Dr Aderemi Adewumi (left) and Professor Montaz Ali. Global Optimisation Applied to Industrial Problems
Professor Montaz Ali of the University of the Witwatersrand delivered a Public Lecture at UKZN on the topic of “Global Optimisation Applied to Industrial Problems”.
Ali was the guest of the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science with the lecture organised by Dr Aderemi Adewumi, in conjunction with the Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA), KwaZulu-Natal Chapter. ‘Whether we realise it or not, the theory of global optimisation drives our everyday desires and actions,’ said Ali.
‘For example, we want to do things better, to achieve our goals faster, to make our investments or other actions risk-free. Industries want to improve the quality of products for bigger market shares or to make strategic decisions for better profit margins.’
Ali explained that the mathematical theory of global optimisation was used to achieve these desired goals in the best possible way. ‘Global optimisation algorithms make problem solving more efficient,’ he said.
‘As we live and operate in today’s competitive global village, the need for global optimisation is becoming imperative. Indeed, global optimisation is impacting all aspects of the technological world in which we are privileged to live.’
Ali presented various optimisation problems and some related algorithms for the solutions to these problems, stressing the complexity in the solution process. ‘The mathematics is there, but you need to discover it,’ he said. ‘For example, when building a new university, one would need to decide which department should be placed next to which. Which facilities should go with which location? The solution requires global optimisation algorithmic simulation.’
Ali cited the successful application of global optimisation algorithms in solving problems in resource allocation, cryptography, transportation, telecommunication, advertising and budget allocation. These included a number of practical problems faced by industries, for example, optimisation of the brewing process in South African Breweries, and on-demand air transportation at Sefofane, Botswana, among others.
An alumnus of Dhaka University, Bangladesh, Professor Ali received his PhD degree in stochastic global optimization from the University of Technology, Loughborough, United Kingdom, in 1994. Following a long and successful international career, Ali is currently a Research Professor in the Centre for System and Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Ali’s research interests include global optimisation, mixed integer nonlinear programming, operations research and optimal control theory. He is the Author or Co-Author of more than 50 scientific papers in refereed international journals.
-Sally Frost