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.
Our Projects
We have ten 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: Nadhir Hassen
Learn more – Energy
Performance Optimisation of Call Centre Operations
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Peter Taylor and Professor Mark Fackrell
PhD Student: 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: Professor Kate Smith-Miles
Associates: Professor James Bailey
PhD candidate: VincentBarbosa 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
OPTIMA CIs: Professor Kate Smith-Miles
OPTIMA Research Fellow: Andrés Muñoz
PhD student: Nico Thio
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 – Infrastructure
Industry Sectors
Advanced Manufacturing
Energy
Financial, Retail, Communications, and Insurance Services
Food and Agribusiness
Medical Technologies
Transport and logistics
Infrastructure
Publications
Search and review all OPTIMA’s Research Outputs here.