Experts in: Metaheuristic
FERLAND, Jacques
Professeur associé
- Genetic algorithm
- Metaheuristic
- Decomposition methods
- Combinatorial problems
- Local search (optimization)
- Mathematical optimization
- Operations research
I am involved in fundamental and applied research projects. Using heuristic methods I have been dealing with timetabling problems issued from several contexts. More recently, my research interests also include applications in health care. I also develop experimental decision support systems to allow potential users to appreciate the benefit and the easiness of using these methods.
We have defined a general formulation for several timetabling problems. We have also done more fundamental research on heuristic techniques such as exchange procedures, Tabu search, simulated annealing and genetic algorithms to analyse their efficiency and to specify hybrids of these. Finally we have recently extended the analysis of generalized convexity for functions to study generalized motonone maps.
GENDREAU, Michel
Professeur associé
- Operations research
- Transports
- Transportation networks
- Metaheuristic
- Optimization of transport systems
- Stochastic optimization
- Machine learning
- Logistics
My main research area is the application of operations research to transportation and telecommunication planning. A large portion of my work deals with the development of efficient metaheuristics for solving difficult problems in this area. As co-director of the Laboratory on Intelligent Transportation Systems of the Centre for Research on Transportation, I am also very interested in all real-time transportation planning problems.
POTVIN, Jean-Yves
Directeur adjoint, Professeur titulaire
- Genetic algorithm
- Logistics
- Metaheuristic
- Vehicle routing problem
- Tabu search
- Transports
- Combinatorial optimization
- Communication protocol
- Network design
- Machine learning
- Parallel computing
- Artificial intelligence
My research interests focus on the development of metaheuristics, such as tabu search and genetic algorithms, for solving discrete optimization problems in the transportation domain. I am particularly interested in vehicle routing problems with different side constraints, like service time windows at customer locations. These problems can model many real-world applications such as distribution of goods by commercial vehicles, courier services, para-transit services, etc. I also study dynamic variants of these problems when customer requests dynamically occur over time and must be integrated in real-time into the current routes.