consortiums

PROJECT 3

SAILOR MARINE CAREER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Innovations in Optimization Methodologies

Keith Womer, Bahram Alidaee,
Cesar Rego, Fred Glover,
Gary A. Kochenberger
School of Business Administration,
University of Mississippi

Mohammad Amini
University of Memphis

Debasis Mitra
Jackson State University

Proposed Grant $1,322,355

Abstract:
Recent years have witnessed a revolutionary change in operational and strategic planning in business and government, brought about by modern optimization technology. Gains in cost efficiencies and other performance measures due to optimization technology are being reported by organizations in all industries, both private and public. Often the results are not simply favorable, but extraordinary, far exceeding management’s expectations. These success stories are being reported at a growing rate in the journals Interfaces, Production and Operations Management, Management Science, MS/OR Today, among many others.
In recognition of the emerging usefulness of optimization to firms in all sectors of the economy, the University of Mississippi became committed to develop a research center to facilitate research in the field of optimization. With the assistance of corporate funding from the Hearin Foundation, the Hearin Center for Enterprise Science was launched in 1999 at Ole Miss with the primary purpose of making optimization technology accessible to organizations that seek to improve their operations and strategic planning. In this pursuit, we have assembled a resource base of resident faculty researchers, including distinguished affiliates from leading universities and other research institutions from around the world. This base is augmented by a cadre of highly trained graduate students who do research projects and theses studies in association with the Center. This research is supported by state-of-the-art computer equipment, and the most advanced software available for optimization.
Over the past two years, the Hearin Center for Enterprise Science has evolved to the level of a thriving and expanding research center, which is recognized for making leading edge contributions to the literature, as well as providing assistance to private and public organizations, and serving as a valuable resource for graduate education in optimization. Hearin Center research studies have been the focus of invited presentations and plenary addresses at national and international meetings on optimization, and their underlying advances in theory and practical computer implementation have been featured in top tier journals. Evidence of this exceptional research productivity can also be seen in the Hearin Center research reports as listed on the Center’s Web page (http://HCES.bus.olemiss.edu), which also provides additional information about the Hearin Center and its activities and continuing growth.
This development of the Hearin Center as a research entity owes in significant part to the key played by ONR and NPRST. These organizations, through their investments and partnering, have provided valuable financial support and applied research opportunities that have enabled, to a large extent, our rapid maturity and international recognition as a premier research center in optimization. ONR and NPRST, through their support, have been instrumental in bringing this about. Our plans for the future are very ambitious, targeting yet higher levels of academic accomplishment, higher levels of service to organizations, and continued growth in our reputation as a center of excellence in optimization technology. We are committed to expanding the development and use of state-of-the-art optimization methodologies and to becoming increasingly known as the research center that other organizations and research institutions turn to for leading edge solutions in optimization. To facilitate this continued growth, we plan to augment our current research staff of faculty and graduate students with distinguished research visitors who will spend one or two years with us at Ole Miss working on various funded projects. These visitors will add considerably to our aggregate research capability, lending not only their considerable talents to our current projects, but also providing an influx of new ideas that enhance both our research and teaching missions more generally.
As we look to the future, we see great promise for innovations of increasingly broadened scope to enhance and expand the contributions from our early involvement with the Navy. As an outgrowth of this involvement, we are positioned to address important, large scale problems that currently pose critical challenges for the Navy. The gains from the past and the needs of the future are coming together, resulting in the opportunity to focus our research in areas where new advances can make significant differences in the Navy’s ability to handle the compelling problems to be faced ahead.
To make the fullest advantage from this opportunity, we propose a long term, multi-year relationship, which will afford the Navy on-going access to cutting–edge expertise in optimization technology, thereby also providing access to latest advances that can equip the Navy to deal more effectively with problems encountered in the future. By the same token, this relationship will be exceedingly valuable for the Hearin Center in pursuing its goal of further contributing to education and research at Ole Miss, as well as growing in national and international recognition for the importance of its accomplishments.