CO@Work 2020

CO@Work is a summer school organized by TU Berlin in cooperation with the Berlin Mathematical School and with support of the Berlin Mathematics Research Center MATH+.

Update: CO@Work 2020 will be a full online event!

This block course addresses master students (in their final year), PhD students, post-docs, and everyone else interested in the use of combinatorial optimization and mathematical programming in concrete applications from practice. The course schedule covers two weeks with lectures and exercises. We will have lectures by more than 30 distinguished researchers from all over the world, including developers and managers of seven leading companies in the field of mathematical optimization.

Date: September 14 - 25, 2020
Place: Youtube, Zoom, your couch
ECTS: 10 credit points

Registration

Register here

Please register by 6th/Sep latest! Otherwise, we cannot ensure that you get a personal dockerlink to participate in the exercise.

Due to the Covid-19 situation, CO@Work will take place as a pure online event. Obviously, this requires some changes in the format. CO@Work 2020 will be different from previous editions – maybe even better? We are very happy that all invited guest lecturers will participate in the online event and that we can roughly stay with our original schedule.

More precisely, the two weeks will be organized as follows:

1. Each day, a set of pre-recorded lectures will be released. You have one day to watch those. The total length of the videos will typically be about two hours and we assume that it will take about 3 hours to watch them.
2. Each day, there will be two 30 minute live Q&A sessions, where you can ask questions to the lecturers, concerning the videos released on the previous day. The sessions will be about 11 hours apart, you should participate in one of them, whichever fits your time zone.
3. Each day, there will be two 90 minute live exercise sessions, with interactive tutoring and hands-on experience with state-of-the-art optimization software. The exercise sessions will take place directly after the Q&A. The two exercise sessions for one topic will be identical, you are supposed to participate in one of them, whichever fits your time zone. One-on-one tutoring will take place in parallel breakout rooms
4. Each day, you will get some homework, covering about 60 minutes.
5. One week after the last day of the course, on the 2nd of October, there will be a final exam. It will be in written form, online (except for students from Berlin) and take about 90 minutes. More information on the exam will be made available later.
6. Next to passing the exam, it is mandatory to actively participate in the exercises and Q&A sessions in order to pass the course.
7. To participate in the Q&A and the exercise sessions, you need to register for the Zoom Webinar below.

If you only want to watch a single presentation and not participate in any Q&A or exercise session, you will not need to register. The lectures will be made publicly available (the exercise sessions, however, will not!). Find the registration link at here. Note that the daily times are automatically generated by Zoom and hence do not feature the second Q&A and exercise slots of each day. Also, Saturday and Sunday are of course free days, without Zoom meetings, even though Zoom automatically lists them. If you have any questions, please contact us at coaw@zib.de .

Schedule

	Monday, 14.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Timo Berthold, Thorsten Koch	Welcome
	Timo Berthold	LP/MIP theory I
	Timo Berthold	LP/MIP theory II
	Thorsten Koch	Data Experiment
	Timo Berthold	MIP Modelling
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	Timo Berthold, Thorsten Koch	Q&A with Timo and Thorsten
9:30 am	Timo Berthold	Exercise: Get Software to work, Solve first toy models
8:00 pm	Timo Berthold, Thorsten Koch	Q&A with Timo and Thorsten
8:30 pm	Timo Berthold	Exercise: Get Software to work, Solve first toy models
	Tuesday, 15.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Timo Berthold	Solving MIPs: Branching
	Timo Berthold	Solving MIPs: Cutting
	Timo Berthold	Solving MIPs: Presolving
	Timo Berthold	Solving MIPs: Heuristics
	Michael Joswig	Polymake: Software for Computations in Polyhedral Geometry
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	Timo Berthold, Michael Joswig	Q&A with Timo and Michael
9:30 am	Pietro Belotti	Exercise: Modelling exercise I
8:00 pm	Timo Berthold, Michael Joswig	Q&A with Timo and Michael
8:30 pm	Pietro Belotti	Exercise: Modelling exercise I
	Wednesday, 16.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Bob Bixby	Solving LPs: Some Basic Theory
	Bob Bixby	Solving LPs: The Dual Simplex
	Bob Bixby	Solving LPs: Implementing the Algorithm
	Julian Hall	High performance computational techniques for the simplex method
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	Bob Bixby, Julian Hall	Q&A with Bob and Julian
9:30 am	Pietro Belotti	Exercise: Modelling exercise II
8:00 pm	Bob Bixby, Julian Hall	Q&A with Bob and Julian
8:30 pm	Pietro Belotti	Exercise: Modelling exercise II
	Thursday, 17.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Leon Eifler	Constraint Integer Programming
	Marc Pfetsch	Solving Mixed-Integer SDPs
	Ksenia Bestuzheva	Mixed-integer nonlinear programming
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	K. Bestuzheva, L. Gottwald, M. Pfetsch	Q&A with the SCIP team
9:30 am	Leona Gottwald	Exercise: Programming with plugins
8:00 pm	K. Bestuzheva, L. Gottwald, M. Pfetsch	Q&A with the SCIP team
8:30 pm	Leona Gottwald	Exercise: Programming with plugins
	Friday, 18.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Marco Lübbecke	Anything you can do I can do better (TEDx talk)
	Andrea Lodi	Machine Learning for Combinatorial Optimization: a Methodological Tour d’Horizon.
	Sebastian Pokutta	Machine Learning and Optimization II
	Bistra Dilkina	ML and Optimization for Computational Sustainability
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	B. Dilkina, A. Lodi, S. Pokutta	Q&A with the ML crew
9:30 am	Sebastian Pokutta	Exercise: tba
8:00 pm	B. Dilkina, A. Lodi, S. Pokutta	Q&A with the ML crew
8:30 pm	Sebastian Pokutta	Exercise: tba
	Saturday, 19.09.2020
		Day off
	Sunday, 20.09.2020
		Day off
	Monday, 21.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Timo Berthold	How To Benchmark Optimization Software
	Robert Luce	Nonlinear mixed integer optimization with Gurobi
	Andrea Tramontani	Implementing Automatic Benders Decomposition in Cplex
	Timo Berthold	Learning To Scale with FICO Xpress
	Sven Wiese	Convex Optimization via Cones and Mosek 9
	Julian Hall	HiGHS
	Robin Schuchmann	From Model to App - Develop and Deploy your GAMS Models
	Robert Schwarz	Rapid Development on the Litic Platform
	Pawel Lichocki	OR-tools
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	T. Berthold, R. Luce, A. Tramontani	Q&A Solver day part I
9:30 am	R. Schwarz, P. Lichocki, R. Schuchmann	Q&A Solver day part II
10:00 am	S. Wiese, Julian Hall	Q&A Solver day part III
8:00 pm	T. Berthold, R. Luce, tba	Q&A Solver day part I
8:30 pm	R. Schwarz, P. Lichocki, R. Schuchmann	Q&A Solver day part II
9:00 pm	S. Wiese, Julian Hall	Q&A Solver day part III
		No Exercise today!
	Tuesday, 22.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Ralf Borndörfer	Optimization in Transportation I
	Güvenç Şahin	Optimization in Transportation II
	Luis Torres	Integrated Pollster and Vehicle Routing
		Zoom live sessions
4:00 am (!)	Luis Torres	Q&A with Luis
9:00 am	Ralf Borndörfer, Güvenç Şahin	Q&A with Luis, Ralf and Güvenç
9:30 am	Niels Lindner	Exercise: Exercises in Transportation Optimization
8:00 pm	Ralf Borndörfer, Güvenç Şahin	Q&A with Ralf and Güvenç
8:30 pm	Niels Lindner	Exercise: Exercises in Transportation Optimization
	Wednesday, 23.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Thorsten Koch	Applications in Gas Transport
	Kai Hoppmann	Pipeline Network Flow
	Felix Hennings	Modelling and solving complex station control over time
	Mark Turner	Learning Control Decisions in Gas Networks
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	T. Koch, K. Hoppmann, F. Hennings, M. Turner	Q&A with the energy team
9:30 am	Lovis Anderson	Exercise: Modelling a Compressor Station
8:00 pm	T. Koch, K. Hoppmann, F. Hennings, M. Turner	Q&A with the energy team
8:30 pm	Lovis Anderson	Exercise: Modelling a Compressor Station
	Thursday, 24.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Marco Lübbecke	Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition, column generation and branch-and-price
	Steve Maher	Benders Decomposition: Fundamentals
	Steve Maher	Benders Decomposition: Implementations
	Philipp Christophel	Implementation and Use Cases of a Commercial Decomposition Solver
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	M. Lübbecke, S. Maher, P. Christophel	Q&A with the decomposers
9:30 am	Marco Lübbecke, Erik Mühmer	Exercise: Working with GCG
8:00 pm	M. Lübbecke, S. Maher, P. Christophel	Q&A with the decomposers
8:30 pm	Marco Lübbecke, Erik Mühmer	Exercise: Working with GCG
	Friday, 25.09.2020
		Youtube video lectures (released the day before)
	Karsten Lehmann	Optimiser as a job
	Sabine Seelenmeyer, Anne Kißler	Multimodal Logistics - Application of Optimization Methods and Future Usage of Artificial Intelligence
	Pawel Lichocki	Combinatorial Optimization at Google
	Mauricio Resende	Deep Time Series and Optimization
	Oliver Bastert	Optimization in Enterprise AI Solutions
	Christoph Moll	Applications at Siemens
	Christina Burt	Water Supply: Delivering Optimisation in Practice
	Thorsten Koch	How to survive Industry projects as a mathematican
		Zoom live sessions
9:00 am	Christina Burt, Karsten Lehmann	Q&A Industry Day part I
9:30 am	S. Seelenmeyer, A. Kißler, P. Lichocki, T. Januschowski	Q&A Industry Day part II
10:00 am	C. Moll, O. Bastert, T. Koch	Q&A Industry Day part III
10:30 am	Timo Berthold, Thorsten Koch	Wrap-Up
4:00 pm (!)	Christina Burt, Karsten Lehmann	Q&A Industry Day part I
8:00 pm	S. Seelenmeyer, A. Kißler, P. Lichocki, T. Januschowski	Q&A Industry Day part II
8:30 pm	C. Moll, O. Bastert, T. Koch	Q&A Industry Day part III
9:00 pm	Timo Berthold, Thorsten Koch	Wrap-Up
		No exercise today!
	Friday, 02.10.2020
tba		Examination (mandatory for the ECTS certificate)

Previous Workshops

CO@Work2020, will be the sixth incarnation of this workshop series, and the fourth one being held in Berlin.

• Berlin 2015
  From September 28 to October 10, 2015 more than 160 students from 29 countries, covering all continents except Antarctica, participated in the course held at Zuse Institute Berlin.
• Berlin 2009
  From September 21 to October 9, 2009 many students from all over the world participated in the course held at the Zuse Institute Berlin.
• Berlin 2005
  From October 4-15 more than 100 students out of 10 countries participated in the course held at the Zuse Institute Berlin.
• Görlitz 2006
  From September 3-15 parts of the course where discussed during the Görlitz summer school of the German National Academic Foundation.
• Beijing 2006 From September 25 to October 6 more than 40 students from all over China attended the course as part of the Workshop Optimization Methods and Applications at the Morningside Center of Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.