Optimization and Decision Science: Operations Research, Inclusion and Equity ODS, Florence, Italy, August 30-September 2, 2022

This volume collects peer-reviewed short papers presented at the Optimization and Decision Science conference (ODS 2022) held in Florence (Italy) from August 30th to September 2^nd, 2022,  organized by the Global Optimization Laboratory within the University of Florence and AIRO (the Italian Association for Operations Research).

The book includes contributions in the fields of operations research, optimization, problem solving, decision making and their applications in the most diverse domains. Moreover, a special focus is set on the challenging theme Operations Research: inclusion and equity.

The work offers 30 contributions, covering a wide spectrum of methodologies and applications. Specifically, they feature the following topics: (i) Variational Inequalities, Equilibria and Games, (ii) Optimization and Machine Learning, (iii) Global Optimization,  (iv) Optimization under Uncertainty, (v) Combinatorial Optimization, (vi) Transportation and Mobility,  (vii) Health Care Management, and (viii) Applications.

This book is primarily addressed to researchers and PhD students of the operations research community. However, due to its interdisciplinary content, it will be of high interest for other closely related research communities.

Paola Cappanera is Associate Professor of Operations Research at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Florence. She has a multidisciplinary educational background. Her main research interests are in combinatorial optimization and in the design of efficient algorithms with particular attention to health care, telecommunications, and transportation settings. She deeply investigated several research topics stemming from very different real contexts; the unifying feature is the focus on network flow-based methodologies and on problem structure. She received the Omega Best Paper Award 2018 in the health care and optimization area. She is currently in the Editorial Board of Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Health Care Management Science and Operations Research for Health Care.

Matteo Lapucci received his bachelor’s and master's degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Florence in 2015 and 2018, respectively. He then received in 2022 hisPh.D. degree in Smart Computing jointly from the Universities of Florence, Pisa, and Siena. He is currently Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Florence. His main research interests include theory and algorithms for sparse, multi-objective, and large-scale constrained nonlinear optimization.

Fabio Schoen is Professor of Operations Research at the University of Florence (Italy). His main research interests deal with optimization methods, with particular reference to algorithms for non-convex optimization, the interface between machine learning and optimization, and the development of optimization models for applications. He is Scientific Coordinator of the Ph.D. program in Information engineering, University of Florence, and Member of the Editorial Board of EURO J on Computational Optimization, Computational Optimization and Applications, J of Global Optimization, Optimization Methods and Software, and Operations ResearchLetters. He was one of the founders of KKT srl (now: Verizon Connect Italy) and Intuendi.com

Marco Sciandrone is Full Professor of Operations Research at Sapienza University of Rome. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in systems engineering from the Sapienza University of Rome, in 1991 and 1997, respectively. From 1998 to 2006, he was Researcher at the Institute of Systems Analysis and Computer Science (National Research Council) of Rome. From 2006 to 2017 and from 2018 to 2021, he has been, respectively, Associate Professor and Full Professor at University of Florence. His research interests include operations research, nonlinear optimization, and machine learning. He has published more than 60 papers on international journals. He is Associate Editor of the journals Optimization Methods and Software, and 4OR.

Fabio Tardella is Full Professor in Operations Research at the Department of Information Engineering (DINFO) of the University of Florence. Formerly at Sapienza University of Rome, he served as President of the Master Program Finance and Insurance and Head of the Department of Mathematics for Economic, Financial and Insurance decisions (now merged into the MEMOTEF Department). His research interests include optimization in finance and insurance, combinatorial optimization and its links with continuous optimization, quadratic programming, discrete convexity, lattice programming, and submodularity.

Filippo Visintin is Associate Professor of Service Design and Management at the School of Engineering of Florence University. He is Scientific Director of the Information-Based Industrial Services Laboratory (IBIS Lab, www.ibis.unifi.it). He is Member of the Italian Management Engineering Association (Associazione italiana Ingegneria Gestionale―AiIG). He is Co-founder and Co-owner of SmartOperations Srl, a University of Florence’s spin-off (www.smartoperations.it). His research interests include servitizationof manufacturing, healthcare operations management, discrete-event simulation, and circular economy. He is Author of several research papers published in prestigious international journals such as the European Journal of Operational Research, Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Computers in Industry, Computers and Industrial Engineering, Flexible Service and Manufacturing Journal, Management Decision, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Production Planning and Control, IMA Journal of Management Mathematics, and PLOS One. He served as Guest Editor for Management Decision and Flexible Service and Manufacturing Journal.