Using Mathematics to Maximize the Efficiency of Shared Infrastructure in Australia's Coal Export Supply Chain. Port Waratah Coal Services operates the world's largest coal export terminal, servicing about 14 coal mining companies in the Hunter Valley, NSW. It is responsible for around $15 billion in annual export income for Australia. The coal supply chain is a complex operation, hampered by bottlenecks in critical shared infrastructure. Such limitations are estimated to cost Australia about $2 ....Using Mathematics to Maximize the Efficiency of Shared Infrastructure in Australia's Coal Export Supply Chain. Port Waratah Coal Services operates the world's largest coal export terminal, servicing about 14 coal mining companies in the Hunter Valley, NSW. It is responsible for around $15 billion in annual export income for Australia. The coal supply chain is a complex operation, hampered by bottlenecks in critical shared infrastructure. Such limitations are estimated to cost Australia about $2 billion pa in lost sales. This project will support the design of new infrastructure and processes to ensure an efficient supply chain. The new science resulting will benefit other coal operations in Australia, and potentially other bulk goods supply chains.Read moreRead less
Competitive supplier bidding in supply chains. This project will use mathematical modelling to contribute to better management practice in dealing with procurement. With the increasing use of auctions and sophisticated bidding procedures it is essential to improve our understanding of this important area.
Evaluating the long-term costs and benefits of community-based initiatives. The ultimate benefit from the research is a more efficient allocation of public funds to provide public services, i.e. an increase in the gain derived from the government budget. The relative advantages of alternative methods of delivering government services are subject to significant uncertainty, which means that policy decisions are often poorly informed. Improvements in the accuracy of predicting the costs and benefi ....Evaluating the long-term costs and benefits of community-based initiatives. The ultimate benefit from the research is a more efficient allocation of public funds to provide public services, i.e. an increase in the gain derived from the government budget. The relative advantages of alternative methods of delivering government services are subject to significant uncertainty, which means that policy decisions are often poorly informed. Improvements in the accuracy of predicting the costs and benefits of complex community-based initiatives will help policymakers identify the set of initiatives that provide the best outcomes for the community they serve, as well as informing the optimal specification of the individual initiatives.Read moreRead less
Maintenance Optimisation in Rail Infrastructure Systems for Coal and
Iron Ore Exports. Coal and iron ore exports, worth around 55 per cent of Australia's export earnings, critically depend on the transport capacity provided by Australia's rail infrastructure. Maintenance plays a crucial role in ensuring that infrastructure components are in a condition to provide safe, reliable, and efficient transport. However maintenance activities also reduce the system capacity, and are costly. It is thus c ....Maintenance Optimisation in Rail Infrastructure Systems for Coal and
Iron Ore Exports. Coal and iron ore exports, worth around 55 per cent of Australia's export earnings, critically depend on the transport capacity provided by Australia's rail infrastructure. Maintenance plays a crucial role in ensuring that infrastructure components are in a condition to provide safe, reliable, and efficient transport. However maintenance activities also reduce the system capacity, and are costly. It is thus critical to sustaining the growth and competitiveness of Australia's coal and iron ore exports that maintenance is optimised so as to maximise system efficiency and delivered capacity. The project aims to achieve this by the development of new decision support technologies embedding innovative decision-making models and algorithms.Read moreRead less
Decomposition and Duality: New Approaches to Integer and Stochastic Integer Programming. Because of their rich modelling capabilities, integer programs are widely used in industry for decision making and planning. However their solution algorithms do not have the maturity of their cousins in convex optimisation, where the theory of strong duality is ubiquitous. Efficient methods for convex optimisation under uncertainty do not apply to the integer case, which is highly non-convex. Furthermore, i ....Decomposition and Duality: New Approaches to Integer and Stochastic Integer Programming. Because of their rich modelling capabilities, integer programs are widely used in industry for decision making and planning. However their solution algorithms do not have the maturity of their cousins in convex optimisation, where the theory of strong duality is ubiquitous. Efficient methods for convex optimisation under uncertainty do not apply to the integer case, which is highly non-convex. Furthermore, integer models usually assume the data is known with certainty, which is often not the case in the real world. This project will develop new theory and algorithms to enhance the analysis of integer models, including those that incorporating uncertainty, while also enabling the use of parallel computing paradigms. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100049
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
New integer programming based theory, formulations and decomposition techniques with applications to integrated problems. Optimisation problems permeate science and industry. By developing new techniques to solve larger and harder problems than is currently possible, more complex questions can be answered, and more accurate solutions obtained. Industries can use such tools to make better financial, resource management, operational, and/or strategic planning decisions.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100240
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$315,000.00
Summary
Geometry and Conditioning in Structured Conic Problems. Conic programming allows one to model and solve large industrial problems via modern optimisation methods, such as interior-point algorithms. These methods are efficient and reliable in solving a vast number of problems, however, they fail on a relatively small but significant set of ill-posed instances, thus affecting the overall reliability of the technique. The reason for such behaviour is profound and constitutes one of the major unsolv ....Geometry and Conditioning in Structured Conic Problems. Conic programming allows one to model and solve large industrial problems via modern optimisation methods, such as interior-point algorithms. These methods are efficient and reliable in solving a vast number of problems, however, they fail on a relatively small but significant set of ill-posed instances, thus affecting the overall reliability of the technique. The reason for such behaviour is profound and constitutes one of the major unsolved problems in real complexity: there is no known algorithm that solves conic problems with real data in polynomial time. The project aims to develop a deep understanding of the geometry of conic problems, aiming for the resolution of this fundamental problem in computational theory.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100234
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Exact and hybrid algorithms for the Aircraft Landing Problem. This project aims to develop algorithms with superior guaranteed performance. Aircraft Landing Problems (ALP) are an important class of decision problems. Optimal solution of an ALP is applicable in transportation and health care delivery, benefitting systems experiencing long delays. This project aims to address several of the Australian Government's Science and Research Priorities, focusing on food supply chains, effective operation ....Exact and hybrid algorithms for the Aircraft Landing Problem. This project aims to develop algorithms with superior guaranteed performance. Aircraft Landing Problems (ALP) are an important class of decision problems. Optimal solution of an ALP is applicable in transportation and health care delivery, benefitting systems experiencing long delays. This project aims to address several of the Australian Government's Science and Research Priorities, focusing on food supply chains, effective operation and resource allocation in transport, and better models of health care delivery and services.Read moreRead less
A Mathematical Approach to Flexible Management of Open Pit Mines with Uncertain Geology and Unpredictable Demand. This project will create new mathematical algorithms to flexibly manage open pit mining projects. The development of strategic plans for mining operations is a highly complex task, based on incomplete geological information and uncertain future commodity demand. The smart mathematics we create will allow Australia to capitalise on upturns in international demand, while limiting unavo ....A Mathematical Approach to Flexible Management of Open Pit Mines with Uncertain Geology and Unpredictable Demand. This project will create new mathematical algorithms to flexibly manage open pit mining projects. The development of strategic plans for mining operations is a highly complex task, based on incomplete geological information and uncertain future commodity demand. The smart mathematics we create will allow Australia to capitalise on upturns in international demand, while limiting unavoidable negative outcomes, by flexibly adjusting the mining operation to prevailing geological and economic conditions. Australia's mineral exports are worth over $50b annually to the Australian economy. Our techniques will better manage Australia's mining projects and capture new, emerging markets, significantly impacting on Australia's balance of trade.Read moreRead less