EURO Practitioners' Forum

Vehicle routing in the real world
2023-11-03 10:00 - 11:00 UTC
Speaker: Ana Sofia Pereira, Wide Scope
The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is widely known in the OR literature. Several variants are well-studied but what about the real-world constraints found when actually deploying such algorithms at transportation companies?
Routyn is a VRP solution provider and throughout this session we’ll share some of the constraints found on companies across the world over the past 20 years of real-world experience.

Ana Sofia Pereira co-founded Wide Scope immediately after finishing her MSc in Operations Research. With nothing but her learnings and a deep will to build and deliver a novel approach to VRP she lead the company from zero to the scale of a high-growth company, as recognized by independent analysts in several occasions. The product Routyn is live in companies from all over the world, from Australia to Colombia, the UK to Angola.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.
EURO Practitioners’ Forum webinars organisers: Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Torkel Haufmann (Sintef), Adisa Mujezinovic

The intelligent machinery behind airline ground operations
2023-12-01 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Claude Philippe Medard, Principal Data Scientist, SAP
We discuss solutions to two business processes performed during Airport/Airline Ground Operations.
The first is the challenging task of optimal allocation of Stands and corresponding Tow plans for a large number of aircrafts flying in and out of airports. The second task is the subsequent planning and monitoring of Turnaround processes required for orchestrating all ground handling activities.
The presentation will showcase solution approaches to these highly time-critical operations, both for planning and recovery. The solutions adhere to strict dependency rules as required by operations and provide improved accuracy for Target Off Block Time slot requests to Air Traffic Control (ATC) by incorporating real-time IOT data, ML predictive algorithms for improved duration estimates and Optimization for optimal allocation while balancing multiple objectives.
The study was done with a large commercial airline with data from their productive scenarios.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum webinars organisers: Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Torkel Haufmann (Sintef), Adisa Mujezinovic

Mixed-integer linear programming models to optimize residential demand response to dynamic tariffs
2024-01-12 10:00 - 23:00
Speakers:
Carlos Henggeler Antunes, INESC Coimbra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
Maria João Alves, CeBER – Faculty of Economics and INESC Coimbra, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
Demand response programs play a key role in the energy transition, offering potential benefits to multiple players: grid operators (alleviating congestion in networks), retailers (enabling to manage wholesale buying and retail selling prices) and consumers (reducing the energy bill without jeopardizing comfort). This work presents a modular set of mixed-integer linear programming models of appliance operation aimed at being incorporated in autonomous Home Energy Management Systems allowing for the integrated optimization of all energy resources. The models consider different cost objective function components (energy and power costs, monetized discomfort) as well as dealing with the user’s discomfort derived from operating appliances out of the habitual periods, settings, and temperature ranges. The models are developed in a building block manner to be used with different objectives of economic and comfort nature.

Discussion forum event: How will transportation and logistics change, how can OR help?
2024-01-19 14:00 - 15:00
Andy Harrison, a data science professional with experience in a wide range of sectors, will lead this discussion session.

This is the first in our series of discussion forum events, designed for the exchange of views and ideas. Each one-hour session will be a conversation on a specific topic, with one person giving a brief introduction and then facilitating discussion amongst all attendees, breaking into smaller groups if necessary.
This discussion session will be led by Andy Harrison, a data science professional who has worked as a practitioner in OR and data science for over three decades, across a wide range of sectors, including defence and security, transportation, energy, financial services and higher education.
The session topic: How will transportation and logistics change over the next 3 decades, how can OR help? What will change and what will drive those changes? What challenges will these changes bring? How can OR help to address these challenges?
Come along to share your own ideas, learn from others and collectively explore the opportunities and challenges of today’s OR in practice; and end your week on a high.
We will use gather.town, which means that if you arrive early, you can talk with whoever else is already in the room.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public. Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page.
Follow the Forum on Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

Hands-on Mathematical Optimization with Python
2024-02-02 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Joaquim Gromicho, Professor of Business Analytics at the University of Amsterdam and Science and Education Officer at ORTEC
In the era of generative AI and powerful ML packages prevalent in the Python ecosystem, the significance of Mathematical Optimization remains paramount. Recognizing the historical confinement of this tool to the realm of Operations Research experts, Krzysztof Postek, Alessandro Zocca, Jeff Kantor, and I have embarked on a mission to democratize its accessibility. In our collaborative effort, we’ve authored a hands-on, accessible yet ambitious manual, tailored for a diverse audience, including students and professionals. This comprehensive guide not only delves into traditional (mixed-integer) linear optimization but also explores network, convex, conic, stochastic, and robust optimization.
Scheduled for release by Cambridge University Press as an inexpensive textbook in 2024, our book, also available under a Green Open Access license, is designed to empower learners with practical insights. The latest prepublication version is accessible at https://ortec.com/en/featured-insights/insights/math-optimization-python. Realistic examples accompany each topic, and to further enhance the learning experience, we provide an online companion. This resource comprises 50+ fully functional notebooks readily deployable in Google Colab, serving as practical starting points to address diverse real-life challenges you may encounter.
For your convenience, the companion is available at https://mobook.github.io/MO-book/intro.html, within the permissive MIT license. Note that AMPL ported it to their own modelling language at https://mo-book.ampl.com/.

During this webinar, I will demonstrate representative content of the book in action and will also showcase how ChatGPT serves as a valuable collaborator in my professional endeavors, offering insights into its role in my workflow.

Joaquim A.S. Gromicho acts as Science and Education Officer for ORTEC and is full professor of Business Analytics at the University of Amsterdam. He received his PhD in Optimization in 1995 from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, before spending two years as Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon. He serves the Dutch Statistics and OR Society as editor in chief of STAtOR, a magazine on applications and impact, and the steering committee of the EURO Practitioner’s Forum.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.
EURO Practitioners’ Forum webinars organisers: Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Torkel Haufmann (Sintef), Adisa Mujezinovic

Online Event: Practice of OR – sharing experiences, building networks
2024-02-20 13:00 - 17:30
EURO Practitioners’ Forum (EPF) Online Event is an inspiring opportunity for meeting with OR and analytics practitioners from across Europe and beyond. Join us on gather.town, a website specialized on interactive online sessions, and make connections, learn, collaborate and share experiences of what works and what doesn’t when OR meets practice.
Programme includes: Plenary keynote, Parallel sessions, Networking session, Informal mingling and other
Deadline for registration: 19 February 2024, 17:00 CET
REGISTRATION
When you register, you will receive the link to our gather.town space. You’re welcome to drop in at any time pre-event: see the space taking shape, catch up on the programme details, and access resources and links to support OR practice. The platform lends it very well to also meet new acquaintances and make valuable connections during breaks.
Agenda:

13:00 – Welcome & Introduction
13:15 – Keynote speaker – Sémi Gabteni
14:15 – Coffee (bring your own)
14:30 – Networking session
15:30 – Break, but keep on networking
16:00 – Parallel presentation and discussion session
17:00 – Session summaries and closing remarks.

Keynote talk:
Data Science at the heart of Paris CDG baggage industrial initiative
Speaker: Sémi Gabteni, Head of Data & Management Science, Groupe ADP
Groupe ADP is the company running ground logistics at Charles de Gaulle and several other airports, the talk will cover the practical value of operations research when running complex operations and how they use optimization for a wide spread of tasks at their company.
Baggage handling is key to an airport business performance. At major hub airports, it is critical, due to its ties with connection operations. While connection operations drive complexity, so do the supporting infrastructures, processes, and many parties involved.
At Paris CDG, Groupe ADP has launched a so called “baggage industrial robustness programme”, in which Data and Data Science are a priority stream. While the related Data Science roadmap spans over years, stakeholders buy-in is subject to frequent deliveries of industrial and measured improvements.
This results in a business oriented Data Science function; and the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics keep the organization focused on what can be leveraged before summer 2024.
This presentation exposes the drivers of bag handling complexity, a selection of data science challenges, while state-of-the-art is scarce. It also illustrates what is meant with ” business oriented”, the initial achievements of the Data Science roadmap and what lays ahead. Last, it shares key lessons learned so far.
Networking session:
With an aim on more interaction, in this session practitioners will discuss softer topics concerning the life of an OR Practitioner. This year among other topics we are including:

Management of an OR Practitioner: Where is the best position of an OR practitioner in a non consulting company? Is your manager fully aware of OR techniques, or of what OR may do for the company business?
Internal Recognition vs. External recognition: as an OR practitioner, are you seeking more internal recognition (inside your company or organisation) or the OR peers recognition (outside the company, such as OR societies). Are the two related?
Coding quality

Parallel sessions:
As practitioners we have many things on our minds, and sharing opinions and thoughts on important issues is a great way to get inspiration and new perspectives. In the parallel sessions we will have discussions on a wide variety of topics, with short presentations followed by a round table discussion.
How to bring OR to its full potential in a multidisciplinary context?
Creating real-world impact with OR requires multidisciplinary competences. Gathering those can be done in many ways, e.g. within- and cross-team collaboration, either on a temporary or long-term basis. Each of these comes with both challenges and opportunities. Think about, amongst others, avoiding knowledge-silos, reducing the so-called “bus factor”, a measurement of the risk resulting from information and capabilities not being shared among team members while delivering on a sustainable pace.
In this discussion session, we want to hear about your wins, challenges, and lessons learnt. Join us to share your learnings and get inspired by others!
Data Visualization
Data visualization can be a very efficient method of identifying patterns in data and communicating results to broad audiences. Good data visualization requires both creativity and careful consideration of the technical details. In this session, we’ll present guidelines for creating more effective visualizations and demonstrate ways in which charts can be designed to convey information more accurately. In the following roundtable discussion, participants will have the opportunity to debate whether those guidelines are always applicable and consider special cases where they may not be, as well as discuss ways in which they can improve their own data visualizations.
Explainable AI
In many real-world applications, even today a lot of input data results from manual input and/or human judgement and thus is prone to all kind of human errors. Some of these input data errors might have a significant influence of the answer of the AI system. As it is too cumbersome for the end user to validate all input data beforehand, he or she usually needs some understanding of the AI system to trace back seemingly strange results to the input data errors that caused them. How can we support the end user in this task?
OR in the time of AI
The success of large language models and machine learning is driving significant societal attention, research investment, and indeed effort in private companies towards how to best exploit AI. We’re seeing a number of initiatives on applying AI techniques in traditional OR topics, in some cases to the exclusion of tried and proven techniques. As operations researchers, how should we adapt to the situation and how can we talk about OR in the prevailing climate?

After the registration to the workshop, you are welcome to use the gather.town link at any time to set up your avatar, explore the space, catch up on the programme details, and access resources and links to support OR in practice. The space will remain available to workshop participants to meet each other, after the official close, if you want to keep the conversation going.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum aims to help develop supportive networks, support and assist OR practitioners, and in particular people whose primary purpose is applying OR in a business/government/charity or similar environment. We believe that practitioners can benefit enormously from networking, sharing experiences, learning from each other, and potentially collaborating with each other.
EPF past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public. Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page
Follow the Forum on Twitter , LinkedIN and Eventbrite, feel free to get in touch.

Strategic financial management in the financial services industry: A multiple goal stochastic programming approach
2024-04-05 10:00 - 23:00
Speaker: Dr. Antti Korhonen, CEO, Detech Decision Technologies, Finland
The presentation discusses optimization solutions for strategic financial decision-making and enterprise-wide risk management in financial institutions. The software is a sophisticated prescriptive analytics solution based on a stochastic dynamic optimization approach and solves highly complex real-world financial planning problems under uncertainty. The application is an integrated platform for banking, insurance, pension funds, wealth management and multinational financial groups.
The software computes dynamic, multi-period financial strategies with concrete action plans that fulfill diverse management goals, priorities and regulatory requirements. The strategies help institutions to prepare simultaneously for multiple economic and financial market scenarios in uncertain operating environments. The computed forward-looking strategies lead to considerable improvements in performance when compared with more traditional approaches. This improvement in performance becomes particularly noticeable in exceptionally difficult and turbulent operating environments.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Eventbrite, Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum webinars organisers: Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Torkel Haufmann (Sintef), Adisa Mujezinovic

Doing OR for free: the UK OR Society's Pro Bono OR service
2024-05-03 10:00 - 11:00
Join us for Doing OR for free: the UK OR Society’s Pro Bono OR service, where you can volunteer your skills to help organizations in need!
Presented by Eve Hardy, Pro Bono OR Manager, The OR Society and Ruth Kaufman, co-founder, Pro Bono OR and EURO Practitioners’ Forum chair
Pro Bono OR connects charitable organisations with skilled OR analysts who are willing to give their time for free. Our volunteers use a broad array of OR techniques and approaches to help UK-based NGOs identify their critical issues, explore different options, and explain their impact. We give executives the power to make more effective decisions and build more impactful organisations.
Come along and learn:

how Pro Bono OR was established, and grew into the service it is today,
what Pro Bono OR looks like for volunteers,
how the Pro Bono OR journey unfolds for the charities we support.

We will start with a brief review of what sort of skills OR people offer to non-profit clients, and what sort of organisations we serve. We will use case studies and examples to demonstrate the difference we’ve made for NGOs and volunteers over our 11 year history.

Three model problem: Combining machine learning (ML) and operations research (OR) through horizontal computing
2024-06-07 15:00 - 16:00
Speaker: Ryan O’Neil, CTO and Co-Founder of Nextmv
More and more, data science and decision science practitioners are seeking to combine machine learning forecasts with actionable and optimized decisions. This can include anything from predicting traffic patterns for delivery scheduling to consumer buying behavior for inventory management. But bridging these two disciplines can be challenging.
In the on-demand logistics space, these worlds are colliding more frequently with practitioners generating demand forecasts that feed into shift scheduling models that feed into vehicle routing models. Getting to an 80% good solution for the optimization side is not hard. What is hard is the remaining 20% where people tend to over-optimize their models using fixed inputs (which makes the model more brittle in the face of uncertainty). What if, instead, we could take those 80% solutions and use horizontal compute to scale them up in the face of uncertainty?
In this talk, we will explore what has made blending ML and OR outputs challenging, the roles of deterministic and stochastic optimization in relation to ML, and how scenario testing techniques via horizontal computing provide an expedient and more accessible path for combining these worlds.

About the speaker:

Ryan O’Neil is CTO and cofounder of Nextmv (nextmv.io). Previously, he led the Decision Engineering department at Grubhub and Zoomer, which owned forecasting, scheduling, routing, and simulation. Ryan worked as an Operations Research Analyst at MITRE, and led software teams at The Washington Post, Yhat, and Polimetrix. During this, he earned a PhD in Operations Research at George Mason University, and wrote his dissertation on real time routing for pickup and delivery problems.‍

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum webinars organisers: Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Torkel Haufmann (Sintef), Adisa Mujezinovic

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Making an Impact - EURO 2024
2024-06-30 08:00 - 2024-07-03 17:00
MAKING AN IMPACT – EURO 2024
30 JUNE – 3 JULY 2024 IN COPENHAGEN
‘Making an Impact’ (MAI) is a stream for everybody who uses modelling and analytics to help their organisation and their customers. It is dedicated to helping practitioners improve their effectiveness, develop their skills and knowledge, and do a better job of OR in practice. Every session of the MAI stream has been designed to provide value, whether that is through discussion and reflection on typical practical challenges, tutorials in techniques or software others have found useful, or meeting and sharing experiences with peers.

The MAI sessions and tutorials are described below. Please contact us on makinganimpact2022@gmail.com to find out more.
1. Speed Networking
Meet your peers in a friendly, informal way, through discussions in groups of 2-3 persons with pairings changing after a fixed time span of a few minutes.
OR is a team business, and knowing people you can turn to for ideas, feedback and support makes all the difference. But it is not always easy building your network, especially if you are shy or feel that you are an outsider. This welcoming session is a way of overcoming the barriers to networking, and enjoying yourself while you do it.
If you have business cards, do bring them along; if not, we’ll have plenty that you can use if you choose.
2. Fast And Furious: Lightning Talks
At a conference like EURO, it is impossible to catch up with everything; and all too easy to stick to a single stream within your usual professional specialism. This session showcases some of the breadth of OR in action, with a set of 5-minute presentations handpicked to inspire, interest and extend your knowledge.
Some of the presentations will be designed for this session only, others will be abbreviated versions of full talks appearing elsewhere in the conference. We will hold this session early on in the conference to give the audience the best chance of catching up with the speaker later on, and maybe going to see the full talk and other items in the stream.
The talks will cover the full range of OR methodology across a variety of practical application areas.
3. The Quest for the Right OR Professionals – A Hiring Perspective
Panel members include (TBC): Sander van Aken (Flixbus, chair), Henning Blunck (DHL), Michael Lindahl (Portchain)
In this panel session, we explore how recruiters of OR professionals, data scientists or analytics people go about it, and address burning questions relevant to both those recruiting professionals, as well as those looking to secure a new industry position.
How do companies and teams come to define the profile to hire, crafting the job ad? What skillset and traits do you look for, and how to you define that? How do you design a hiring process covering those aspects, and what are the challenges and best practices for the recruiting team themselves? What advice would the hiring team give their counterparts?
Join us to learn about each other’s challenges, best-practices, and ask your own questions during a Q&A.
4. Generative AI For OR People: Disruptor, Enabler, Or Distraction?
Large Language Models (LLMs) have taken the world by storm since the release of ChatGPT. These models can work with large amounts of unstructured data, such as text and images. Their output is easy to understand, but they cannot reason and apply logic.
On the other hand, Mathematical Optimization Models require structured and complete data but provide optimal output. However, it can often be a challenge to collect the necessary data in an organization and ensure that users can interact with the final application and understand the output.
Can these very different models complement each other when we build OR applications?
This session will be led by Michael Lindahl. Michael has been building OR-powered decision applications across different industries for more than 10 years. Since the release of ChatGPT, he has been exploring the synergies between simple optimization and LLMs by building the application findgaven.ai on top of their API’s.
Michael will give an introduction to large language models, explaining their capabilities, the pitfalls, and how they can fit into the OR toolbox.
This will lead to discussion, with the audience invited to share not only their questions but also their own experiences, aspirations, and concerns.
5. Human-Machine Collaboration: Building Interactive Applications Quickly (Session: Knowledge sharing tutorial -1-)
Making impact with OR often requires an end-user or other stakeholders to interact with the models and algorithms you build, or with its outcomes. With interactive applications, we can leverage the true power of human-machine collaboration, e.g. by letting users guide your optimization model with their knowledge, or enabling them to explore multiple solutions. Developing fully-fledged front-end applications – or even discovering what is the right thing to develop – can however take up a tremendous amount of time. For some analyses or projects, it is not even worth the effort.
The Python-based framework Streamlit could be your new companion in these endeavours. In this tutorial, we demonstrate how we can use it to quickly develop a first version and iterate on that.
6. OR Goes Kubernetes: How To Run Long Running Optimization Jobs In The Cloud (Session: Knowledge sharing tutorial -1-)
While response time often matters in OR applications, in many cases it does not (think network design, tactical capacity planning, …). In these use cases, model usage will be dispersed over time and not warrant the constant provisioning of a high-end compute resource at all times. In our OR applications at DHL Group, we experienced that this often led to some boilerplate functionality that had to set up across use cases: Sequencing of requests, automatic deployment of workloads, status monitoring, result retrieval, etc. In this tutorial we will share what we are currently building to replace boilerplate code with a scalable, modern tech-stack to support the deployment of tactical decision support tools.
7. From Academia To Practice: Reflections From Those Who Have Taken The Leap
Panel members include (TBC): Ruben Ruiz, Martina Fischetti, João Paiva Fonseca
Just how different is it to work within an industry or a commercial consultancy, if you have been used to working from within academia? And how much easier is it to forge collaborations if you have experience of both sides? A panel of people who have made the move will share their experiences and lessons learned. The differences may not be the ones you expect.
8. What’s on your mind? – getting what you want from this conference
At a conference like this, we want to interact with, and learn from, each other. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes just not so easy to bump into and connect with the right people to discuss the topics you want to learn about.
In this open space session, it’s the participants who bring in, and discuss about, topics which are on their mind. So you want to learn from others about a particular topic related to making an impact with OR in practice? Join us in this session where you set the agenda. At the start, we will collect the topics which are on your and others’ mind. Using this, we split in smaller groups, and you join the one(s) in which you are interested. As such, it’s you who shape the discussions, and can get a lot out of it.
No topic, just curious what’s on others’ minds? There will already be some kick-starter points available.
9. Which solver?
Participants (TBC): Johan Kellerth Fredlund (Jeppesen), Dr Faheem (Amazon), Andreas Westerlund, Tobias Achterberg (Gurobi), Timo Berthold (FICO), Fred Guardi (Hexaly)
Practitioners who use MIP have a great choice of possible softwares. The huge choice can make it harder to make decisions; and that’s where this session should be invaluable.
Bringing together representatives from leading stand-alone MIP-solvers: Gurobi, Xpress and Hexaly with representatives of heavy users of one or more of these we try to answer questions like: Why use a 3rd party solver instead of specialised heuristics? What problems have companies experienced in this approach? And of course… which solver is the best in practice?
This is a reprise of a session first held in 2018. Since then, the landscape and the power of solvers has changed immeasurably, and we will be reviewing just how users can make the most of this.
10. Success, failure and the factors that influence outcomes
Panellists include (TBC): Dennis Huisman, Frédéric Gardi
The speakers on this panel all have wide experience of working with stakeholders to deliver projects putting OR into practice. In the first part of the session, each speaker will talk about their experiences and learnings, and how these have shaped their own views on which factors influence whether an application could be (or will be?) a success, a failure or somewhere in-between. We will then invite audience questions, and open up the discussion: do these sound familiar? What are your own experiences? What lessons would you like to share on how to address them?
11. Tricks from the Trade for Large-Scale Optimization in a practical context (Session: Knowledge-sharing tutorial -2-)
(Andreas Schmitt, Zalando)
Have you had to face up to optimization challenges, where you have had to develop and deploy heuristics in order to implement models into production environments? This session will use the speaker’s experience of a successful application as a starting point for discussion.
Practical optimization problems often quickly increase in scale and complexity, necessitating tailored solution approaches. Our talk describes heuristics designed to work along-side a Lagrangian decomposition method, leading to almost-optimal solutions. These have been developed in the context of the frequently applied ’predict-then-optimize’ paradigm, more specifically for markdown pricing strategies in the online fashion industry. We present empirical evidence for the heuristics’ effectiveness, drawing on pricing applications at Zalando SE.
This exposition will serve as a starting point for discussions: Participants will be encouraged to explore questions such as: What are your experiences with similar optimization challenges? How do you approach heuristic development in their work? What are effective approaches for deploying such models into production environments and measuring their impact?
12. Coding quality (Session: Knowledge-sharing tutorial -2-)
(Michele Quattrone, Air Liquide)
The implementation of well-thought-through quality strategies on the software lifecycle is becoming a requirement for many software developments, even for the early mock-up/prototyping phases. In this 45-minute tutorial, backed with a practical example, we will discuss together how our coding can benefit from this strong push, and what we can cherry-pick from hyping buzzwords such as DevOps, Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment, MLOps…in practice!
13. Human Centric Analytics (HCA): How To Foster The Human Centred Development Of Analytics That Augment Human Work Effectively.
(Christina Phillips, LBS, Liverpool John Moores University)
In situations of high uncertainty and high human involvement, it can be difficult to implement analytical tools; on the other hand, those tools can serve to reduce and define the uncertainty. To achieve this level of use the human actors involved need to be empowered to understand and utilise the data that they produce and use. This requires both learning and experiment in a safe and creative space as mathematical tools, data and humans come together.
In this workshop we will use examples from industry interventions to introduce the ideas and concepts around HCA. We will discuss what works and what doesn’t, and why that is, and develop skills around choosing the right structuring methods and analytical approaches for differing situations.
Design is a key part of the process, and we will look at ways to keep in mind the iterative and empathetic journey that this helps to facilitate, while also looking at ways to integrate HCA into common working practices such as lean projects.
14. Not the Excellence in Practice Award: lifting the lid on practice
Panellists include (TBC): Alberto Franco, Karsten Kieckhafer, Gilberto Montibeller
Submissions for the Excellence in Practice award naturally focus on the criteria being judged: the originality of the methodology, the scientific excellence, the impact, and so on. These usually tell an impressive story.
But anybody who has been engaged in a practical application will know that this only gives part of the picture – to get to the stage of an implemented application, there will have been many hurdles along the way: getting all the data, making sure it is correct, convincing all the stakeholders, overcoming fears and doubts of the people who have to change their way of working, and so forth.
In this session, past finalists from the Excellence in Practice award will give a short review of these aspects of their projects, considering how they dealt with the challenges and identifying key lessons. This will be followed by questions and discussion with the audience on the key issues and how we address them.

Data-Driven Inventory Control and Integrated Employee Involvement for Special Buys in Brick-and-Mortar Retail
2024-09-06 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Alex Tschan, Project Manager, ALDI SE & Co. KG Murr
ALDI SÜD Germany launched the ‘Data-Driven Special Buys’ project in response to pandemic-related supply chain disruptions, market shifts, and increasing competition. This initiative combines advanced analytics and operations research with employee engagement to optimize product lifecycles. Ensuring practical relevance and applicability in business, including the satisfaction of all stakeholders involved (stores, national buying, project management, German board), was a high priority.
Methods used include: (1) multi-period optimization models (MIPs) for product allocation optimization, considering product demand and stock-keeping costs; (2) machine learning classification methods for store product allocation (“SAM”); (3) a proprietary algorithm (“ANA”) for just-in-time reallocations between stores; (4) a multi-period dynamic programming model (“DAVE”) for nationwide inventory control; (5) a sophisticated version of DAVE (“DAVE SDP”); (6) multivariate regression analyses for budget allocations of small product quantities for stores; and (7) a smartphone application (“Market-Whispering”) to engage 50,000 employees in product selection.
The project faced coordination challenges and required a strategic shift from decentralized to centralized inventory control. Proprietary software for the special buys product range improved operational efficiency, impacting the daily operations of 40,000 employees, and led to annual savings of several million euros in Germany.

About the speaker:
Alex Tschan is a Manager for Research and Development at ALDI SÜD Germany, in the division of Project Management & the National Buying and Procurement Committee. As a trained industrial engineer and an external PhD student with a focus on data-driven approaches for promotional products in retail, Alex combines technical expertise with practical experience to drive innovative solutions in retail operations.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Twitter, LinkedIN and Eventbrite.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum webinars organisers: Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Torkel Haufmann (Sintef), Adisa Mujezinovic

AI Assisted Microgrid E-Mobility Operations
2024-10-04 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Claude Philippe Medard, Principal Data Science, SAP Deutschland SE
Authors: Claude Philippe Medard, Nidhi Sawhney (Principal Data Scientist, SAP) and Jean-Christophe Pazzaglia (SAP LABS France AI CX Center Lead), SAP LABS France, Mougin France
How to develop smart investment strategies for E-Mobility solutions? The solution addresses challenges faced by microgrid asset owner for e-mobility operations where they need to regularly decide the best investment options in terms of energy options like grid, solar, battery and projected demand from smart buildings and electric vehicles. The constant challenge faced by microgrid asset operators are how to ensure running e-charging facilities at optimal cost, where to invest to ensure maximal self-consumption and minimizing waiting times, and how to plan based on different demand growth assumptions with right trade-offs between cost and service quality.
We investigate a solution that comprises of:
GenAI assisted Optimization Solution on SAP BTP
Harness the power of SAP BTP with Generative AI Hub combined with Mathematical Optimization to empower business users to simulate, optimize and action investment decisions.
Simulate multiple demand and supply scenarios to analyze impact on KPIs.
The solution (optim model) has multiple modes to cater to different decision horizons:
1. Operational demand & response plans for production of solar power and battery usage along with consumption of grid in view to fulfill constant and ready to wait energy demands.
Demand Predictions at different granularities together with with apis for solar power predictions.
Production and consumption plans are computed at the hourly level across years.
2. Extension with investment decisioning across 10 year horizons for various types of solar power production and battery storage capacities.
Execution wise: Integrate with SAP E-mobility, Cloud For Energy and Ariba to go from decision making to optimal decision execution.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
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EURO Practitioners’ Forum 5th Annual Conference: OR in Collaboration
2024-10-14 14:30 - 2024-10-15 17:30 | University of Coimbra, 2 Rua Larga 3000-370, Coimbra, Portugal
Monday 14 October – Tuesday 15 October, 2024, University of Coimbra
REGISTRATION (FREE) and TRAVEL INFORMATION
Conference programme
The theme of this year’s conference is the Collaboration of Operations Research practitioners with practitioners from other fields, like Machine Learning, Econometrics, Simulation, etc. We will talk about inspiring examples of synergies arising across fields, where multiple disciplines amplify each other in the ultimate quest to deliver impact on business, society, economics, and human lives in general. Speakers are also invited to share their experiences of difficulties they have encountered with such multi-disciplinary collaboration and any insights or strategies on how to address these.
Please visit the conference page for program details.
Submission guidelines
We invite submissions which showcase successful collaboration examples of Operations Research with other fields and look forward to insightful discussions and networking opportunities with practitioners from various fields.
Submission is closed and authors have been notified. The conference program will be made available shortly on this page.
Important Dates

Submission deadline: 12 July, 2024
Notification of acceptance: 30 July, 2024
Author registration: 5 September, 2024
Early registration (latest date for registration with conference dinner): 12 September, 2024
Registration deadline: 30 September, 2024
Event: 14-15 October, 2024

Sponsors:
Many thanks to the sponsors of this event:

Keynote speakers:
Dr. Bernardino Romera-Paredes
FunSearch: Discovering new mathematics and algorithms using Large Language Models
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Koch
25 years of Optimization: how to Survive Industry Projects as a Mathematician
Prof. Dr. Joaquim Gromicho
From collaboration to Education and back: a continuously revolving cycle
Dr. Joana Matos Dias
Radiotherapy Treatment Planning: The Role of Operations Research and Multidisciplinary Collaboration
Ana Sofia Pereira
Bridging the gap between theory and practice
Michael Lindahl
Large Language models: A new tool in the OR toolbox?

Organisation committee:
Vladimir Fux (Zalando), Carlos Henggeler Antunes (Univ. Coimbra), Maria João Alves (Univ. Coimbra), Ricardo Saldanha (SISCOG), Susanne Heipcke (FICO), Andy Harrison (QinetiQ)
Venue information
The conference will take place in the Student Hub, University of Coimbra, Portugal. The Student Hub is located on the ground floor of the Faculty of Medicine building, Rua Larga, right in the heart of the historical town.
See this document for detailed travel instructions and maps.

Hosted by

Transform AI/OR Algorithms into Full-Fledged Web Applications in No Time
2024-11-08 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Vincent Gosselin, Co-founder of Taipy
In the Python ecosystem, numerous packages are available to:

Build powerful AI and Operations Research (OR) algorithms
Visualize data effectively
Manage back-end functions

Yet, over 85% of Data Science Pilots fail to move beyond the pilot phase and into production.
In this tutorial, we will showcase how Taipy empowers you to rapidly develop comprehensive Decision Support Systems in just a few hours.
After exploring Taipy’s intuitive low-code and no-code GUI creation features, we’ll dive into scenario management with real-world industry examples.
Our aim is to facilitate the faster and smoother adoption of data science and OR solutions for end users.
Feedback and potential collaborations welcome.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
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A Ride through Flix’ Optimization Universe
2024-12-06 10:00 - 11:00
Speakers: Sander Van Aken & Myriam Thömmes (Flix SE)
Flix has rapidly become a global player in the long-distance passenger transportation market, operating in 44 different countries across 4 continents with brands as FlixBus, FlixTrain, Greyhound (US) and Kamil Koc (Turkey). Being a travel-tech company at heart, we harness the power of ML and OR to tackle the most complex business challenges. In this talk, we will first give a brief overview of the business problems we are addressing with ML and OR solutions. We’ll then deep dive into one specific network planning use case to showcase how we deal with the real-world complexity of our global business model, and how we turn this into our advantage to deliver pragmatic OR solutions. Beyond the methodological part, we illustrate how approaching OR product development as a multi-disciplinary collaboration forms a key ingredient to success. Finally, we give some insight how we continuously iterate on both problem and solution space to deliver actual business value.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

Cornflow: a flexible open source deployment server for optimization engines
2025-01-17 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Franco Peschiera, PhD, Baobab soluciones
In the last decade, the cloud has motivated many business in OR to offer their optimization services through REST APIs. From modellers to solver suppliers, each platform provides access to the owner’s product. Most of the times this access is tied to the use of the product.
In combinatorial optimization there is no silver-bullet (or free lunch), each solution method (MIP model, CP model, meta-heuristic, add-hoc heuristic, etc.) is suited to solve different problems. Only offering a limited range of solution methods risks losing the power to solve some problem efficiently.
Finally, except a few exceptions (VRP, TSP), most problems do not have a clear data interface that is standardized. This makes it hard to benchmark different approaches to a given problem.
To address these problems (vendor lock, no-free-lunch, lack of standardization), Cornflow was created as a free (as in freedom) problem-agnostic and solver-agnostic deployment server for optimization problems. It hosts problems as flexible data-structures (json schemas) and solution methods as code (usually python code but not exclusively). This allows full customization of problems and their solution methods. For example a VRP-like problem can be solved with Concorde, a CP-SAT model, column-generation with gurobi or a 2-opt heuristic. While a Nurse-Rostering-like problem can be solved with a traditional MIP model, Timefold or some clever matheuristic.
We believe that by keeping the deployment server open, we will make it easier for problem providers (i.e., industry) and solution providers (i.e., academia) to build on top of each other’s work and collaborate more easily.
About the speaker:
Franco Peschiera is an engineer, a programmer and a scientist. He loves solving puzzles, organizing stuff and customer service. During his free (and not-so-free) time he’s a father, a cyclist and a professional skeptic.
Franco has a double degree in industrial engineering from the PUCP (Lima) and UPM (Madrid) universities and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO (Toulouse). He founded a successful OR software (baobab soluciones) company based in Madrid where he worked 10 years as various roles, including project leader, chief technical officer, and consultant in several optimization projects in the car, aerospace, oil and pharmaceutic industries, among many others.
He also founded a yet-to-be-succesful clothing-rental company based in Lima/Rome (HackPacking), is the proud maintainer of the PuLP mathematical modelling library and maintains several other open source tools for Operations Research. You can find him in: LinkedIn and github.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on Twitter and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

Decision Diagrams for Optimization: Methodology and Applications
2025-02-07 15:00 - 16:00
Speaker: Willem-Jan van Hoeve, Carnegie Mellon University.
Over the last decade, decision diagram-based optimization has emerged as a novel and innovative approach to solving discrete optimization problems. This presentation provides an overview of this methodology, focusing on three computational paradigms: (1) stand-alone decision diagram-based solvers, (2) integration into constraint programming, and (3) integration into linear and integer programming. Applications include graph theoretic problems, scheduling, and vehicle routing. In particular, combining decision diagrams with network flow theory—via a process called `column elimination’—has resolved previously unsolved benchmark instances for problems such as graph multi-coloring, vehicle routing with time windows, and pickup-and-delivery with time windows. These advancements highlight the potential of decision diagram-based optimization as a powerful tool for addressing complex optimization challenges across domains.
About the speaker:
Willem-Jan van Hoeve is the Carnegie Bosch Professor of Operations Research at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on developing new methodologies for mathematical optimization with applications to network design, scheduling, vehicle routing, data mining, and others. He made notable contributions to the areas of constraint and integer programming, and most recently pioneered the field of decision diagrams for optimization. Van Hoeve’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and two Google Faculty Research Awards. He has consulted for a variety of companies including FedEx Ground, Exxon Mobil, PNC Bank, Bosch/Siemens, and Charter Steel, as well as a number of non-profit organizations. Van Hoeve is the recipient of the INFORMS Computing Society Harvey J. Greenberg Research Award, the Tepper School’s MBA Teaching Award (twice) and MSBA Teaching Award, and several best paper awards. His academic service includes the Board of Directors of the INFORMS Computing Society, Chairperson of the INFORMS Student Competition Committee, the Steering Committee of CPAIOR conference series, and the Executive Committee of the Association for Constraint Programming. Van Hoeve is currently Associate Editor of the INFORMS Journal on Computing, Associate Editor of Operations Research, and Associate Editor of Artificial Intelligence.

OR in the Circular Economy: Applications in the European Project IS2H4C
2025-03-07 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Dr. Alessio Trivella, Assistant Professor of Operations Research, University of Twente
In recent years, the Circular Economy has gained increasing attention from both academia and practice as a sustainable approach to resource management. However, the application of Operations Research (OR) methodologies to circular economy challenges has been relatively limited.
This seminar presents insights from the Horizon Europe project “IS2H4C: Industrial Symbiosis to Hubs for Circularity” (2024-2028), which aims to advance the concept of Hubs for Circularity (H4Cs) in four regions across Europe. H4Cs are innovative systems that go beyond industrial symbiosis networks by incorporating not only industrial clusters but also the surrounding urban and rural areas into a circular ecosystem. This shift to a more inclusive model presents unique challenges for resource allocation, energy management, and symbiotic matchmaking—areas where OR tools can play an important role.
We will explore early-stage work within the project, where OR techniques such as integer programming, stochastic optimization, and reinforcement learning are being applied to optimize resource flows within an H4C, manage its energy system, and facilitate industrial symbiosis. The ultimate goal is to integrate these decision-support tools in a digital collaboration platform to be used by the hubs in the project and beyond.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website.
Follow the Forum on X and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum webinars organisers: Sofiane Oussedik (IBM), Joaquim Gromicho (ORTEC), Torkel Haufmann (Sintef), Adisa Mujezinovic

Why puzzles are very interesting for OR consulting?
2025-05-16 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Alex Fleischer, Optimization Expert (IBM)
Trying to solve puzzles, practitioners can train themselves on OR techniques. (and other techniques)Puzzles are good ways for large and small companies to have OR practitioners from academia and consulting have a look at their specific issues. (ROADEF / Euro challenges)
Puzzles can help challenge students to show motivation and skills.
Why puzzles are very interesting with regards to equivalent computational challenges ?
We need to map real world concepts to mathematical concepts and that’s useful! They tell a story so they’re very easy to share and explain.
Kaggle challenges are part of the buzz around data science and here I’ll mention other public challenges with examples:The IBM Ponder this challenge, the Decision Management challenge, and, not to forget, the “”Comité International des Jeux Mathématiques”.
And I will challenge the audience with regards to deciding if challenges are good training paths for OR consulting and, also, if real-world business OR helps practitioners get better at challenges.
I will also share some hybrid use of optimization and generative AI.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website. Follow the Forum on X and LinkedIN , and feel free to get in touch.

Empowering reliable automated decision making in ECCO with DecisionOps
2025-06-13 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Matthias Als, Lead Data Scientist, ECCO Data & AI
Abstract:
This webinar presents the concept of DecisionOps, a systematic approach for developing and maintaining Operations Research (OR) algorithm software, ensuring transparency and reliability throughout the development process. Utilizing their experiences from ECCO, a global leather goods retailer with a comprehensive supply chain, the speaker describes how ECCO has leveraged this approach to optimize their supply chain operations through the development of the Intelligent Auto Replenishment and Omni-Channel Fulfillment solutions. The webinar provides a walk-through of the DecisionOps development cycle, from the initial research and development stages through to the productionalized solution, and finally, the crucial stage of continuous feedback. Looking ahead, the speaker shares ECCO’s future plans for OR projects leveraging DecisionOps. By sharing ECCO’s experiences and future plans, this webinar offers inspiration for businesses seeking to enhance their OR algorithm software development processes.
About the speaker:
Matthias Als is a Lead Data Scientist in ECCO. For more than 3 years in ECCO, Matthias has built automated decision systems especially for inventory management problems combining the power of both machine learning and operations research. Matthias holds a MSc degree in computer science from the IT University of Copenhagen. Since April 2024, Matthias is also on the board of the Danish Operations Research Society, DORS.

Making an Impact - EURO 2025
2025-06-22 - 2025-06-25 | University of Leeds, UK, United Kingdom
22 – 25 June 2025 in Leeds, United Kingdom

The practitioners’ stream 2025 for everybody who uses modelling and analytics to help their organisation and their customers.
The details of the conference: MAKING AN IMPACT – EURO 2025
The early registration (23% off) closes on 30 March 2025
The Making an Impact stream is there to help you increase the impact of OR on real-world practical challenges – whether you are in a company, commercial consultancy, or in academia. Every session of the stream is designed to deliver value.

Discover! new techniques, latest developments, collaboration opportunities, new ideas
Share! Practical experiences, successes, challenges, tips for better outcomes
Meet! Practitioners from across Europe and across sector, academic experts, software suppliers

The stream is being put together by a pan-European group of practitioners and academics interested in practice, led by the EURO Practitioners’ Forum. EURO Working Group on Practice of OR – Applying O.R. to make an impact

Sessions planned so far include tutorials, presentations, panel discussions and other participative activities:

extend your repertoire of techniques, tools and approaches on topics including: digital twins; generative AI, next-generation solvers; system dynamics; systems thinking; agile practices
explore the many challenges of practical OR and ways of addressing them, with sessions on: successful collaborations with academic partners; building convincing explanations for results and systems; persuading management and customers to invest in new OR projects and products; exploring what we are doing, as practitioners, when we are not actually modelling
Lightning talks and themed case study sessions, spotlighting the ways other people are using OR, to stimulate your own practical ideas
to meet colleagues and exchange ideas through speed networking.

If you would like to contribute to any of these sessions, or find out more, get in touch at makinganimpact01@gmail.com

Hexaly, a new kind of global optimization solver
2025-09-05 15:00 - 16:00
Speaker: Fred Gardi, Ph.D., founder & CEO, Hexaly
Abstract:
Hexaly is a new kind of global optimization solver. During this webinar, you will learn what makes Hexaly different from traditional Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) and Constraint Programming (CP) solvers like Gurobi and OR-Tools. We will explain the Hexaly difference regarding modeling features and the algorithmic techniques it embeds. Finally, we will illustrate Hexaly’s unique performance on problems like routing, scheduling, packing, and others arising in supply chain and workforce optimization.

About the speaker:
Fred Gardi is an Operations Research expert with 25 years of experience bridging research and industry applications. He founded Hexaly in 2012 to provide the market with a new kind of mathematical optimization solver. Before that, he worked for 10 years delivering OR solutions in various industries like manufacturing, transportation, airports, telecom, advertising, banking, and energy. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and has won several awards in Operations Research.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website. Follow the Forum on Eventbrite, X, LinkedIN group and LinkedIN page, and feel free to contact us.

Counterfactual optimization for fault prevention in complex wind energy systems
2025-10-03 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Martina Fischetti, tenure-track researcher at the University of Seville, Spain
About the speaker:
Martina Fischetti is a tenure-track researcher at the University of Seville, Spain. She holds M.Sc. degrees from the University of Padova (March 2014) and the University of Aalborg (June 2014) in Automation Engineering. In March 2018, she finished her Industrial PhD in OR at the Technical University of Denmark in collaboration with Vattenfall (the lead energy company in North Europe). Her PhD thesis was titled Mathematical Programming Models and Algorithms for Offshore Wind Park Design. Her PhD work on the optimization of wind farm design and cable routing has been awarded various international prizes, such as the Best Industrial PhD from Innovation Fund Denmark (2019), EURO Doctoral Dissertation Award (2019), Glover-Klingman Prize (2018), AIRO Best Application Paper award (2018), the Best Student Paper Award ICORES (2017), and finalist positions at the EURO Excellence in Practice award (2018) and the prestigious INFORMS Franz Edelman award (2019). She was also selected as a role model for young women in OR by the EURO WISDOM forum in 2021. After her PhD, she worked in industry (lead engineer in Vattenfall BA Wind, specializing in OR) and in government institutions (at the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in Seville, Spain, where she applied Operations Research to European transport challenges).

Abstract:
Machine Learning models are increasingly used in businesses to detect faults and anomalies in complex systems. In this work, we take this approach a step further: beyond merely detecting anomalies, we aim to identify the optimal control strategy that restores the system to a safe state with minimal disruption. We frame this challenge as a counterfactual problem: given a Machine Learning model that classifies system states as either “good” or “anomalous,” our goal is to determine the minimal adjustment to the system’s control variables (i.e., its current status) that is necessary to return it to the “good” state. To achieve this, we leverage a mathematical model that finds the optimal
counterfactual solution while respecting system-specific constraints. Notably, most counterfactual analysis in the literature focuses on individual cases where a person seeks to alter their status relative to a decision made by a classifier—such as for loan approval or medical diagnosis. Our work addresses a fundamentally different challenge: optimizing counterfactuals for a complex energy system, specifically an offshore wind turbine oil-type transformer. This application not only advances counterfactual optimization in a new domain but also opens avenues for broader research in this area. Our tests on real-world data provided by our industrial partner show that our methodology easily adapts to user preferences and brings savings in the order of 3 million euros per year in a typical farm.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website. Follow the Forum LinkedIN group and LinkedIN page, and feel free to get in touch.

Axis: planning and scheduling logistics to maximize margins
2025-11-07 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Borja Menéndez Moreno, PhD, Lead Operations Research Engineer at Trucksters
Abstract:
Trucksters developed and implemented a simulation and optimization tool to maximize margins in European trucking operations. Combining graph theory, heuristics, and CP-SAT optimization, the tool builds feasible multi-week route plans while suggesting new market routes. Implemented as production software, it is used weekly by senior management. In 2024 alone, it increased margins by 5 percentage points in a 25M€-revenue startup and reduced free capacity kms by 66%, creating a positive organizational flywheel. It also opened a new revenue stream by selling the tool externally. During the talk, we’ll talk about the tool, how it’s been made, and why it is so unique in the market.
About the speaker:
Borja is a PhD in Operations Research leading the Algorithms team at Trucksters, a Spanish logistics startup. He has more than 11 years of experience in the field helping optimize decision making, and is intellectually curious about solving complex problems at scale. Metaheuristics passionate, he’s currently focused on mathematical modeling for the logistics industry. As he loves writing, he also writes a newsletter about all things Operations Research called Feasible.
EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public. Visit the website and register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. Follow the Forum LinkedIN group and LinkedIN page, and feel free to get in touch.

AI and logistics – a strategic partnership?
2026-01-09 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Dominik Berbig, Professor of Logistics Operations Management at Pforzheim University

Abstract:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping supply chains — but too often, companies focus only on isolated tools or single use cases. Today, there is a wide range of AI tools designed to support specific tasks e.g. within purchasing, production, or crisis management, enabling faster and more informed decision-making. Numerous proof-of-concept projects and theoretical discussions demonstrate the potential benefits of these tools in their respective areas. However, when taking a closer look, it becomes clear that most approaches focus only on individual processes or isolated parts of the supply chain. What seems to be largely missing is a comprehensive, practical strategy: How can companies implement AI tools in a reasonable and ideally sustainable way – in what order, and for which use cases? Recent literature review confirms this gap. This leads us to the key question: What could a practical “hands-on guide to AI” for logistics look like, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? In our speech, we will share deeper insights from our research, present initial strategy recommendations, and outline the next steps necessary to ensure that AI becomes a real driver of value – not just a buzzword – in the logistics sector.

About the speaker:
Dominik Berbig has been Professor of Logistics Operations Management at Pforzheim University since 2021. He studied industrial engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, and then worked as a research associate at the Institute for Material Handling and Logistics (IFL) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) where he earned his doctorate on the topic of developing a comprehensive approach for choosing proper load carriers. During his time at the IFL, he led different industrial and scientific projects with renowned partners, particularly in the automotive, pharmaceutical and warehousing sector.
Prior to his appointment, Dominik Berbig worked at Robert Bosch GmbH in different areas and functions. Among others, he was project manager worldwide for leveling, as well as senior manager for warehousing, packaging and transport in the Power Tools business unit. Most recently, he managed the area Intralogistics and Material Flow as part of the project to introduce SAP S/4HANA & SAP EWM in the Mobility Solutions business unit.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum past and planned activities are available to the Forum members, as well as the wider public.
Register as a member for free, to get the regular updates on all activities: EPF Member registration page. The recordings and details from previous webinars are also available on this website. Follow the Forum LinkedIN group and LinkedIN page, and feel free to get in touch.

Trust but verify - testing optimization models in real life
2026-03-06 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Richard Oberdieck, Banking Circle
“Unless you magically find yourself endowed with limitless programming support, sooner or later (most likely sooner) you are likely to need to do some coding.” (Paul Rubin)
Between a beautiful model on paper and real world impact lies the big gap of implementation. To bridge this gap confidently, automated tests are a most important pillars on top of which your code rests. However, many optimization professionals are not familiar with the ins and outs of automated testing. What makes this even more difficult is that writing tests for optimization models specifically is not trivial. Between licensing issues when one uses commercial solvers to run times being many hours, it is not easy to find a good approach on how to build these solid pillars.In this talk, I will share what I have learned about testing optimization models over the past 8 years. We will discuss the anatomy of a good test, what types of testing exists and how property-based testing combined with ChatGPT and good data structures can provide a robust testing setup for code involving optimization models.
About the speaker:
Since getting his PhD from Imperial College in 2017, Richard Oberdieck has spent his career at the intersection between code and optimization. First at Ørsted as a software developer for a cable design tool, then at Gurobi as a technical account manager helping countless customers getting their optimization projects off the ground. Currently, he works for a bank called Banking Circle as a data scientist, where he works on a tool which, if it breaks, stops all payments in the bank, leading to an even higher focus on testing than before.

A practical approach to replenishment optimization with extended (R, s, Q) policy and probabilistic models
2026-04-10 10:00 - 11:00
Speakers: Alva Presbitero (Senior Applied Scientist, Zalando) and Shikhar Dev (Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Zalando)
In the high-stakes world of e-commerce, inventory management is a constant “Inventory Paradox”: carry too much stock and capital is trapped in liquidation; carry too little and you face the “silent killer” of retail—stock-outs. This webinar demonstrates how the ZEOS Inventory Optimization Tool addresses these challenges by unifying probabilistic demand forecasting with Monte Carlo discrete event simulation to drive optimal replenishment decisions.
The session is divided into two specialized deep dives:
Part 1: Applied Science Deep Dive
We explore the research and methodology behind the engine, focusing on these key technical learnings:
● Extending classical (R, s, Q) policies: How we created recommendations that actually fit the fast-paced e-commerce landscape.
● Probabilistic Demand Modeling: Why our backtest results suggest that modeling full demand probability distributions is far more effective than single-value forecasts.
● Cost Profile Optimization: How combining probabilistic forecasting with the distribution of our cost profile (optimizing for the 75th percentile) yielded significantly better results than simply looking at the mean.
Part 2: Machine Learning Engineering Deep Dive
We reveal the technical architecture and tools used to put the system into production at scale:
● Monte Carlo Simulation at Scale: How we used discrete event simulation to stress-test policies across thousands of “alternate timelines” to find the optimal replenishment timing and quantities.
● Modern ML Stack: A look at how we transitioned research code to scalable and efficient pipelines using AWS, SageMaker, and Databricks, orchestrated by zFlow.
● Scaling to Millions: Managing feature engineering, online feature stores, and real-time inference for millions of SKUs.
References:
1. AS: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-32537-2
2. MLE: https://engineering.zalando.com/posts/2025/06/inventory-optimisation-system.html

About the speakers:
Alva Presbitero, Senior Applied Scientist, Zalando
Alva is a Senior Applied Scientist at Zalando, focusing on the research and data science that powers the ZEOS replenishment engine. She earned her PhD in Computational Science at the University of Amsterdam, where her research focused on modeling the human innate immune system. Drawing on an extensive background in applied science, her earlier work was rooted in complexity science, agent-based modeling, and computational immunology.
Today, she loves using that foundation in complex, stochastic systems to build scalable and smart inventory solutions for the world of e-commerce.
Shikhar Dev, Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Zalando
Shikhar Dev is a founding member of the data and ML engineering team at ZEOS, where he established the vision and technical foundations for the department’s ML infrastructure. With over a decade of experience and a Master’s in Computer Science from TU Delft, Shikhar specializes in bridging the gap between research and production. Beyond his work at ZEOS, Shikhar contributes to Zalando’s broader ML Engineering strategy while also laying the technical foundations for the next generation of GenAI solutions within the department.

EURO Practitioners’ Forum 6th Annual Conference
2026-04-27 - 2026-04-28
Unlocking OR for all: from Models to Business Impact
Monday 27 April – Tuesday 28 April 2026
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Conference programme
The theme of this year’s conference is the end-to-end process of designing, developing, and deploying optimization projects. We will discuss not only models and algorithms, but how Operations Researchers can engage with end users, stakeholders and work with other specialists to deliver impact in their work. The core focus of the conference is this intersection of research, expertise and practical applications and how it affects OR projects in all stages, from conceptualization to practical use.
The conference will explore how to make OR solutions more easily accessible to a wider, non-expert audience, and discussions and presentations will help us as practitioners better understand how we can bring our solutions into use. The goal is to increase the impact and usage of OR across industries and application domains.
More details can be found at https://www.euro-online.org/websites/or-in-practice/euro-practitioners-forum-6th-annual-conference/
Important dates:

11 January, 2026: Submission deadline
31 January, 2026: Notification of acceptance
20 February, 2026: Final version of submissions
5 March, 2026: Author registration deadline
20 March, 2026: Early bird registration deadline (registration for the conference dinner no longer possible after this date)

REGISTRATION

Contact
For any inquiries, please contact the conference organisers on this address: epf2026@pw.edu.pl

Sponsors

Keynote speakers

Sylwester Ciodyk (Ortec Poland): Practical Optimization: Real-World Success Stories
Paweł Lichocki (Google): An engineering perspective on mixed integer programming in computer systems
Michał Kłos (PSE S.A. (the Polish Transmission System Operator)): Framing Fairness: A Practical Approach to Beyond-Cost Optimization for TSOs’ Mathematical Programming Problems
Geoffrey De Smet (Timefold): How to build an open source solver and a company around it
Tomasz Stopa (IBM): Quantum computer – from holy grail to your favorite toy

Organisation committee:
Vladimir Fux, Zalando (Germany), Michele Quattrone, AirLiquide (France), Sander van Aken, Flix SE (Germany), Torkel Haufman, Sintef (Norway), Waldemar Kocjan, Boeing (Sweden), Izabela Żółtowska, Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), Mariusz Kaleta, Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), Susanne Heipcke, FICO (France) chair

Hosted by:
