I am always looking for bright, motivated students who plan to submit their tesi di laurea on a research topic related to Optimization. There are countless problems of various size and complexity that we can tackle together.
Ideally, a thesis work entail doing one or more of the following:
- Researching the literature for methods to solve a given optimization problem;
- Developing a novel model or algorithm for a complex problem with a significant practical application, and running extensive computational tests to assess its efficiency;
- Developing and implementing a new method for solving general classes of optimization problems, such as nonlinear optimization, discrete optimization, or multi-objective optimization, and testing it on practical problems.
The balance of theory and implementation in the project can be decided together with me, but there is enough variety that students from all backgrounds can find a good challenge for their expertise.
Here are a few topics:
- Data structures for saving/exploring Pareto-optimal solutions;
- Computational linear algebra methods for quadratic optimization;
- Heuristics based on sampling methods;
- Models for sphere packing problems in n dimensions.
Some skills are very useful for these theses: knowledge and some experience in Python, C, or C++; and a solid knowledge of the principles of operations research that you learned in the Foundations course—attending the Optimization or the Graph Optimization elective courses is a plus.