Empowering Better Decisions with Mathematical Optimisation
As the final stop in the 2025 ANZ Optimisation Community roadshow, this Auckland edition, delivered in collaboration with ORSNZ, brings together researchers, practitioners, and business leaders shaping the future of data science and optimisation in New Zealand.
2025 brings new challenges – rapid AI advancements, supply chain volatility, net-zero commitments, and labour constraints – demanding faster, smarter decisions. This event explores how mathematical optimisation can help industries adapt and thrive amid these shifts.
Agenda
3:30 PM: Arrival & Registrations
4:00 PM: Welcome Remarks by Gurobi
4:05 PM: Fonterra: Factory Digital Twin Optimisation at Fonterra
This session explores how Fonterra applies optimisation to its production planning process across large-scale dairy manufacturing sites. Scheduling in this environment involves managing complex flows of raw materials, transportation, and interdependent processes, while continuously adapting to variable milk arrivals and a network of interconnected factories.
By integrating optimisation into its digital twin for production planning, Fonterra is enhancing agility and operational efficiency — ensuring that plans can evolve in real time to meet changing conditions and supply demands.
Presented by:
Kim Essenberg | Data Scientist | Fonterra
Ted Lo | Software Engineer | Fonterra
4:35 PM: Whats New in Gurobi 13.0
This session will focus on the new enhancements in version 13.0. We’ll cover performance improvements, including faster solutions for MIP and MINLP models, and a new nonlinear barrier method for quicker locally optimal solutions in continuous nonlinear problems.
We’ll also discuss Primal-Dual Hybrid Gradient (PDHG) with CPU and GPU support for extremely large LPs, and Kubernetes autoscaling for better scalability.
Presented by: Steven Edwards | Product Manager | Gurobi
5:05 PM: Fireside Chat: Beyond the Model – How Organisations Are Navigating Optimisation in 2025 and Beyond
Panellists include:
Hamideh Anjomshoa | Technical Account Manager | Gurobi
Michael O'Sullivan | Associate Professor| University of Auckland
Oleg Barbin | Data Science & AI Manager | Fonterra
5:30 PM: Event Concludes, Networking Reception
6:30 PM: Social Dinner
To conclude the day, attendees are invited to a joint social dinner hosted by Gurobi and ORSNZ, offering a relaxed setting to continue conversations and strengthen connections across the optimisation and operations research community.
🌏 Other Cities on the Roadshow
Melbourne | Thursday, 17 July 2025
Perth | Thursday, 7 August 2025
Sydney | Thursday, 14 August 2025
Brisbane| Thursday, 25 September 2025


