Recently, CWI and others were awarded an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN) consortium grant for POEMA – 'Polynomial Optimization, Efficiency through Moments and Algebra'. The project consortium consists of 14 academic and industrial partners, such as CWI, Tilburg University, Inria and IBM. The research project will run for four years, and it involves a total funding of more than four million euro. The network will train 15 PhD researchers, including two at CWI. The project starts on 1 January 2019.
Polynomial optimization refers to a class of mathematical optimization problems that appear in diverse areas like finance, data science, physics and operations research. Although they are common, there are no efficient computational procedures to find the global optimum. To address this type of problems, the POEMA project will develop new algebraic and geometric methods combining so-called sums-of-squares and moment relaxation procedures with computational algebraic tools. Specific applications will be related to smarter cities challenges, such as water distribution network management, energy flow in power systems, and urban traffic management.
Monique Laurent, the POEMA representative of CWI in Amsterdam, says: "I am very happy to be part of POEMA, which will offer us the possibility to expand and strengthen our research activities in global polynomial optimization. Together with partners in the consortium we have a great group of researchers covering a broad range of mathematical expertise and applications with whom I am very much looking forward to collaborate. Specific topics that we want to tackle at CWI include how to use polynomial optimization techniques to address optimization problems in quantum information and in discrete mathematics."
More information
- The ITN POEMA network at CORDIS
- See also the news item on POEMA at Tilburg University
- Prof. Monique Laurent is a member of the management team at CWI and a member of the Networks and Optimization research group at CWI
- See also the news item on the ICM 2014 lecture by Monique Laurent on polynomial optimization
