2019 Archive

An essential problem in freight rail transportation is how to efficiently deliver shipments moving between different origin destination pairs on a capacity-constrained physical rail network. In this competition participants will be asked to determine a minimum-cost shipment plan given a demand of shipments with their corresponding origin and destination which satisfies operational system constraints. The shipment plan must answer the following questions: (1) what pairs of stations should have direct train services between them? (2) what are the frequencies for these train services? (3) what is the path (sequence of stations) for each train service? (4) what is the itinerary (sequence of blocks and sequence of trains carrying the blocks) of each shipment to get to its final destination?

A preliminary problem description and small input data set can be found in the link above.  A full description of the problem under consideration, as well as data files for the competition problems will be available by April 19^th, 2019.

Evaluation Criteria:

The criteria that judges will use to evaluate a solution include the following:

• Feasibility of the proposed solution, it must satisfy all the given constraints.
• The quality of the solution in terms of its objective function value.
• Computational time of the proposed solution approach.
• The quality of the paper describing the solution approach. How clear is the explanation? Is it possible to reproduce the approach just by reading the paper?
• The quality of the presentation, to be given by three finalist teams at the Rail Applications Section Meeting at the INFORMS conference in Seattle, October 20-23, 2019.

(The attendance and presentation of at least one person from each finalist team is required)

The finalists will make a presentation at the 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Aside from the previous factors, the judging panel will take into consideration the clarity of the presentation to make a final decision about the first, second and third places for the competition. Note that being among the finalists and presenting at the Annual Meeting does not guarantee a finalist will receive first, second or third place. The decision of the judges is final.

Awards:

In addition to the cash prizes, the first prize winners’ contribution to this competition will also be considered for publication in the journal Networks. The paper still needs to go through the journal’s refereeing process, however, it will receive an expedited refereeing and publication process.

Eligibility:

Any practitioners of operations research and management science who are interested in solving problems in the railroad domain using Operations Research and Analytics tools are welcome to participate. Registration is open to all with the exception of RAS officers and organizing committee members. Likewise, members of the organizing committee may NOT help nor guide any participating team.

Teams of up to three members can participate. At least one member of each finalist team must be available to present the team’s approach and results at the 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting.

Registration:

Participation in the RAS Problem Solving Competition requires registration by May 17^th, 2019. Every team must register by the due date to participate in the contest. To register, please send the following information to railwayapplicationssection@gmail.com by the deadline.

• For each team member: Name, Email, Organization, Position. Do you have prior experience in problems related to Railroads? (Y/N).
• Brief statement describing what motivated you to participate.

After submitting your registration email, you will receive an email confirming your team’s successful registration and eligibility.

Can I publish?

Yes, you can. In fact, RAS encourages you to do so. Anyone can use the RAS competition problem and provided datasets in their publication. References to year-specific problem competitions are given in the URL, and as such you can reference the year-specific competition URL which will not be changed.

Important dates:

• Registration: Deadline is May 17^th, 2019
• Full Problem and Data Sets Release: April 19^th, 2019
• Questions and Answers Period: April 19^th – June 28^th, 2019
• Participants may ask questions based on the preliminary problem description before April 5^th, 2019. No questions are allowed during the quiet period.
• Quiet Period: June 28^th – August 2^nd, 2019
• Participants may continue to work on solutions; but no additional information will be provided.
• Solution Submission: Deadline is August 2^nd, 2019
• Solution includes report on methodology, and solution data set (format of solution data set provided in the problem description, Section 5.3)
• Announcement of Finalists: September 2^nd, 2019
• Finalists must give a presentation at INFORMS conference, Seattle, October 20-23, 2019.
• Presenters must be registered for the conference by Sept 10. (Sept. 9 at a discounted price)
• Finalists’ Presentations: October 20-23, 2019, at INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle.
• Each finalist gives a 15-20 minutes’ presentation on their approach.
• Judging panel ask questions.
• Winner Announced: October 20-23, 2019, at INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle.

Watch for the full problem description on April 5^th!

Good luck in the competition!

Problem owners: Boliang Lin (BJTU) and Xuesong Zhou (ASU)