Automatic Configuration of Optimization Algorithms

• I am co-maintainer of the irace software package, which implements the Iterated F-Race procedure for automatic configuration (offline tuning) of parametric optimization algorithms.

Multi-Objective Optimization

• Sequential Online Archiving of Objective Vectors. Joshua Knowles, Marco Laumanns and I have studied the problem of maintaining a bounded-size archive of (Pareto) nondominated points. We provide software implementing several well-known archivers and benchmark sequences for testing the performance of archiving algorithms.
• Graphical tools for exploring the performance of stochastic local search algorithms for biobjective optimization problems based on the concept of the empirical attainment function (EAF). In particular, we consider the visualization of attainment surfaces and differences between the first-order EAFs of two algorithms. This visualization allows to identify certain algorithmic behaviors in a graphical way. Luis Paquete, Thomas Stützle and I have made available software implementing these EAF graphical tools.
• The hypervolume indicator is widely used to assess the performance of multi-objective optimisation algorithms. Carlos M. Fonseca, Luis Paquete and I have implemented one of the fastest existing algorithms for calculating the hypervolume indicator.
• The evolutionary multiobjective optimization mailing list (emo-list) is dedicated to the discussion of issues related to multiobjective (or multicriteria) optimization and evolutionary computation.

Multi-objective Permutation Flow-shop Scheduling

• Together with Jérémie Dubois-Lacoste and Thomas Stützle, we have proposed a hybrid TP+PLS algorithm that is the current (2010) state-of-the-art algorithm for several bi-objective variants of the permutation flow-shop scheduling problem, combining makespan, sum of flowtimes (completion time) and total (weighted) tardiness. We also make available the benchmark sets used and the reference sets obtained.

Travelling Salesman Problem with Time Windows

• Christian Blum and I have collected benchmark instances utilized in the literature for the traveling salesman problem with time windows. These instances are available from different sources, along with instructions on how to modify them to match previous results. However, we provide them all together in a single place, converted into a standard format. Moreover, we provide C++ source code for reading the instance files.

Pump Scheduling in Water Distribution Networks

• The extended EPANET Toolkit is a modified version of the EPANET Toolkit that provides additional functions and features for its use in optimisation algorithms without breaking backwards compatibility (under some assumptions). This version has been mainly tested on GNU/Linux, but it should also compile under Win32 environments.
• I have also developed a thread-safe variant of EPANET Toolkit to be used by parallel applications.
• Instances of the Pump Scheduling Problem, that is, examples of Water Distribution Networks published in the literature and its corresponding EPANET input files.

.emacs