Tools for Discovery: Ben Shapiro
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.
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.
Tools for Discovery: Rock Mackie
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.
Closing the Loop on Big Data… One Beer at a Time
WID researchers develop algorithms for many applications and industries, but one side project boasts a more playful goal: Mapping brew preferences.
MIP Workshop Promotes Synergies among Optimization Experts
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.
Graduate Student Refines Formulas to Optimize How Computers “Think”
Kevin Jamieson hits the whiteboard in efforts to make computer algorithms more quick and efficient.
Tools for Discovery: Jordan Ellenberg
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.
Optimization Researcher among 2013 SIAM Fellowship Class for Complementarity Research
Optimization researcher Michael Ferris has been honored as a SIAM Fellow for pushing math research into industry.
Tackling ‘Netflix Problem,’ WID Researcher Snags Lagrange Prize
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.
Multidisciplinary Team Maps Costs of Participating in Health Information Exchanges
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.