BOZEMAN, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Analytics software leader FICO has awarded a prize to a research team for exceptional research in mathematical optimization and operations research. The FICO^® Xpress Best Paper Award went to Alexandre Moreira, David Pozo, Alexandre Street, Enzo Sauma, and Goran Strbac, who are members of FICO’s , for their paper on climate-aware power production. The solution algorithm explored in the paper has been implemented in FICO^® Xpress Mosel using the IDE FICO^® Xpress Workbench™, leveraging the efficiency of FICO^® Xpress Solver and the parallel execution capabilities of Mosel.

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The winning paper, “Climate‐aware generation and transmission expansion planning: A three‐stage robust optimization approach” was published in European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 295. The authors grappled with uncertainty management in modern power systems planning and operation, which can be disrupted by unpredictable and destructive natural disasters. “Considering these uncertainties is crucial for determining the appropriate reserves required during real-time operation to meet the energy demand of all customers,” the paper notes.

The authors studied the role that the El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) play in influencing long-term climate patterns in Southern California, Latin America, and Australia. The authors developed a hierarchical, multilevel optimization model that considers how best to expand power generation and network infrastructure in the long term, while taking into account the impacts of El Niño and La Niña events. The model also addresses how to plan for wind variations and failures of generating units and transmission lines during system operation. Their proposed methodology showed an improvement in system power imbalance while reducing investment and costs. “By integrating climate uncertainty considerations into power system planning and operation,” the paper notes, “we can pave the way for more resilient and efficient energy systems, capable of meeting the challenges of an evolving energy supply landscape.”

“Green energy and environmental impact are two of the biggest fields for mathematical optimization today,” said Bill Waid, chief product and technology officer at FICO. “As an example, one of the winners of this year’s FICO Decisions Awards, Artelys, is addressing this concern through optimizing energy exchange in Europe. This winning paper by Alexandre Moreira and his colleagues paves the way for more resilient energy systems.”

The runner-up for the FICO Xpress Best Paper Award went to Hamza Bouzekri, Gülgün Alpan-Gaujal and Vincent Giard, whose paper in the EURO Journal of Operational Research addressed three interconnected decision problems concerning seaside operations at ports. These are the tactical assignment of berthing time windows to vessels, the assignment of berthing positions and times to all vessels scheduled to be serviced in a short window, and the assignment of quay cranes to each vessel. The paper demonstrated substantial benefits that can be gained from improving and optimizing port operations. The authors used the FICO^® Xpress MIP solver in their approach.

The two papers were chosen by an international jury, which included FICO’s Timo Berthold, Thorsten Koch (TU Berlin, ZIB), Jeff Linderoth (University of Wisconsin–Madison), Gonzalo Muñoz (Universidad de O’Higgins) and Domenico Salvagnin (University of Padova).

More information on both papers is available in blog posts on the , part of Researchers can also learn about free community licenses for everyone and fully fledged free licenses for all academics.

The annual FICO Xpress Best Paper contest is available to participants from any country. The 2023 contest is on now, and entries are due by January 31, 2024. Papers must be published in 2023 and researchers must use FICO Xpress Optimization. For more details, visit .

allows businesses to easily build, deploy and use optimization solutions that crunch through millions of potential scenarios to find the ideal solution. The technology is also part of , which provides an open architecture and an integrated set of composable capabilities that span the applied intelligence value chain - from organizing your data, to discovering deep new insights, putting this into motion with actions to achieve the desired outcomes.

About FICO

FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in nearly 120 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency. Learn more at .

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