Jonas Mockus - Böcker

Bayesian decision theory is known to provide an effective framework for the practical solution of discrete and nonconvex optimization problems. This text demonstrates that this framework is also well suited for the exploitation of heuristic methods in the solution of such problems, especially large scale ones for which exact optimization approaches can be prohibitively costly. It covers all aspects ranging from the formal presentation of the Bayesian Approach, to its extension to the Bayesian Heuristic Strategy, and its utilization within the informal, interactive Dynamic Visualization strategy. The developed framework is applied in forecasting, in neural network optimization, and in a large number of discrete and continuous optimization problems. Specific application areas which are discussed include scheduling and visualization problems in chemical engineering, manufacturing process control, and epidemiology. Computational results and comparisons with a broad range of test examples are presented. The software required for implementation of the Bayesian Heuristic Approach is included.The book should be of interest to both researchers in operations research, systems engineering, and optimization methods, as well as applications specialists concerned with the solution of large scale discrete and/or nonconvex optimization problems in a broad range of engineering and technological fields. It may be used as supplementary material for graduate level courses.

This text shows how to improve well-known heuristics by randomizing and optimizing their parameters. The ten in-depth examples are designed to teach operations research and the theory of games and markets using the Internet. Each example is a simple representation of some important family of real-life problems. Remote Internet users can run the accompanying software. The supporting web sites include software for Java, C++, and other languages. Researchers and specialists in operations research, systems engineering and optimization methods, as well as Internet applications experts in the fields of economics, industrial and applied mathematics, computer science, engineering, and environmental sciences should find this work useful.

Bayesian decision theory is known to provide an effective framework for the practical solution of discrete and nonconvex optimization problems. This book is the first to demonstrate that this framework is also well suited for the exploitation of heuristic methods in the solution of such problems, especially those of large scale for which exact optimization approaches can be prohibitively costly. The book covers all aspects ranging from the formal presentation of the Bayesian Approach, to its extension to the Bayesian Heuristic Strategy, and its utilization within the informal, interactive Dynamic Visualization strategy. The developed framework is applied in forecasting, in neural network optimization, and in a large number of discrete and continuous optimization problems. Specific application areas which are discussed include scheduling and visualization problems in chemical engineering, manufacturing process control, and epidemiology. Computational results and comparisons with a broad range of test examples are presented. The software required for implementation of the Bayesian Heuristic Approach is included.Although some knowledge of mathematical statistics is necessary in order to fathom the theoretical aspects of the development, no specialized mathematical knowledge is required to understand the application of the approach or to utilize the software which is provided. Audience: The book is of interest to both researchers in operations research, systems engineering, and optimization methods, as well as applications specialists concerned with the solution of large scale discrete and/or nonconvex optimization problems in a broad range of engineering and technological fields. It may be used as supplementary material for graduate level courses.

This book shows how the Bayesian Approach (BA) improves well­ known heuristics by randomizing and optimizing their parameters. That is the Bayesian Heuristic Approach (BHA). The ten in-depth examples are designed to teach Operations Research using Internet. Each example is a simple representation of some impor­ tant family of real-life problems. The accompanying software can be run by remote Internet users. The supporting web-sites include software for Java, C++, and other lan­ guages. A theoretical setting is described in which one can discuss a Bayesian adaptive choice of heuristics for discrete and global optimization prob­ lems. The techniques are evaluated in the spirit of the average rather than the worst case analysis. In this context, "heuristics" are understood to be an expert opinion defining how to solve a family of problems of dis­ crete or global optimization. The term "Bayesian Heuristic Approach" means that one defines a set of heuristics and fixes some prior distribu­ tion on the results obtained. By applying BHA one is looking for the heuristic that reduces the average deviation from the global optimum. The theoretical discussions serve as an introduction to examples that are the main part of the book. All the examples are interconnected. Dif­ ferent examples illustrate different points of the general subject. How­ ever, one can consider each example separately, too.