Optimisation for Social Good
OPTIMA is searching for a Not-for-profit industry partner that has a big optimisation problem that needs solving. If this sounds like your industry get in touch to discuss a partnership with OPTIMA.
All industry partners sign an agreement to join OPTIMA for four years. The NFT will not be asked to provide funding to the Centre, but we will need a small in-kind commitment to the supervision of one PhD student. We assign a PhD student to work on a solution to your problem, with their OPTIMA supervisors’ support. OPTIMA provide the PhD student with a stipend, and we will seek donations to fund a top-up for the student and costs towards the training program for OPTIMA students.
The project will be a two-way partnership – developing practical skills and deep knowledge for the student and helping not-for-profits solve complex problems to increase their effectiveness and outcomes.
Prospective Industry Partners Contact Us
Contact us if you would like to discuss a project at OPTIMA. OPTIMA Business Manager charlotte.hurry@unimelb.edu.au or call 03 83441422.
Make a Donation
Your support will typically contribute to helping not-for-profit industry partners solve complex problems and create opportunities for PhD students to work in areas of need.
Who will benefit from your donation to OPTIMA?
Not-for-profits, PhD students and young researchers
Project or stipend support allows us to give PhD students and young researchers opportunities to work for good causes in not-for-profit industry partners. It is a two-way partnership – developing practical skills and deep knowledge for the student and helping not-for-profits solve complex problems to increase their effectiveness and outcomes.
Optimisation professionals
We work as a Centre to bring together optimisation professionals from across disciplines to work with the PhD student to help deliver the best outcomes for our industry partner, the not-for-profit. We enhance leadership across disciplines in optimisation and attract top talent for discovery, breakthrough innovation and collaboration with industry.
Industry partners
If you donate to project costs for a specific not-for-profit, we will sign up the not-for-profit as an industry partner. Project costs typically support OPTIMA in assigning a PhD student to the project, creating training opportunities for the student and employees at the not-for-profit, and supporting the not-for-profit in the uptake of the toolkit we develop. A project typically runs for four years and may be funded in a lump sum payment or invoiced yearly.
Support a project
Contact the OPTIMA Business Manager to discuss your options in supporting a project for a not-for-profit or are interested in a charitable bequest charlotte.hurry@unimelb.edu.au or call 03 83441422.
Not-for-profit projects that OPTIMA are supporting
Making the Birrarung swimmable
An important component of making the Birrarung swimmable is understanding the state of the river. Currently there are many stakeholders that compile data on the river for various purposes, including Melbourne Water (Yarra Watch, Healthy Waterway Strategy), the Environmental Protection Agency (Yarra Watch), Waterwatch Victoria, Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action (Victoria’s Water Measurement Information System), Port Phillip Bay Eco Centre, and various other community groups.
Although there are multiple actors and stakeholders caring for and monitoring the river in various ways, nobody has a complete understanding of the state of the river, and indeed how different interventions can move the state towards a level of health that supports “swimmability”.
Using optimisation methodologies and incorporating community involvement OPTIMA PhD Student Leilah Taouk will be tacking this problem head on.
We do not ask NFPs to pay towards an OPTIMA project. OPTIMA provides part of a student stipend. We rely on generous donations to provide a top-up to the students’ stipend and training in optimisation.