After a follow-up paper vote on Monday, the most popular presentation selected for Irv Lustig’s last Opti session of the day was “Writing Better Mixed Integer Programming Models.”

I suspect Irv organized a second vote because he wanted to avoid having to give the “Introduction to ILOG CP Optimizer” presentation which actually won the original electronic vote. Whether or not there was any vote-rigging involved, I don’t know, but I do know that the vote was quite spread, showing that there was interest in all the proposed topics. I thought of suggesting to Irv that he combine all seven proposed topics into a single talk, but who knows how that would have turned out!

Whether it’s because math was never really my strong point at school, or whether it’s because my brain was fried by 3.30pm on Day 3, I’m afraid Irv’s suggestions for improving MIP models was way over my head. I suppose I should have guessed that when he started with “It’s going to include a lot of math, and if you get lost in the math, so be it.” Oh boy.

If you’re interested in this topic, I think your best bet is to wait until the video is published online some time in the next few weeks! In the mean time, though, if you have any questions for Irv, feel free to post a comment here. Anyone got any Advil?