Vehicle Routing Problem

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a combinatorial optimization and integer programming problem which asks "What is the optimal set of routes for a fleet of vehicles to traverse in order to deliver to a given set of customers?".

We are actively focused on the mathematical modelling of VRPs. The main interest of our research includes:

1) Green Routing Problem

2) Pollution Routing Problem,

3) Electric Vehicle Routing Problem,

4) Urban Logistics and Mobility, 

Big Data and Optimization

Thanks to the availability of massive data, and the advances of data collecting technology, some members of our group are interested in developing mathematical models to deal with the so-called Big Data. We are mainly interested in the following topics:

1) Big data in the healthcare,

2) Customers data in retailing and demand modeling,

3) usage patterns in energy sector.

Operations Research in Healthcare

The healthcare, due to its role in the society and the massive impact of its performance on both economy and the population, we are active in using operations research techniques in dealing with problems in the context of the health system, both nationally and internationally.

In fact, this category was the core concept which motivated us to get together and start collaborations. Research interests in this category include:

1) Emergency department optimization,

2) Patient flow and routing,

3) Minimization of environmental impacts of healthcare operations,

4) Operating room scheduling,

5) Investigating the behavior of epidemic and non-epidemic diseases.

Human Resource Management

There is no doubt that human is the most valuable resource which enables an organization to live and to do its business. In our belief, the human is more than a resource. It is in fact, a capital.

Based on the above argument, we are also interested to develop operations research techniques and/or tools to help organizations, to better manage this priceless capital.