, and to some extent behavior: collaboration, competition. Such models can be complex and difficult to explain, often ignored by decision makers, yet their solution can lead to fundamentally new insights.
How can we use models in practice to determine good actions/designs?
What needs to change in the model (and its complexity), and what skills does a user need to acquire?
We will centre this discussion using data science, energy planning, and dairy decision making examples.
About Michael:
Michael Ferris is John P. Morgridge Chair in Computer Sciences & Jacques-Louis Lions Professor of Computer Sciences, and (by courtesy) Mathematics and Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As Director of Hub Central in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, he leads the algorithmic and interface development for large scale problems in mathematical programming, including links to the GAMS and AMPL modeling languages, and general purpose software such as PATH, NLPEC and EMP. He has worked on many applications of both optimization and complementarity, including cancer treatment planning, energy modeling, economic policy, traffic and environmental engineering, video-on-demand data delivery, structural and mechanical engineering. Ferris is a SIAM fellow, an INFORMS fellow, received the Beale-Orchard-Hays prize from the Mathematical Programming Society and is a past recipient of a NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He serves on the editorial boards of INFORMS Journal on Computing and Optimization Methods and Software.