What is Operations Research?

Operations Research (OR) is the analysis-usually involving treatment-of a process, problem, or operation to determine its purpose and effectiveness and to gain maximum efficiency.
The strength and versatility of OR lie in its ability to model the behavior of complex systems in quantitative mathematical terms, as well as its prescriptive power through analysis and synthesis.

Operations Research is interdisciplinary by nature and draws on the techniques from many fields, including the mathematical sciences, engineering, the solution economics, and the physical sciences.

Applied Optimization Lab

The mission of the Applied Optimization Lab is to conduct high quality academic research while addressing real industrial and government problems. Research activities are focused on the use and development of advanced computer software to analyze and optimize performance measures of actual systems. The lab’s faculty participants have a unique combination of expertise and experiences that allow them to address complex problems in logistics, transportation, and renewable energy systems, stochastic modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems, facility layout and location, and network design and optimization.

응용 최적화 연구실은 높은 수준의 학술 연구를 통해 실제 산업 및 정부가 추진하는 다양한 과제들을 다루고 실현가능한 가장 좋은 솔루션을 도출하여, 궁극적으로 인류의 삶의 질 향상에 기여하는 데 목표를 두고 있습니다. 이를 위해 다양한 수학적 기법과 컴퓨터 기반의 문제해결법을 개발 및 적용하여 시스템을 설계/분석하며, 최근에는 데이터 사이언스 발전의 도움을 받아 더 복잡하고 정교한 과제들의 최적 솔루션까지도 이론적으로 도출하고 민감도 분석을 통하여 환경에 끼치는 효과를 분석하는데에 연구 범위를 확장하고 있습니다. 주요 연구 분야는 물류, 교통, 에너지 및 공유경제이며, 인류의 삶의 질을 향상시킬 수 있는 더 다양한 분야로 연구를 확장하고 있습니다.

Application to 4th Industrial Revolution

Research and Teaching Interests

• Optimization problems in the sharing economy, logistics and transportation sectors, and their effects on energy sustainability and environment
• Logistics problems related to energy systems in the areas of facility location and allocation; inventory management; supply chain logistics; graph theory; dynamic programming; multiple criteria optimization; queueing theory; markov decision processes
• Public policies for welfare economics and spatial equity
• Application of operations research to the fundamental research that forms the foundation for smart grid and smart & connected communities
• Drivers/riders behavior patterns
• Analysis of potential effects of autonomous vehicles in logistics and transportation areas
• Polynomial time algorithms to search and optimize vehicle detour options