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About us

Welcome! We’re AMPL, your optimization experts.

We’re AMPL – A Mathematical Programming Language (pronounced “ample”) – a global team that has long been dedicated to delivering a high-performing modeling language specifically for optimization. Over time, we’ve evolved into a comprehensive ecosystem and solver partner. Today, AMPL stands as a complete system for building large-scale optimization toolchains.

AMPL Company
AMPL Company
AMPL Company

Our Story

The history of AMPL is a story of growth

Where we started

AMPL’s journey began almost 30 years ago at Bell Laboratories, where founders Robert Fourer, David Gay, and Brian Kernighan developed AMPL to help people communicate optimization models to computer systems using the power and convenience of familiar algebraic formulations.

Following its general release, AMPL’s reputation grew rapidly, supporting new implementations of traditional optimization models and motivating applications in new areas. The book “AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming” became the best-recognized introduction to practical algebraic modeling.

For several years, AMPL remained part of Lucent Technologies, the company that became parent to Bell Laboratories. Eventually, the founders of AMPL were able to become more officially involved in the support of the customers and growth of AMPL.

Where we are

AMPL grew to full independence with the dissolution of AMPL Optimization LLC and the launch of AMPL Optimization Inc., a California C-Corporation, in 2013. Since then, we have dedicated our professional efforts to providing the best optimization tools to professionals throughout business, engineering, science, and education. 

AMPL maintains a focus on continued product development and the support of our customers. Our development teams boast extraordinary talent in optimization and mathematical modeling. 

 Our customers are some of the top-performing companies in over 40 major industries globally. Our continued partnerships allow us to bring the world’s best solvers, while our in-house developments of APIs, data connectors, and more provide a one-stop shopping experience to support your application from conception through development and all the way to production.

Inside perspective

AMPL through the perspective of David Gay, Founder and Director of AMPL.

“I would have loved to spend my whole career at Bell Labs — a fantastic place — but that was not to be. In 2003 the ‘‘dot com bubble’’ burst. Lucent Technologies, which after the breakup of the Bell System had become the parent company of Bell Labs, fell on hard times…”

Man working in a building at a desk with the sun shining brightly through the window hes facing

Our Leadership Team

The team – to name a few! There are many developers, managers, and specialists behind closed doors making sure we keep delivering state-of-the-art optimization tools. 

DAILY MANAGEMENT TEAM

AMPL Company

Bill Wells, CEO

Oversees the development and technological direction of the company.

AMPL Company

Filipe Brandão, Head of Development

Leads the development team and oversees the creation and maintenance of products.

AMPL Company

Meg Robert, Director of Marketing

Manages marketing strategy, partnerships, design, and brand experience.

AMPL Company

Melinh Nguyen, Director of Operations

Ensures efficient operational processes and oversees daily operations.

OUR FOUNDERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

AMPL Company

Bob Fourer, President & Co-Founder

Avid lecturer and conference circuit traveler, provides marketing, sales, operation and customer support and guidance.

AMPL Company

David Gay, Director & Co-Founder

Avid developer of AMPL and provides strategic guidance for the development team.

AMPL Company

Brian Kernighan, Director & Co-Founder

Provides strategic guidance, professional insights and directional feedback.

Who we are

Committed to Our Mission, Inspired by Our Vision

OUR MISSION

At AMPL Optimization we are on a mission to deliver the fastest, most intuitive modeling language, enhanced by strategic integrations and partnerships with industry-leading products. We are dedicated to maintaining a fully supported, easy-to-use platform that enables the effortless creation of full-scale, robust optimization applications, from prototyping to deployment and integration.

OUR VISION

Our vision is to lead the future of optimization by fostering innovation and collaboration, creating solutions that empower businesses to thrive in a complex and dynamic world.

CORE VALUES

Innovation

We are committed to continuous improvement and staying ahead in the industry.

Integreity

We emphasize ethical practices and transparency in all we do.

Collaboration

We believe in the power of teamwork within the company and with our partners.

Customer Focus

Our clients’ success is our priority, and we strive to meet their needs effectively.

Have questions? Get in touch.

AMPL is dedicated to being a leader in optimization, committed to innovation, integrity, and customer success. Learn more about us or get in touch today.

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Careers

Learn what it's like to work at AMPL! Reach out - we'd love to hear from you.

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Contact Us

We are a fully remote team headquartered in Mountain View, California.

A brief timeline of AMPL

AMPL was developed by Robert Fourer, David Gay, and Brian Kernighan at Bell Laboratories. Today, AMPL supports dozens of solvers, both open source and commercial software, including BARON, COPT, CPLEX, CONOPT, Gurobi, KNITRO, LGO, LINDO Global, LOQOMINOS, Octeract, SNOPT, and Xpress. AMPL is used by more than 100 corporate clients, and by government agencies and academic institutions. 

2014

A new comprehensive Application Programming Interface (API) becomes available to make integrating AMPL with your applications easy (including Python, R, C++, C#, Java and MATLAB)

2013

A new cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) for AMPL becomes available

2013

AMPL Optimization, Inc was founded by the inventors of AMPL, Robert Fourer, David Gay, and Brian Kernighan. The new company was dedicated to the continued development and support of the AMPL modeling language and to making AMPL available to developers and modelers the world over.

2012

AMPL book becomes freely available online

2012

Robert Fourer, David Gay, and Brian Kernighan were awarded the 2012 INFORMS Impact Prize as the originators of one of the most important algebraic modeling languages.

2008

Kestrel: An AMPL Interface to the NEOS Server introduced

2005

AMPL Modeling Language Google group opened

2002

Support for constraint programming

2000

Relational database and spreadsheet access

1998

AMPL supports complementarity theory problems

1997

Enhanced support for nonlinear solvers

1995

Scripting constructs

1995

Extensions for representing piecewise-linear and network structures

1993