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Progress in Academic Computational Integer Programming

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Facets of Combinatorial Optimization

Abstract

This paper discusses issues related to the progress in computational integer programming. The first part deals with the question to what extent computational experiments can be reproduced at all. Afterward the performance measurement of solvers and their comparison are investigated. Then academic progress in solving mixed-integer programming at the examples of the solver SIP and its successor SCIP is demonstrated. All arguments are supported by computational results. Finally, we discuss the pros and cons of developing academic software for solving mixed-integer programs.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all developers of SCIP/SoPlex (for a complete list, see [71]); in particular, we thank Timo Berthold and Stefan Heinz for preparing Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. Thanks to Madeline Lips for her help with the literature investigation in Sect. 6. We also thank a referee for helpful and insightful comments that improved this paper. Last but not least, we are most thankful to Martin Grötschel. Investing in a long-term project as the development of a general MIP solver is only possible if you get the time and the trust to do it. Both has been given to all three of us by Martin Grötschel in an excellent environment at ZIB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin, Takustr. 7, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Thorsten Koch

  2. Department Mathematik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Cauerstr. 11, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Alexander Martin

  3. Fachbereich Mathematik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Dolivostr. 15, 64293, Darmstadt, Germany

    Marc E. Pfetsch

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  1. Thorsten Koch
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  2. Alexander Martin
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  3. Marc E. Pfetsch
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Correspondence to Thorsten Koch .

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  1. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Cologne, Pohligstr. 1, Cologne, 50969, Germany

    Michael Jünger

  2. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 326, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany

    Gerhard Reinelt

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Koch, T., Martin, A., Pfetsch, M.E. (2013). Progress in Academic Computational Integer Programming. In: Jünger, M., Reinelt, G. (eds) Facets of Combinatorial Optimization. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38189-8_19

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