Robert R. Meyer

Professor of Computer Sciences and member of the Center for the Mathematical Sciences

Computer Sciences Department
University of Wisconsin
1210 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI 53706-1685

Telephone: (608) 262-1204
Fax: (608) 262-9777
Email: rrm@cs.wisc.edu
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1968
Interests: Linear and nonlinear network optimization, parallel algorithms for large-scale optimization


Research Summary

Most large-scale optimization problems exhibit substructures that make possible solutions via algorithms with a high degree of parallelism. Such substructures include quasi-independent blocks of constraints for different commodities or time periods or scenarios, and geographically-disjoint components in approximating solutions. In the case of network optimization, decomposition into approximating linear network subproblems is particularly attractive because of the corresponding very fast solution techniques. The emphases of my research have been the development of new parallel optimization algorithms that utilize these features and techniques such as genetic algorithms to take advantage of distributed computing environments in order to efficiently solve linear and nonlinear network optimization problems containing millions of variables.

Sample Recent Publications

Minimizing perimeter for domain decomposition

Brachytherapy optimization for prostate cancer treatment

Video on demand: optimal caching

Recent papers of UW mathematical programming group


Email pubs@cs.wisc.edu to report errors.