First Friday Webinar – Programming by Optimization: Automated algorithm configuration, selection and beyond

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of automated algorithm design methods, such as automated algorithm configuration and portfolio-based algorithm selection, across many areas within operations research, artificial intelligence and beyond. These methods are based on cutting-edge machine learning and optimization techniques; they have also led to substantial advances in those areas.

In this tutorial, I will give an overview of these automated algorithm design methods and introduce Programming by Optimization (PbO), a principled approach for developing high-performance software based on them. I will explain how PbO can fundamentally change the nature of developing solvers for challenging computational problems and give examples for its successful application to a range of prominent problems from OR and AI – notably, mixed integer programming, the travelling salesman problem, AI planning, automated reasoning and machine learning.

EWG POR webinars organisers:

Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Patrick Schittekat (SINTEF), Gavin Bell (Optimeering), Adisa Mujezinovic