The Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) is a combinatorial optimization problem used in ... more The Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) is a combinatorial optimization problem used in transport logistics with a two layered composition. In a first level trip, freight has to be delivered from a main depot to a set of possible satellites (intermediate depots). Afterwards the goods are served in second level trips to the final customers. Inspired by a paper from Nguyen, Prins and Prodhon we developed a novel heuristic comparison framework based on the open source simulation environment OpenCI. On the basis of the mentioned paper we implemented three heuristics to solve the 2E-VRP and a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) with a learning process (LP). The GRASP-LP uses two heuristics which improve their solution by a variable neighborhood descent (VND). The VND itself uses two different neighborhoods to enhance the result. The comparison framework is able to load different 2E-VRP maps which can be solved by single heuristics or the GRASP. The new heuristic comparison framework offers the possibility to add quickly different heuristics and to do experiments with them.
A variant of the well-known travelling salesman problem is about introducing particular dependenc... more A variant of the well-known travelling salesman problem is about introducing particular dependencies among the cities. Such dependencies might describe the relations between single cities which can be used for autonomous vehicles that need to follow certain paths for some reasons. This paper deals with solving the Travelling Salesman Region Problem where particular connections of cities are already predefined. We are investigating and discussing the influences of the parameters of the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm solving travelling salesman region problems.
Index tracking belongs to one of the most important types of problems in portfolio management. In... more Index tracking belongs to one of the most important types of problems in portfolio management. In contrast to classical (active) portfolio management and optimization, passive portfolio management usually seeks to replicate a given index for a financial market. Due to transaction costs or legal or other practical limitation on the tradability of the respective assets, such indexes are often not fully replicated by a respective portfolio. Instead, one seeks to use a subset of the index assets (or other types of assets) to obtain a portfolio most similar to the index. This index tracking problem can be formulated as an optimization problem with respect to the minimization of the tracking error. In this article, we explore possibilities to solve the index tracking problem with invasive weed optimization (IWO), a rather new population-based metaheuristics algorithm. The complexity of this real-life problem and especially its solution space and restrictions require substantial adaptation of the original IWO algorithm. We explore different possibilities to adapt IWO to the considered type of problem. The adapted IWO method is tested using MSCI USA Value data, and systematic studies to find suitable parameter values are conducted. Although the method basically works well, the obtained results do not fully reach our intended benchmark. Reasons for that and possibilities for further improvement of the methodology are discussed.
The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct go... more The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct good rosters, many restrictions (eg holydays and workload) have to be taken into account. These restrictions have been mathematically specified for a concrete case in order to solve the problem ...
Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Computation, 2002
One aspect that most of the current research on evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) of... more One aspect that most of the current research on evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) often disregards is the fact that the solution of a multiobjective optimization problem (MOP) really involves three stages: measurement, search, and decision making.
Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Intelligent Systems, Metaheuristics & Swarm Intelligence - ISMSI '17, 2017
We introduce an emotion influenced robotic path planning solution which offers the possibility of... more We introduce an emotion influenced robotic path planning solution which offers the possibility of enabling emotions in the robot. The robot can change the speed of the path or learn where it should be and where it should not be. Most existing solutions for robotic path planning have no emotional influences. The most successful emotions were taken and included into the solution of this paper. The results were analyzed with regard to the time and speed it takes for a normal robotic path planning without emotions and with emotions of happiness, fear and novelty.
Abstract: We consider a multistage lotsizing problem with capacity-constrained resources, general... more Abstract: We consider a multistage lotsizing problem with capacity-constrained resources, general product structures and nonzero lead times. This problem is motivated by a real-life application from a large manufacturer of electronic devices and deals with the determination of a production plan for the end items and their components to meet external prioritized demand in each period of a given planning horizon. Since resources are scarce, the main objective is to obtain a production plan that minimizes the total number of late orders. The ...
This paper deals with the basic ideas and implementation of an object-oriented decision support s... more This paper deals with the basic ideas and implementation of an object-oriented decision support system (DSS), especially for multiple criteria decision making (MCDM). There are various ways of integrating different MCDM methods in a DSS. One way is the interactive application of different methods by means of an integrative user interface. Integration can also be achieved by utilizing neural networks and similar concepts. Neural network-based DSS are able to combine different methods and to learn from historical decisions. They are able to answer questions like: Which method should be used? How can the parameters be adjusted? Is it useful to apply different methods and to aggregate their results to a compromise solution? And how should this be done?
Third International Workshop on Advanced Computational Intelligence, 2010
AbstractBoth areas, airline planning and railway planning, have attracted a significant interest... more AbstractBoth areas, airline planning and railway planning, have attracted a significant interest from the operations research and optimization community during the past decades. Although both areas have significant similarities, ie transport of people and goods according to ...
ABSTRACT The paper is divided into three parts: (1) Historical sketch, (2) Main streams of resear... more ABSTRACT The paper is divided into three parts: (1) Historical sketch, (2) Main streams of research, (3) Future development. In the first part, a concise review of the historical roots and the developments of vector optimization in the sense of decision making under several goals (objective functions) is presented. In the second part, various main streams are discussed. Two basic aspects of vector optimization can be distinguished: the pure theoretical, mainly mathematical one, and the more practical, methodologically oriented one. A brief survey of vector optimization theory is given. In the third part, we try to outline directions of future development based on the knowledge of past and present trends.
Tomas Gal1 and Thomas Hanne2 1FernUniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 41, 58084 Hagen 2Unive... more Tomas Gal1 and Thomas Hanne2 1FernUniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 41, 58084 Hagen 2University of Applied Sciences, Riggenbachstr. 16, 4600 Olten, Schweiz tomas.gal@fernuni-hagen.de, thomas.hanne@fhnw.ch ... Abstract. Various methods ...
2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2009
The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct go... more The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct good rosters, many restrictions (eg holydays and workload) have to be taken into account. These restrictions have been mathematically specified for a concrete case in order to solve the problem ...
2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2009
In this paper we discuss a real-life problem in rail crew rostering. Specific emphasis is placed ... more In this paper we discuss a real-life problem in rail crew rostering. Specific emphasis is placed on the requirements of advanced approaches in rostering and the usage of optimization-based decision support. The modeling of the rostering problems is discussed including the ...
We consider a lotsizing problem in a multi-stage production setting with capacity-constrained res... more We consider a lotsizing problem in a multi-stage production setting with capacity-constrained resources and a general production structure which may change during the planning horizon. Based on an earlier presentation [1], we focus on some novel concepts of capacity planning. We also present computational results for test problems obtained with the most recent version of our planning software.
We discuss a renewed Information Systems Bachelor program and a newly introduced Master of Scienc... more We discuss a renewed Information Systems Bachelor program and a newly introduced Master of Science (MSc) in Business Information Systems at our university. A large part of teaching is now based on e-learning and problem-based learning (or learning-by-doing) in order to provide the students more freedom to repeat and deepen the taught subjects, often in students' projects. As indicated in student assessments, the quality of teaching and the students' motivation are increasing significantly. Some topics of the new ...
In this paper we study the usage of advanced planning technologies in Advanced Planning Systems (... more In this paper we study the usage of advanced planning technologies in Advanced Planning Systems (APS). In particular, we consider the utilization of approaches from the areas of modeling, simulation, and optimization. The study is based on a questionnaire-based survey asking commercial APS providers on utilizing such methods in general and with respect to specific modules of their APS. The results show that such methods are used mostly in accordance with suggestions coming from the academic ...
Das Tätigkeitsfeld des Fraunhofer Instituts für Techno-und Wirt schafts ma the ma tik ITWM um fas... more Das Tätigkeitsfeld des Fraunhofer Instituts für Techno-und Wirt schafts ma the ma tik ITWM um fasst an wen dungs na he Grund la gen for schung, angewandte For schung so wie Be ra tung und kun den spe zi fische Lö sun gen auf allen Gebieten, die für Techno-und Wirt schafts ma the ma tik be deut sam sind.
The Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) is a combinatorial optimization problem used in ... more The Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) is a combinatorial optimization problem used in transport logistics with a two layered composition. In a first level trip, freight has to be delivered from a main depot to a set of possible satellites (intermediate depots). Afterwards the goods are served in second level trips to the final customers. Inspired by a paper from Nguyen, Prins and Prodhon we developed a novel heuristic comparison framework based on the open source simulation environment OpenCI. On the basis of the mentioned paper we implemented three heuristics to solve the 2E-VRP and a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) with a learning process (LP). The GRASP-LP uses two heuristics which improve their solution by a variable neighborhood descent (VND). The VND itself uses two different neighborhoods to enhance the result. The comparison framework is able to load different 2E-VRP maps which can be solved by single heuristics or the GRASP. The new heuristic comparison framework offers the possibility to add quickly different heuristics and to do experiments with them.
A variant of the well-known travelling salesman problem is about introducing particular dependenc... more A variant of the well-known travelling salesman problem is about introducing particular dependencies among the cities. Such dependencies might describe the relations between single cities which can be used for autonomous vehicles that need to follow certain paths for some reasons. This paper deals with solving the Travelling Salesman Region Problem where particular connections of cities are already predefined. We are investigating and discussing the influences of the parameters of the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm solving travelling salesman region problems.
Index tracking belongs to one of the most important types of problems in portfolio management. In... more Index tracking belongs to one of the most important types of problems in portfolio management. In contrast to classical (active) portfolio management and optimization, passive portfolio management usually seeks to replicate a given index for a financial market. Due to transaction costs or legal or other practical limitation on the tradability of the respective assets, such indexes are often not fully replicated by a respective portfolio. Instead, one seeks to use a subset of the index assets (or other types of assets) to obtain a portfolio most similar to the index. This index tracking problem can be formulated as an optimization problem with respect to the minimization of the tracking error. In this article, we explore possibilities to solve the index tracking problem with invasive weed optimization (IWO), a rather new population-based metaheuristics algorithm. The complexity of this real-life problem and especially its solution space and restrictions require substantial adaptation of the original IWO algorithm. We explore different possibilities to adapt IWO to the considered type of problem. The adapted IWO method is tested using MSCI USA Value data, and systematic studies to find suitable parameter values are conducted. Although the method basically works well, the obtained results do not fully reach our intended benchmark. Reasons for that and possibilities for further improvement of the methodology are discussed.
The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct go... more The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct good rosters, many restrictions (eg holydays and workload) have to be taken into account. These restrictions have been mathematically specified for a concrete case in order to solve the problem ...
Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Computation, 2002
One aspect that most of the current research on evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) of... more One aspect that most of the current research on evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) often disregards is the fact that the solution of a multiobjective optimization problem (MOP) really involves three stages: measurement, search, and decision making.
Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Intelligent Systems, Metaheuristics & Swarm Intelligence - ISMSI '17, 2017
We introduce an emotion influenced robotic path planning solution which offers the possibility of... more We introduce an emotion influenced robotic path planning solution which offers the possibility of enabling emotions in the robot. The robot can change the speed of the path or learn where it should be and where it should not be. Most existing solutions for robotic path planning have no emotional influences. The most successful emotions were taken and included into the solution of this paper. The results were analyzed with regard to the time and speed it takes for a normal robotic path planning without emotions and with emotions of happiness, fear and novelty.
Abstract: We consider a multistage lotsizing problem with capacity-constrained resources, general... more Abstract: We consider a multistage lotsizing problem with capacity-constrained resources, general product structures and nonzero lead times. This problem is motivated by a real-life application from a large manufacturer of electronic devices and deals with the determination of a production plan for the end items and their components to meet external prioritized demand in each period of a given planning horizon. Since resources are scarce, the main objective is to obtain a production plan that minimizes the total number of late orders. The ...
This paper deals with the basic ideas and implementation of an object-oriented decision support s... more This paper deals with the basic ideas and implementation of an object-oriented decision support system (DSS), especially for multiple criteria decision making (MCDM). There are various ways of integrating different MCDM methods in a DSS. One way is the interactive application of different methods by means of an integrative user interface. Integration can also be achieved by utilizing neural networks and similar concepts. Neural network-based DSS are able to combine different methods and to learn from historical decisions. They are able to answer questions like: Which method should be used? How can the parameters be adjusted? Is it useful to apply different methods and to aggregate their results to a compromise solution? And how should this be done?
Third International Workshop on Advanced Computational Intelligence, 2010
AbstractBoth areas, airline planning and railway planning, have attracted a significant interest... more AbstractBoth areas, airline planning and railway planning, have attracted a significant interest from the operations research and optimization community during the past decades. Although both areas have significant similarities, ie transport of people and goods according to ...
ABSTRACT The paper is divided into three parts: (1) Historical sketch, (2) Main streams of resear... more ABSTRACT The paper is divided into three parts: (1) Historical sketch, (2) Main streams of research, (3) Future development. In the first part, a concise review of the historical roots and the developments of vector optimization in the sense of decision making under several goals (objective functions) is presented. In the second part, various main streams are discussed. Two basic aspects of vector optimization can be distinguished: the pure theoretical, mainly mathematical one, and the more practical, methodologically oriented one. A brief survey of vector optimization theory is given. In the third part, we try to outline directions of future development based on the knowledge of past and present trends.
Tomas Gal1 and Thomas Hanne2 1FernUniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 41, 58084 Hagen 2Unive... more Tomas Gal1 and Thomas Hanne2 1FernUniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 41, 58084 Hagen 2University of Applied Sciences, Riggenbachstr. 16, 4600 Olten, Schweiz tomas.gal@fernuni-hagen.de, thomas.hanne@fhnw.ch ... Abstract. Various methods ...
2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2009
The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct go... more The creation of staff rosters for emergency shifts for doctors is a complex task. To construct good rosters, many restrictions (eg holydays and workload) have to be taken into account. These restrictions have been mathematically specified for a concrete case in order to solve the problem ...
2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2009
In this paper we discuss a real-life problem in rail crew rostering. Specific emphasis is placed ... more In this paper we discuss a real-life problem in rail crew rostering. Specific emphasis is placed on the requirements of advanced approaches in rostering and the usage of optimization-based decision support. The modeling of the rostering problems is discussed including the ...
We consider a lotsizing problem in a multi-stage production setting with capacity-constrained res... more We consider a lotsizing problem in a multi-stage production setting with capacity-constrained resources and a general production structure which may change during the planning horizon. Based on an earlier presentation [1], we focus on some novel concepts of capacity planning. We also present computational results for test problems obtained with the most recent version of our planning software.
We discuss a renewed Information Systems Bachelor program and a newly introduced Master of Scienc... more We discuss a renewed Information Systems Bachelor program and a newly introduced Master of Science (MSc) in Business Information Systems at our university. A large part of teaching is now based on e-learning and problem-based learning (or learning-by-doing) in order to provide the students more freedom to repeat and deepen the taught subjects, often in students' projects. As indicated in student assessments, the quality of teaching and the students' motivation are increasing significantly. Some topics of the new ...
In this paper we study the usage of advanced planning technologies in Advanced Planning Systems (... more In this paper we study the usage of advanced planning technologies in Advanced Planning Systems (APS). In particular, we consider the utilization of approaches from the areas of modeling, simulation, and optimization. The study is based on a questionnaire-based survey asking commercial APS providers on utilizing such methods in general and with respect to specific modules of their APS. The results show that such methods are used mostly in accordance with suggestions coming from the academic ...
Das Tätigkeitsfeld des Fraunhofer Instituts für Techno-und Wirt schafts ma the ma tik ITWM um fas... more Das Tätigkeitsfeld des Fraunhofer Instituts für Techno-und Wirt schafts ma the ma tik ITWM um fasst an wen dungs na he Grund la gen for schung, angewandte For schung so wie Be ra tung und kun den spe zi fische Lö sun gen auf allen Gebieten, die für Techno-und Wirt schafts ma the ma tik be deut sam sind.
The Symposium will be held in Olten, Switzerland during September 5-7, 2016. The aim as well as o... more The Symposium will be held in Olten, Switzerland during September 5-7, 2016. The aim as well as objective of ISCBI 2016 is to present the latest research and results of scientists working in the fields related to Computational and Business Intelligence. Topics include but are not limited to theoretical advances, new methods and applications in Business Intelligence, Neural networks, Fuzzy Systems and Evolutionary Computation. Please find further details at: : http://iscbi.com/cfp.html. The paper submission deadline is April 30, 2016. ISCBI 2016 is organized by South Asia Institute of Science and Engineering (SAISE), the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and the International Neural Network Society (INNS) India Regional Chapter and is the flagship event of INNS-India. After the immensely successful ISCBI13, ISCBI14 & ISCBI15, ISCBI 2016 is expected to be more exciting, stimulating & educative. The intention is to establish an effective platform for institutions and industries to share ideas and to present the works of scientists, engineers, educators and students across the globe. The organizing committee of the Symposium is pleased to invite prospective authors to submit their original manuscripts for possible presentation at ISCBI 2016. Further details of the conference can be found at: http://iscbi.com/
Freelancers could catalyze the software development process by providing their niche skills to ge... more Freelancers could catalyze the software development process by providing their niche skills to generate high quality outputs. They could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations by suggesting creative ideas and providing their expertise in implementing them (for instance, designing solutions, coding solutions etc.). Freelancers could effectively and efficiently work as a virtual member of the software development team. The company must make informed decisions about which task to allot to the freelancer, which freelancer to select, pricing the task, and evaluating the submitted work. On the other hand, the freelancer should make an informed decision about evaluating the monetary value of the task to be charged, trusting the requester, analyzing the skills requirement of the task (finding matches between skill requirement and skills processed), selecting the best task, and maintaining the highest level of reputation. However, the literature does not provide freelancers and the companies the guidelines that support their decision making. However, if freelancers are selected carefully for the most suitable task, the companies will benefit a lot in terms of improved software development metrics. [Objectives] The objective of this paper is to provide the research community the research trends in freelancer-supported software development. This helps to understand that which software development areas have higher concentrations of research efforts, which area has the support of empirical evidence to support management decision makings, and which area requires the research attention. [Method] The systematic study is conducted by planning the mapping protocol, executing the protocol, and reporting the findings using various visualization tools like bar charts and pie charts. The search process was planned to be executed using set of inclusion and exclusion conditions on four bibliographic databases (IEEExplore, Springerlink, Sciencedirect, and ACM digital library). The relevant papers are selected by applying inclusion and exclusion conditions. The google citations of the relevant papers are subject to the inclusion and exclusion conditions again to include the more relevant papers. Finally, the systematic schema was created and populated after analyzing the studies abstracts. [Results] The results indicate the following (a) The research focus is on generic software development (78%) rather on individual life cycle activities. (b) The number of empirical studies is limited (25%). (c) A number of studies proposing solutions and evaluating on live cases in industrial settings are missing from the literature. This is in comparison to the validation approaches (72%) i.e., solutions tested in laboratory settings. (d) At present, the literature has limited ability to provide the software companies (including startups) with the guidelines (in the form of opinions and experience reports) for involving freelancers in the software development process. (e) The reported challenges include Collaboration and Coordination (33%), Developer Recommendation (or selection) (19%), Team Formulation (14%), Task Recommendation (allocation) (14%), Task Decomposition (11%), Privacy and Security (Confidentiality) (11%), Budget Estimation (8%), Recognition (8%), Trust Issues (8%), Market Dynamism (6%), Intellectual Property Issues (6%), Participation of Crowd Worker (6%), and Capacity Utilization (3%). These challenges are highly interactive, and each challenge impacts all other challenges. (e) Recent Processes 2020, 8, 1215 2 of 25 focus of the researchers (total 7 studies in 2019) is on generic software development handling the collaboration and coordination (3 studies out of 7), Developer recommendation (2 studies out of 7), and task recommendation (2 studies out of 7). [Conclusion] The freelancer-driven software engineering research area has got the attraction of the researchers, but it will take a long time to gain maturity. This puts an urgent call for more empirical studies and evaluation-based solution research that could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations. Further, the research focus should be well distributed among the various development phases to address the unique challenges associated with individual activities. The accurate management of the freelancer in the software development could help companies and startups to foster innovations and remain competitive in the marketplace.
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Papers by Hanne Thomas
Topics include but are not limited to theoretical advances, new methods and applications in Business Intelligence, Neural networks, Fuzzy Systems and Evolutionary Computation. Please find further details at: : http://iscbi.com/cfp.html. The paper submission deadline is April 30, 2016.
ISCBI 2016 is organized by South Asia Institute of Science and Engineering (SAISE), the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and the International Neural Network Society (INNS) India Regional Chapter and is the flagship event of INNS-India. After the immensely successful ISCBI13, ISCBI14 & ISCBI15, ISCBI 2016 is expected to be more exciting, stimulating & educative. The intention is to establish an effective platform for institutions and industries to share ideas and to present the works of scientists, engineers, educators and students across the globe. The organizing committee of the Symposium is pleased to invite prospective authors to submit their original manuscripts for possible presentation at ISCBI 2016. Further details of the conference can be found at: http://iscbi.com/