AMPL at Analytics 2018

Join us April 15-17, 2018 at the
Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore.

AMPL is a Gold-Level sponsor and is exhibiting at booth #23.
See our Technology Workshop and Technology Tutorial.
 

Technology Workshop, Sunday, April 15, 3-4:45pm

Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Meeting room Kent B

Model-Based Optimization, Plain and Simple:
From Formulation to Deployment with AMPL

Optimization is the most widely adopted technology of Prescriptive Analytics, but also the most challenging to implement:

• How can you prototype an optimization application fast enough to get results before the problem owner loses interest?
• How can you integrate optimization into your enterprise’s decision-making systems?
• How can you deploy optimization models to support analysis and action throughout your organization?

In this presentation, we show how AMPL gets you going without elaborate training, extra programmers, or premature commitments. We start by introducing model-based optimization, the key approach to streamlining the optimization modeling cycle and building successful applications today. Then we demonstrate how AMPL’s design of a language and system for model-based optimization is able to offer exceptional power of expression while maintaining ease of use.

The remainder of the presentation takes a single example through successive stages of the optimization modeling lifecycle:

• Prototyping in an interactive command environment.
• Integration via AMPL scripts and through APIs to all popular programming languages.
• Deployment with QuanDec, which turns an AMPL model into an interactive, collaborative decision-making tool.

Our example is simple enough for participants to follow its development through the course of this short workshop, yet rich enough to serve as a foundation for appreciating model-based optimization in practice.
 

Technology Tutorial, Monday April 16, 3:40-4:30pm

Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Meeting room Falkland

AMPL in the Cloud:
Using Online Services to Develop and Deploy Optimization
Applications through Algebraic Modeling

Cloud services promising “optimization on demand” have become steadily more numerous and more powerful in recent years. This presentation offers a user-oriented survey, with a focus on the role of the AMPL modeling language in streamlining development and deployment of optimization models using online tools. Starting with the pioneering free NEOS Server, we compare more recent commercial offerings such as Gurobi Instant Cloud and the Satalia SolveEngine; the benefits of these solver services are enhanced through their use with AMPL’s algebraic modeling facilities. We conclude by introducing QuanDec, which turns AMPL models into web-based collaborative decision-making tools.