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Generating Applicable Synthetic Instances for Branch Problems

Author

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  • Leo Lopes

    (SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina 27513)

  • Kate Smith-Miles

    (School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia)

Abstract

Generating valid synthetic instances for branch problems---those that contain a core problem like knapsack or graph coloring, but add several complications---is hard. It is even harder to generate instances that are applicable to the specific goals of an experiment and help to support the claims made. This paper presents a methodology for tuning instance generators of branch problems so that synthetic instances are similar to real ones and are capable of eliciting different behaviors from solvers. A statistic is proposed to summarize the applicability of instances for drawing a valid conclusion. The methodology is demonstrated on the Udine timetabling problem. Examples and the necessary cyberinfrastructure are available as a project from Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research (COIN-OR).

Suggested Citation

  • Leo Lopes & Kate Smith-Miles, 2013. "Generating Applicable Synthetic Instances for Branch Problems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(3), pages 563-577, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:61:y:2013:i:3:p:563-577
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.2013.1169
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ceschia, Sara & Di Gaspero, Luca & Schaerf, Andrea, 2023. "Educational timetabling: Problems, benchmarks, and state-of-the-art results," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 1-18.
    2. Van Bulck, David & Goossens, Dries & Clarner, Jan-Patrick & Dimitsas, Angelos & Fonseca, George H.G. & Lamas-Fernandez, Carlos & Lester, Martin Mariusz & Pedersen, Jaap & Phillips, Antony E. & Rosati,, 2024. "Which algorithm to select in sports timetabling?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 318(2), pages 575-591.
    3. Arnaud Coster & Nysret Musliu & Andrea Schaerf & Johannes Schoisswohl & Kate Smith-Miles, 2022. "Algorithm selection and instance space analysis for curriculum-based course timetabling," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 35-58, February.
    4. Van Bulck, David & Goossens, Dries, 2023. "The international timetabling competition on sports timetabling (ITC2021)," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(3), pages 1249-1267.
    5. Andrea Bettinelli & Valentina Cacchiani & Roberto Roberti & Paolo Toth, 2015. "An overview of curriculum-based course timetabling," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 23(2), pages 313-349, July.
    6. Ahmed Ghoniem & Tulay Flamand & Mohamed Haouari, 2016. "Optimization-Based Very Large-Scale Neighborhood Search for Generalized Assignment Problems with Location/Allocation Considerations," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 575-588, August.

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