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Spring 2007 Seminar Series
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
OPERATIONS RESEARCH CENTER
SPRING 2007 SEMINAR SERIES
DATE: Thursday, April 26, 2007
LOCATION: E40-298
TIME: 4:15pm
Reception immediately following in the Philip M. Morse Reading Room, E40-106
TITLE
Coping with the Unknown in the Battlefield and on the Auction Block
ABSTRACT
In this talk, we discuss algorithms that cope with unknown, rapidly-changing
environments in two settings. The algorithms are analyzed using
both experimental and analytical methods.
We first describe logistics
algorithms for maximizing operational availability of combat
vehicles by producing flexible, optimized inventory and delivery
plans that decrease replenishment times and prioritize parts
allocations and repairs. Our algorithms are designed to leverage
real-time information available from modern communications and
inventory-tracking technology by employing mathematical optimization
models. The algorithms were implemented and tested using a logistics
simulator that generates detailed battlefield scenario.
Next,
we study a problem related to pricing of products and services
over time. We consider a collection of bidders, each of whom
is interested in buying a copy of an item for which there is
an unlimited supply. Every bidder is associated with a time interval
over which the bidder will consider buying, and a maximum value
the bidder is willing to pay. For every unit of time, the seller
sets a price for the item. The seller's goal is to set the prices
in order to maximize revenue over the time period. In the offline
setting, we assume that the seller knows the bids of all the
bidders in advance. In the online setting, we assume that at
each unit of time the seller only knows the values of the bids
that have arrived before or at that time unit. We provide a polynomial-time
offline algorithm and prove upper and lower bounds on the competitiveness
of deterministic and randomized online algorithms for two variants
of the problem.
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