On July 26, 2017, I presented our work on Automating Scientific Research in Optimization at the Institute of Applied Stochastics and Operations Research (IASOR) of the Mathematics branch of the Faculty of Mathematics/Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering of the Clausthal University of Technology (Technische Universität Clausthal) in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany. The IASOR consists of four groups, Applied Statistics, Stochastic Models in Engineering Science, Stochastic Optimization, and the Discrete Optimization group.

The visit gave me the chance to have very nice talks with Prof. Dr. Stephan Westphal and Prof. Dr. Michael Kolonko.

Prof. Westphal leads the Discrete Optimization group, which is specialized in solving hard combinatorial problems, such as variants of the traveling umpire- and traveling tournament-, knapsack-, bin packing-, as well as other vehicle routing- and scheduling problems. Prof. Westphal is well-known for applying optimization methods to construct the gaming schedules of the German football and basketball leagues.

The Stochastic Optimization group of Prof. Dr. Michael Kolonko works on stochastic modeling and simulation in operations research, heuristic optimization methods, optimization and robustness of timetables in traffic networks and airport landing strips, as well as the simulation of particle mixtures. Moreover, they provide very nice teaching material in form of Java and JavaScript applets.

It is needless to say that there were many interesting topics and common interests to discuss with this outstanding group.

  • tu_clausthal_logo
  • tu_clausthal_1
  • tu_clausthal_2
  • wooden_church_next_to_tu_clausthal
  • tu_clausthal_math
  • colloquium_announcement
  • prof_weise_presenting_1
  • prof_weise_presenting_2
  • prof_weise_presenting_3