Research Themes
OPTIMA's research is organised around three themes to address the needs of industry
Integrate
Many academic fields have contributed to optimisation methodologies and technologies, but the siloed nature of these efforts misses an opportunity. OPTIMA will integrate multidisciplinary optimisation methodologies, spearheaded by its world-leading investigators who span relevant disciplines, into a common toolkit. By tackling industry problems that require inspiration from multiple fields, OPTIMA will dissolve silos, making state-of-the-art methodologies more accessible to industry.
Advance
Industrial optimisation problems are typically “messier” and more complex than classical text-book examples for which optimisation techniques are developed. They are large-scale, with multiple competing objectives, multi-source uncertainties, and require decisions on multiple time-scales. OPTIMA will radically advance an industry-ready optimisation toolkit to support such complexities exemplified by our collection of industry partner challenge problems.
Uptake
Successful application of optimisation methods for industrial decision-making problems requires significant expertise, often beyond the reach of domain experts in a position to identify key industry needs. Current end-user tools for optimisation are limited in the feedback and guidance they provide to users, affecting trust and uptake. OPTIMA will transform optimisation technology to prioritise end-user ease, comprehension, and trust.
Projects
Aircraft design optimisation
OPTIMA CIs:
Professor Kate Smith-Miles
OPTIMA Research Fellow:
Andrés Muñoz
PhD student:
Nico Thio
Read more – Advanced Manufacturing
Optimisation of production by “selected turbine de-rating”
OPTIMA CIs:
Professor Kate Smith-Miles
OPTIMA Research Fellow:
Andrés Muñoz
PhD Student:
Nadhir Hassen
Read more – Energy
Optimising multi-item retail inventories using Artificial Intelligence
OPTIMA CIs:
Professor Peter Stuckey
Associates:
Dr John Betts
PhD Student:
Zahra Namazian
Read more – Financial, Retail, Insurance
Large scale optimisation of the numbers and locations of meters and monitoring devices
OPTIMA CIs:
Assoc. Professor Guido Tack
Associates:
Dr Mario Boley
PhD candidate:
Read more – Infrastructure
Multi-objective optimisation of environmental outcomes in urban water systems
OPTIMA CIs:
Professor Kate Smith-Miles
Associates:
Professor Tim Fletcher
Dr Mathew Burns
PhD Candidate:
Shiraz (Yi) Zhen
Read more – Infrastructure

OPTIMA CIs:
Professor Peter Stuckey
Associates:
Hamid Rezatofighi
PhD student:
Emely Pierau
Read more – Advanced Manufacturing
Predict-and-Optimise through Time at Water Recycling Treatment Plants
OPTIMA CIs:
Professor Kate Smith-Miles
Associates:
Professor James Bailey
PhD candidate:
Vincent Barbosa Vaz
Read more – Infrastructure
Waterways long-term ambient WQ monitoring network
OPTIMA CIs:
Professor Kate Smith-Miles
Associates:
Professor Tim Fletcher
PhD candidate:
Vaughn Gray
Read more – Infrastructure

Project information coming soon
Publications
Search and review all OPTIMA’s Research Outputs here.