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Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
at UW-Madison
 
  • About WID
    • Mission, Vision, and Diversity
    • Contact & Location
    • Discovery Partnership
    • FAQ
    • For the Media
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    • 10 Years of Discovery
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    • WID Faculty
    • Discovery Fellows
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    • BADGRS @ WID
    • Catalysts for Science Policy
    • Kohler Fellows
  • Research
    • Expertise
      • Complex Systems
      • Data Science
      • Emerging Technologies
      • Precision Medicine
    • Discovery Hubs
      • Data Science Hub
      • Illuminating Discovery Hub
      • Multi-Omics Hubs
        • Epigenetics Hub
        • Microbiome Hub
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    • Projects
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  • Stories
    • WID News
    • Featured Science
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  • Events
    • Cultivating Connections 2023
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Tag: optimization

Optimization is an act, process, or methodology of making something as fully perfect or effective as possible. Almost everything can be improved, so optimization’s relevance spans to almost every business or process to make it operate more efficiently and effectively.

Optimization employs mathematical models to discover more efficient ways to control and manage systems, ranging from radiation treatments to data centers and power networks. Optimization researchers at WID solve systems-level problems in emerging science and engineering applications by using optimization technologies in an integrated, interdisciplinary, and collaborative fashion. This includes finding solutions to problems that are the most cost-effective or achieve the highest performance under given constraints by maximizing desired elements and minimizing the undesired elements.

Optimization models promise better process planning that can be tied to and offered by social, economic, and financial systems. Certain social and political constraints have caused optimization to go largely unexplored, as have methods for translating plans into policy. We hope to draw on collaborations with communications experts, political scientists, sociologists, economists, behavioral scientists, and business professionals to further leverage optimization’s potential for boosting efficiencies and improving systems that reach into all corners of our lives.

Learn more about Optimization at WID. It is a key component of WID’s Data Science Hub.

NEOS Optimizes Itself: New Solvers and Authentication Services Added
Featured Science

NEOS Optimizes Itself: New Solvers and Authentication Services Added

March 10, 2016 September 7, 2022  optimization, software

Within the past year NEOS has made its services more resilient, sophisticated and diverse.

More"NEOS Optimizes Itself: New Solvers and Authentication Services Added"
Optimization of Energy Systems
Wisconsin Stories

Optimization of Energy Systems

March 2, 2016 August 28, 2017  optimization

Victor Zavala, WID Optimization Affiliate and Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, spoke at the Discovery Seminar Series in February, 2016, about optimization of energy systems.

More"Optimization of Energy Systems"
The Strategic Value of Carbon Tariffs
Featured Science

The Strategic Value of Carbon Tariffs

February 20, 2016 August 30, 2017  big data, modeling, optimization

Professor Thomas Rutherford, WID Optimization, and colleagues used numerical models to examine whether the threat of carbon tariffs might lower the cost of reductions in world carbon emissions in a paper published in the February issue of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

More"The Strategic Value of Carbon Tariffs"
WID News

Q&A: What’s so punk rock about operations research? Plenty, says UW’s Laura Albert McLay

February 18, 2016 August 10, 2020  creativity, optimization

Discovery Fellow Laura Albert McLay talks to the Cap Times about military maneuvers, the lottery, March Madness and the satisfaction she derives from teaching.

More"Q&A: What’s so punk rock about operations research? Plenty, says UW’s Laura Albert McLay"
Tools for Discovery: Laura Albert
Tools for Discovery

Tools for Discovery: Laura Albert

December 30, 2015 August 29, 2017  creativity, optimization, outreach

With the holiday bowl games and College Football Playoff upon us, we profile Laura Albert, who successfully did the math on predicting the finalists.

More"Tools for Discovery: Laura Albert"
The Science of Funny: Active Machine Learning & Cartoons
Featured Science, Wisconsin Stories

The Science of Funny: Active Machine Learning & Cartoons

November 24, 2015 October 3, 2022  machine learning, optimization, psychology, software

The New Yorker is using a machine learning system developed by WID Optimization researchers to sort through captions for their weekly cartoon caption contest.

More"The Science of Funny: Active Machine Learning & Cartoons"
The Algebraic Revolution: Solving for Chocolate
Featured Science

The Algebraic Revolution: Solving for Chocolate

September 17, 2015 July 22, 2021  creativity, modeling, optimization

UW-Madison and WID are on the front lines of the applied algebra movement, changing the way scientists in a wide range of disciplines solve problems.

More"The Algebraic Revolution: Solving for Chocolate"
Tools for Discovery: Laurent Lessard
Tools for Discovery

Tools for Discovery: Laurent Lessard

August 13, 2015 July 22, 2021  creativity, modeling, optimization, software

Tools for Discovery is a monthly profile series that inspects the computer programs, gadgets and methods behind WID’s ideas and discoveries.

More"Tools for Discovery: Laurent Lessard"
WID News

Sound Engineering: UW-Madison’s burgeoning optimization community

June 8, 2015 August 10, 2020  optimization

Discovery Fellow, Jim Luedtke, discusses the growing field of Optimization and addresses some criticism of the discipline in this June 8, 2015 edition of UW College of Engineering podcast.

More"Sound Engineering: UW-Madison’s burgeoning optimization community"
The Natural Order and Divine Law of Optimization
WID News

The Natural Order and Divine Law of Optimization

March 27, 2015 October 5, 2018  -omics, big data, health care, optimization

Michael Ferris and Stephen Wright, principal investigators in the WID Optimization Theme comment on New York Times Magazine article “A Sucker is Optimized Every Minute”.

More"The Natural Order and Divine Law of Optimization"
Going With the Flow:  Optimizing Ecology
Wisconsin Stories

Going With the Flow: Optimizing Ecology

March 12, 2015 July 25, 2022  modeling, optimization, outreach, software, visualization

WID Optimization teams with local wildlife agencies to improve Great Lakes basin habitat.

More"Going With the Flow: Optimizing Ecology"
Researchers Search for New Ways to Balance Big Data and Privacy
Featured Science

Researchers Search for New Ways to Balance Big Data and Privacy

December 5, 2014 September 5, 2017  big data, ethics, health care, machine learning, optimization

How can researchers extract useful information from patient data to develop life-saving treatments while making sure records stay private and protected? A WID collaboration looks for an answer.

More"Researchers Search for New Ways to Balance Big Data and Privacy"
Optimizing the World, One Problem at a Time
Featured Science

Optimizing the World, One Problem at a Time

September 26, 2014 October 5, 2018  education, modeling, optimization, software

What if a computer program could take a problem you’re trying to solve and send back the most efficient solution?

More"Optimizing the World, One Problem at a Time"
Harvesting the Power of Big Data in Agriculture
Featured Science

Harvesting the Power of Big Data in Agriculture

June 9, 2014 April 2, 2019  -omics, big data, modeling, optimization, soil science, tissue engineering

Harvesting data and harvesting crops? There’s an app for that.

More"Harvesting the Power of Big Data in Agriculture"
A World of Math: WID Researcher Jordan Ellenberg on “How Not To Be Wrong”
WID News

A World of Math: WID Researcher Jordan Ellenberg on “How Not To Be Wrong”

May 29, 2014 September 5, 2017  big data, optimization

Math’s everywhere — at least that’s the message from Discovery Fellow Jordan Ellenberg in his new book “How Not To Be Wrong.” Read a conversation with him on math’s impact on our lives, from science to religion.

More"A World of Math: WID Researcher Jordan Ellenberg on “How Not To Be Wrong”"
Tools for Discovery: Ben Shapiro
Tools for Discovery

Tools for Discovery: Ben Shapiro

May 6, 2014 October 5, 2018  -omics, creativity, optimization

WID collaborator and Tufts University researcher Ben Shapiro taps into technology to make learning fun. Read more about why compassion is his ultimate tool for discovery.

More"Tools for Discovery: Ben Shapiro"
Tools for Discovery: Rock Mackie
Tools for Discovery

Tools for Discovery: Rock Mackie

October 18, 2013 September 5, 2017  -omics, complex biological systems, optimization

Thomas “Rock” Mackie, WID partner at the Morgridge Institute for Research, shares his essentials for success in engineering. Topping his list? Excellent collaborators and team members.

More"Tools for Discovery: Rock Mackie"
Closing the Loop on Big Data… One Beer at a Time
Featured Science

Closing the Loop on Big Data… One Beer at a Time

October 9, 2013 January 29, 2020  big data, machine learning, optimization

WID researchers develop algorithms for many applications and industries, but one side project boasts a more playful goal: Mapping brew preferences.

More"Closing the Loop on Big Data… One Beer at a Time"
MIP Workshop Promotes Synergies among Optimization Experts
Featured Science

MIP Workshop Promotes Synergies among Optimization Experts

July 18, 2013 January 29, 2020  health care, optimization

National and international experts convene at the annual Mixed Integer Programming Workshop, co-hosted by WID this year. Learn how this research affects energy and water networks, traffic flow, and even health care systems.

More"MIP Workshop Promotes Synergies among Optimization Experts"
Graduate Student Refines Formulas to Optimize How Computers “Think”
Featured Science

Graduate Student Refines Formulas to Optimize How Computers “Think”

June 20, 2013 October 5, 2018  optimization

Kevin Jamieson hits the whiteboard in efforts to make computer algorithms more quick and efficient.

More"Graduate Student Refines Formulas to Optimize How Computers “Think”"
Tools for Discovery: Jordan Ellenberg
Tools for Discovery

Tools for Discovery: Jordan Ellenberg

May 20, 2013 October 3, 2017  big data, machine learning, optimization

UW–Madison Mathematics Professor and Discovery Fellow Jordan Ellenberg provides perspective on programming in math, Google Hangout and why our brains are the ultimate tool for discovery.

More"Tools for Discovery: Jordan Ellenberg"
Optimization Researcher among 2013 SIAM Fellowship Class for Complementarity Research
Featured Science

Optimization Researcher among 2013 SIAM Fellowship Class for Complementarity Research

April 9, 2013 January 19, 2021  optimization

Optimization researcher Michael Ferris has been honored as a SIAM Fellow for pushing math research into industry.

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Tackling ‘Netflix Problem,’ WID Researcher Snags Lagrange Prize
Featured Science

Tackling ‘Netflix Problem,’ WID Researcher Snags Lagrange Prize

September 12, 2012 October 5, 2018  big data, optimization

What do math and movies have in common? WID researcher Ben Recht explains how incomplete data sets and the “Netflix problem” aren’t that different after all.

More"Tackling ‘Netflix Problem,’ WID Researcher Snags Lagrange Prize"
Multidisciplinary Team Maps Costs of Participating in Health Information Exchanges
Featured Science

Multidisciplinary Team Maps Costs of Participating in Health Information Exchanges

August 30, 2012 May 1, 2019  health care, optimization

A group of WID experts crunched the numbers for Health Information Exchange participation in one Wisconsin area and found a price that could save hospitals money in the long-run.

More"Multidisciplinary Team Maps Costs of Participating in Health Information Exchanges"

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