In Press


Science & Technology
October 21-22, 2000 -p.15

Wartime Move Now a Data Hero
Stephen Brook ( Science Writer)

THE massive avalanche of data continually flooding into our computers is going to need the science of optimization to control it in the 21st century, according to two scientists ogranising a conference on the topic.

Sciences such as astronomy and the identification of genes will require increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling data used in software, data storage and visualisation of data.

"Nowadays the main task of optimisation is to investigate the cutting-edge frontiers of these technologies and systems and find the best solutions for their realisation," said optimisation experts Victor Korotkich and Panos Pardalos.

Professor Pardalos is director of the Centre for Applied Optimization at the University of Florida, while Dr Korotkich works in the Faculty of Informatics and Communication at Central Queensland University.

They said optimisation was a scientific approach to problem-solving that might help improve on the subjective aspects of decision-making.

An optimisation conference to be held at Great Keppel Island, Queensland next July, is being organised by Central Queensland University, the University of Florida and the Centre for Applied Optimisation at the University of Florida.
"Optimisation has become a very important tool for industrial and business management for improving the efficiency of their operations," Dr Korotkich and Professor Pardalos said.

"The application of optimisation to an industrial or business problem requires the mathematical formulation of the problem and an explicit statement of the desired objectives."

Optimisation was first used as a method of dealing and deployment of many new devices invented in World War II.

The atom bomb, radar, infa-red detection devices and long-range rockets were all new technologies the scientific establishment was unsure how to build, and the military unsure how to best use.
Scientists began using optimisation by creating mathematical models and using computational methods to help choose the best schedule of actions among alternatives.