The Optimisation Community | Melbourne
July 17, 2025

• Large organisations often have technical teams comprising hundreds of workers who need to be assigned to hundreds of thousands of tasks throughout the year. The assignment of these tasks must consider various restrictions, such as training levels and locations, while balancing costs including reallocation, upskilling, and overtime.
• Mathematical models can be defined to handle all these factors simultaneously. However, this approach quickly becomes intractable for large companies like Telstra, with the number of decision variables rapidly exceeding billions. In this talk, we will explore the solution approach chosen by Endgame Analytics, which breaks down Telstra’s workforce management problem into independent steps, each solved using MIP models. This method provides solutions that aid in strategic decision-making regarding hiring, upskilling, reallocation, and overtime allowance for Telstra’s technician team.

Presented by: Nicolau Andres-Thio | Consultant | Endgame Analytics & OPTIMA Associate Investigator

Solving Real-World Scheduling Problems at Scale: Lessons from Industry Applications

• Scheduling problems often involve assigning the right people to the right tasks at the right time — all while managing constraints like availability, capacity, travel, and customer expectations. In large enterprise environments, this quickly becomes a highly complex optimisation challenge.
• At JDR Software, these problems are addressed using a combination of custom-built algorithms, practical heuristics, and rigorous modelling techniques tailored for production environments. In this talk, we will explore how JDR approaches large-scale scheduling and timetabling scenarios, the types of constraints most common in industry use cases, and how optimisation tools are applied in customer-facing software systems. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of the trade-offs between solver precision and operational performance, and how smart algorithm design bridges that gap.

Presented by: Behrooz Ghasemishabankareh | Algorithm Specialist | JDR Software

• Recent research applying Primal-Dual Hybrid Gradient (PDHG) methods to linear programming has shown that first-order methods can be a useful part of the mathematical programming toolbox. These algorithms also lend themselves to GPU-based implementations, raising the prospect of exploiting the current surge in hardware development for optimisation applications.

• This session will focus on the current state of Gurobi’s GPU capabilities and explore future directions for leveraging GPUs in optimisation. Attendees will gain insights into how GPU technology can enhance the performance of Gurobi’s solver and what advancements are on the horizon.

Presented by: Simon Bowly | Senior Developer | Gurobi

Fireside Chat: Beyond the Model – How Organisations Are Navigating Optimisation in 2025 and Beyond

• In this fireside chat, our panel of experts will explore how optimisation is evolving beyond the solver — influencing culture, capability, and the way teams make decisions. Expect a candid discussion on the rise of decision intelligence, cross-functional collaboration, talent challenges, and what it really takes to embed optimisation into enterprise workflows.

Panellists include:

• David Ming | Senior Manager | Deloitte (Engineering, AI and Data)
• Heng-Soon Gan | Senior Advisor | Workforce Analytics
• Riley Clement | Optimisation Engineer | Gurobi