Why puzzles are very interesting for OR consulting?

Speaker: Alex Fleischer, Optimization Expert (IBM)

Trying to solve puzzles, practitioners can train themselves on OR techniques. (and other techniques)Puzzles are good ways for large and small companies to have OR practitioners from academia and consulting have a look at their specific issues. (ROADEF / Euro challenges)

Puzzles can help challenge students to show motivation and skills.

Why puzzles are very interesting with regards to equivalent computational challenges ?

We need to map real world concepts to mathematical concepts and that’s useful! They tell a story so they’re very easy to share and explain.

Kaggle challenges are part of the buzz around data science and here I’ll mention other public challenges with examples:The IBM Ponder this challenge, the Decision Management challenge, and, not to forget, the “”Comité International des Jeux Mathématiques”.

And I will challenge the audience with regards to deciding if challenges are good training paths for OR consulting and, also, if real-world business OR helps practitioners get better at challenges.

I will also share some hybrid use of optimization and generative AI.

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