As Gurobi’s only UK-based Premier Partner, the Smith Institute is expert in the use of Gurobi’s software and utilises state-of-the-art optimisation techniques to provide efficient solutions for our customers.

Gurobi Optimization, Premier Partner

The Gurobi Optimizer is a commercial solver for all common large-scale optimisation problems — including Linear Programming, Quadratic Programming and Mixed Integer Linear Programming.

Gurobi supports cutting-edge optimisation model-building, including flexible (prioritised) multiple objectives and advanced modelling features. The Gurobi Optimizer is robust, scalable, and is our preferred solution when decision problems have millions of variables and constraints as well as billions or trillions of potential solutions. The speed and efficiency of Gurobi means that we can focus on creating the best solution for our customers without compromising on quality.

Our recent optimisation work includes sequential decision-making for nuclear decommissioning, the development of optimal route scheduling and driver rostering for distribution, determining winners and prices in spectrum auctions, and matching supply and demand in electricity networks.

A particularly successful application of the Gurobi Optimizer was in our verification work for the Federal Communications Commission in the Broadcast Incentive Auction (BIA). Here Gurobi was used to determine the best channel assignments to TV Broadcasters in a sequence of 14 optimisations. Each reflected different spectrum management policies and protected TV Broadcasters coverage areas by preventing interference from other TV Broadcasters or wireless carriers, all the while preserving the results of previous optimisations. The complex model formulation for these optimisations contained more than five million constraints and more than a hundred thousand variables.

Try our Optimisation Accelerator

Organisations across all sectors face large-scale optimisation problems such as route planning, scheduling, balancing supply and demand, real-time dispatch and maximising the coverage of their facilities. Many employ manual and time-consuming approaches to these problems which do not give any guarantees on the quality of the solution found. Others have outdated approaches which do not make use of the current state-of-the-art in modelling or commercial optimisation solvers, negatively impacting run-time and solution quality.

To help these organisations unlock the economic value and operational benefits to be gained from latest technology in optimisation, the Smith Institute is offering a new service called the Optimisation Accelerator.

This service will include a Gurobi demonstration and an overview of the requirements for an end-to-end optimisation solution including data, modelling, algorithms and implementation. The Smith Institute will work with analysts and stakeholders to identify the problem features and outline a modelling approach, resulting in a bespoke Gurobi road-map for the optimisation solution. The Optimisation Accelerator is cost effective and can be completed in 1 month. Please contact Tom Bradbury for a quotation.