INFORMS Open Forum

The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at Lehigh University is thrilled to announce the opening of the 17th AIMMS-MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition. The competition results from a collaboration between AIMMS and the organizers of the MOPTA 2025 conference, which will take place in Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal, from June 17 - 20, 2025.

The solution submission deadline is March 15, 2025, 23:59 Eastern Time. Information on registration, submission, eligibility, and competition format are posted on the competition website at https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/mopta2025/competition. Below, we provide an overview.

This year's challenge: The goal of the competition this year is to analyze a Transavia Aircrew Scheduling problem. The problem description is posted on the competition website.

Registration: Teams must register for the competition as soon as they start working on the problem.

Eligibility: Teams of at most three students can participate and should list a faculty advisor. The team leader must be a graduate student, though the other team members can be advanced undergraduate students. Each team member must be registered as a full-time student at a recognized educational institution during the Spring term of the 2024-2025 Academic Year. Teams from all over the world can participate, as long as at least one team member can come to the conference, should the team make it to the final round. The official language of the competition is English.

Prizes: The top three teams will be invited to present (in person) to a panel of judges at the MOPTA 2025 conference, including representatives from both the conference organizing committee and AIMMS. Each finalist team will receive free registration for the conference for up to two team members. The prizes will be awarded as follows:

Place                      Used AIMMS Software                            Did not use AIMMS Software
1st                                     $1200                                                              $600          
2nd                                    $600                                                               $300  
3rd                                    $300                                                               $150

For more details about the competition, visit https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/mopta2025/competition.

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Akwum  Onwunta,
Lehigh University.