Menu
Presentation
Information
Events
Subscribe
Contact
PAREO Home page
To email to the list:
pareo-announce@prism.uvsq.fr
Coordinator Email:
Bertrand.Lecun@prism.uvsq.fr
Coordinator URL:
Bertrand LeCun
Motivation
Parallel computers may have a considerable impact on many areas of operations research (OR). Their use makes it possible to solve larger problems in less time, and thus leads to substantial savings. However, it is a non-trivial task to design effective algorithms for the parallel machines currently available, as well as to build suitable development environments and programming tools. Because of the considerable effort required to exploit the potential power of parallel architectures, in addition to the the scarce contacts between the (classical) OR-community and specialists in parallel computing, many researchers in the field of operations research are not fully aware of the perspectives parallelism may offer.A broad variety of real-word problems in operations research appears to be practically intractable using traditional hardware. At the same time, it is generally expected that parallel processing will become a major tool in solving these problems.
Unfortunately, current conferences on operations research (like the EURO meetings), are seldom attended by many specialists in parallel computing, while the OR-public appears unprepared to discuss the challenges of the design parallel algorithms, even if special sessions are organized. Conversely, conferences on parallel computing barely draw their attendees from the OR-community, as a good number of the topics at those conferences (such as architectures, parallel languages, etc.) are beyond their competence.
This reinforces the needs to create a working group interfacing between these two complementary disciplines. Consequently, the Association of European Operational Research Societies EURO has decided to create a new working group on parallel processing (called PAREO). The working group will be the meeting point for (European) researchers in operations research and computer scientists interested in the development of parallel algorithms for OR-problems. Moreover, it will enable them to obtain a double competence in both operation research and (parallel) computer science.
Objectives
The PAREO working group aims to bring together researchers from both academia and industry who are interested in the development of parallel algorithms for problems in the area of operations research. Its main objective is to bridge the gap between the two complementary disciplines of operations research and parallel computing. Concerned are people from operations research working in domains like combinatorial optimization, mathematical programming, stochastic programming, and networks, and people from computer science dealing with issues such as performance and scalability of parallel systems, mapping of algorithms onto parallel computers, programming environments, visual interfaces.
Board
Catherine Roucairol (PRiSM, Versailles, France)
Theodor Crainic (CRT, Montreal, Canada)
Jonathan Eckstein (Rutgers University, New Brunswick, U.S.A.)
Gerard Kindervater (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Bertrand Le Cun (PRiSM, Versailles, France)
Celso Ribeiro (PUC do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Activities
The PAREO group has different activities.
- annual meetings (see the event page)
- specialized schools for the training of young researchers
- joint meetings to propagate contacts between the OR-community and computer scientists from the area of parallel computing
- The maintenance of a (moderated) mailing list with announcements, recent developments, etc. (Contributions can be sent by email to pareo-announce@prism.uvsq.fr.)