Gurobi Optimization, LLC, the leader in decision intelligence technology, announced the release of OptiMods, an open-source project that provides Python users with high-level access to optimization capabilities. Developed by the Gurobi Tech teams, the project aims to put optimization in the hands of more people—especially those without prior knowledge of optimization and mathematical modeling.
“Many people have real-life business problems that can be solved with mathematical optimization, and they don’t even realize it. OptiMods helps bridge that gap,” explained Dr. Robert Luce, Principal Developer at Gurobi and the lead developer behind the project.
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At launch, the OptiMods gallery includes the following modules:
- Maximum Bipartite Matching: For grouping and assignments, such as matching workers or resources to specific tasks.
- Least Absolute Deviation Regression: For outlier detection and financial risk management, as well as applications across economics, social sciences, and environmental studies.
- Minimum-Cost Flow: For problems where the goal is to route a certain amount of flow in the cheapest way.
- Maximum Weighted Independent Set: For a range of applications in various fields, including computer vision, pattern recognition, molecular structure matching, social network analysis, and genome data mapping.
- Mean-Variance Portfolio: For strategic allocation of wealth across various assets, including stocks, bonds, commodities, and other investment instruments.
- Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO): For NP-hard discrete optimization problems like max-cut, graph coloring, partitioning, and maximum independent set.
- Workforce Scheduling: For problems that involve balancing many competing concerns, such as: worker availability, cost, and preferences; shift coverage requirements; conditions on consecutive shifts or rest breaks; and so on.
“Of course, there are millions of different problems that can be solved with optimization,” he added. “OptiMods only covers seven of them. But it’s a start.”
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With OptiMods, people can solve problems that would be very difficult or impossible to solve without any optimization methods. Gurobi hopes that, through OptiMods, more people will discover that optimization is a useful tool that can be used more prominently in the workplace.
“OptiMods represents a big step toward putting the power of optimization into the hands of more people,” explained Gurobi CEO, Duke Perrucci. “When people and businesses make optimal decisions, they can do more with less—and, over time, that can make our world a better place. That’s what we’re aiming for as an organization.”
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