[Opt-Net] 2021 AIMMS-MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition

[Karmel S. Shehadeh]

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are thrilled to announce the opening of the *13th annual AIMMS/MOPTA
Optimization Modeling Competition*.
The competition is organized by the conference organizers of MOPTA and
AIMMS. The first phase's submission deadline is *May 21, 2021, 23:59
Eastern Time. *Finalists are expected to attend and present their results
at the *2021 MOPTA Conference *to be held on *August 2-4, 2021, at Lehigh
University, Bethlehem, PA, USA*.


*This years' challenge:*
The goal of the competition this year is to solve a Home Service
Assignment, Routing, and Appointment Scheduling (H-SARA) problem under
three key random factors: service duration, travel time, and customer
cancellation.
The problem description is posted on the competition webpage
<https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/~mopta/competition>.



*Eligibility:*
Information on eligibility, registration, submission, and competition
format are posted on the competition webpage
<https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/~mopta/competition>. *Teams of at most three
students can participate and should list a faculty advisor*. The team
leader must be a graduate student, though the other team members can be
advanced undergraduate students. *Each team member must be registered as a
full-time student at a recognized educational institution during the Spring
term of the 2020-2021 Academic Year*. Students with any background are
eligible. *Collaboration between students from different departments is
strongly encouraged*.  We ask teams to register as soon as they start
working on the problem.

Each finalist team will receive free registration for the conference for up
to two team members. In addition, a $600 cash prize will be awarded to the
team that wins the overall competition.
As the conference is international, so is the competition. Teams from all
over the world can participate, as long as at least one team member can
come to the conference, should the team make it to the final round. The
official language of the competition is English.


*COVID-19:*

We hope that as vaccines and vaccination programs are starting, next August
a full MOPTA 2021 will be possible. Still, there is a real chance that
having an in-person MOPTA 2021 may not be possible. MOPTA 2021 will only be
held in-person if permitted by the university, state, and federal
guidelines. If an in-person conference is not possible, we will consider
alternatives such as a fully virtual or a hybrid version of the conference.
We plan to send updates as they become available.


*See also:*
General information on the MOPTA conference
<https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/~mopta/competition>

Thank you for your interest. Please feel free to pass along this
information to potentially interested colleagues, students, and
collaborators.

Best regards

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Dr. Karmel S. Shehadeh, MOPTA Competition Chair
Assistant Professor
Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA

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