Title of Presentation: Boolean Methods in Operations Research and Related Areas

INFORMS Conference

November 13-16, 2011

Charlotte, North Carolina

Abstract:

The title of this lecture is the title of a monograph co-authored by Peter L. Hammer and Sergiu Rudeanu, which appeared in 1968. Their pioneering work has stimulated a large amount of research and has been very frequently cited. Over the last year, the late Peter Hammer and Yves Crama have published two distant followups to this classical book: a monograph entitled Boolean Functions: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications (700 pages, Cambridge University Press, 2011), and a collection of survey papers on Boolean Models and Methods in Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering (780 pages, Cambridge University Press, 2010). The size of these two volumes and the size of their bibliographic sections are witnesses of the vitality of the field and of its impressive development. Boolean functions are actually among the most fundamental objects investigated in mathematics, and provide the basic building blocks for many models arising in operations research, computer science, artificial intelligence, economics, engineering, cryptography, biology and other fields of application. In this lecture, Crama proposes a brief overview of some fundamental Boolean models, discusses applications in corporate governance (modeling of shareholders’ power) and in classification (Logical Analysis of Data), and mentions a few challenging research problems.

Bio

Yves Crama is Professor of Operations Research and Production Management, and the former Dean of the HEC Management School of the University of Liège, in Belgium. He holds a PhD in operations research from Rutgers University. Before moving to Liège, he held faculty positions at the University of Delaware and at Maastricht University. He is interested in discrete mathematics and combinatorial optimization, with an emphasis on Boolean models and algorithms, on production and operations management, and on financial applications. He has coauthored five books and 75 scientific papers on these subjects. He has delivered invited plenary lectures at major conferences in France, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Switzerland and Turkey, and in 2009, he was awarded a prestigious Belgian Francqui Chair by the University of Leuven. He is a member of the editorial boards of Discrete Applied Mathematics, Discrete Optimization, Journal of Scheduling and 4OR – The Quarterly Journal of the Belgian, French and Italian Operations Research Societies. He is a scientific partner of two university spin-offs, N-Side and Gambit Financial Solutions.