The G. S. Watson Annual Lecture, 2006
Assoc. Prof. Natashia Boland
Title: "Applications and Techniques in Discrete Optimisation"
Presenter: Associate Professor Natashia Boland, Melbourne Operations Research, The University of Melbourne
Date: Friday, 22 September 2006, 12 noon to 1pm, Room 1.30 - Business Building, La Trobe University, Bendigo
Abstract: Advances in the theory and technology for integer programming have, over the past decade, transformed practitioners' ability to solve industrial discrete optimisation problems. Now more than ever before we can solve real problems, in all their complexity. In this talk I will present a diverse range of applications, such as open-pit mine production scheduling, airline planning, high-school timetabling, and logistics optimisation, and will review some of the mathematical ideas and techniques that can be used for their solution. I will conclude by discussing the challenges for the future of the field.
About the Presenter: Natashia L. Boland received her BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Western Australia in 1988, and her PhD in Mathematics from the same institution in 1992. Presently she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, and a member of the Department's Operations Research Group. Previously she held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, in 1994, and a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo in 1993. Prior to these academic appointments, she spent six months in 1992 working with a Melbourne software company, The Preston Group, on airline applications of operations research.
A/Prof Boland has a number of active research projects in both theoretical and applied operations research. She has successfully graduated six PhD students, supervised numerous Honours students, and is currently supervising five PhD and two Honours projects, almost all industry-sponsored.
Dr Boland has regularly provided consulting services to industry in a number of areas, particularly in airline planning, transportation logistics and scheduling. She is now dedicated to the delivery of professional consulting services, with the creation of Melbourne Operations Research – MORe. Directed by Dr Boland, MORe aims to deliver consulting services and expertise in operations research to business, industry, government and community organizations. Using mathematical tools, MORe aims to inform the decision-making processes of its clients at all levels – strategic, tactical and operational – with high-quality quantitative input.