Research Themes
OPTIMA's research is organised around three themes to address the needs of industry
Integrate
Many academic fields contribute to optimisation methodologies and technologies, but the siloed nature of these efforts creates missed opportunities. OPTIMA integrates multidisciplinary optimisation approaches, led by world‑leading investigators who span relevant disciplines, into a common and accessible toolkit. By tackling industry problems that need insight from multiple fields, OPTIMA dissolves silos and makes state‑of‑the‑art optimisation methodologies easier for industry to use.
Advance
Industrial optimisation problems are typically messier and more complex than classical textbook examples. They are large in scale, involve multiple competing objectives, contain uncertainties from many sources and require decisions across different time scales. OPTIMA advances an industry‑ready optimisation toolkit that supports these complexities, informed by our collection of real challenge problems from industry partners.
Uptake
Successful application of optimisation methods in industrial decision‑making often requires significant expertise, which is not always accessible to domain specialists who understand industry needs. Current end‑user optimisation tools offer limited feedback and guidance, which affects trust and reduces uptake. OPTIMA transforms optimisation technology by prioritising ease of use, clarity and user confidence, making advanced methods more accessible to industry.
Our Projects
We have twelve current projects with our industry partners
Optimisation of production by “selected turbine de-rating”
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Kate Smith-Miles
OPTIMA Research Fellow: Andrés Muñoz
PhD Student: Harvey Zhang
Learn more – Energy
Performance Optimisation of Call Centre Operations
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Peter Taylor and Professor Mark Fackrell
PhD Student:Â Hritika Gupta
Learn more – Communications
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: Rehan Mendis
Predict-and-Optimise through Time at Water Recycling Treatment Plants
OPTIMA CIs:Â Professor Peter Stuckey
Associates: Professor James Bailey
PhD candidate: Vincent Barbosa Vaz
Learn more – Infrastructure
Waterways long-term ambient WQ monitoring network
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Kate Smith-Miles
Associates: Professor Tim Fletcher
PhD Candidate: Vaughn Gray
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
Learn more – Infrastructure
Optimising multi-item retail inventories using Artificial Intelligence
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Peter Stuckey
Associates: Dr John Betts
PhD Student: Zahra Namazian
Learn more – Retail
Aircraft design optimisation
New design prototypes of aeroplanes or electric batteries need to be studied to establish their performance characteristics under a multitude of use cases.
The challenge lies in choosing how to combine highly accurate but sparse information with abundant but sometimes unreliable information when modelling these design problems.
Learn more – Advanced manufacturing
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Peter Stuckey
Associates: Hamid Rezatofighi
PhD student: Emely Pierau
Read more – Advanced Manufacturing
Assessing the risk of database reconstruction attacks on aggregate tables and linear systems
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Peter Taylor & Professor Kate Smith-Miles
Associates: Joseph Chien
PhD Student: Harry Mcarthur
Learn more –Â Security
Stochastic Multi-Objective Optimisation for Optimal Survey Design
OPTIMA CIs & AIs: Professor Howard Bondell & Dr Lindon Roberts
Associates: Ryan Covey, Lyndon Ang(ABS).
PhD Student: Hiring
Learn more –Â Security
Detecting Threats in Temporal Networks
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Peter Stuckey
OPTIMA AIs: Dr John Betts
PhD Student: Yasir Kidwai
Learn more – Security
Human-in-the-loop Microgrid
Objective: Design and implement AI based, human-in-the-loop algorithms for microgrids, wth potential to embed them into digital platforms for real-time operations.
OPTIMA AIs: Dr Hao Wang
Associate Investigators: Dr Buser Say, Dr Frits de Nijs
PhD Student: Xinyu (Adam) Liang
Learn more – Energy
With Gurobi’s decision intelligence technology, you can make optimal business decisions in seconds. From workforce scheduling, portfolio management, and marketing optimization, to supply chain design, and everything in between, Gurobi identifies your optimal solution, out of trillions of possibilities. Gurobi has operations across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Over 2,500 customers across 40+ industries run on Gurobi, including SAP, Air France, and the NFL, as well as half of the Fortune 10.
Gurobi provide drop in sessions to our students on site at University of Melbourne and Monash University
Measuring The Birrarung: Data Fusion and Optimisation
Regen Melbourne is an engine for ambitious collaboration, in service to Greater Melbourne. we are the host of bold projects for a regenerative Melbourne.
OPTIMA CIs:Â Professor Peter Stuckey
Associates: Dr Paul Satur
PhD candidate: Leilah Taouk
Learn more – Infrastructure
Industry Sectors
Advanced Manufacturing
Energy
Financial, Retail, Communications, and Insurance Services
Food and Agribusiness
Medical Technologies
Defence and Security
Transport and logistics
