UAA's Complex Systems Group, invites everyone to attend a seminar on Friday, October 28, entitled "Optimizing Business Decisions Using Extend TM and an Evolutionary Optimizer." The lecture will be presented by Dr. David Hoffman and will be held at 12 noon in UAA's Consortium Library Room 307.
The presentation will focus on a demonstration of a capability within the simulation language Extend TM to seek an optimal solution to business process problems. Using an optimizer (e.g. Extend TM's Evolutionary Optimizer, Evolver, OptQuest) can search for the optimal or near-optimal solution among large sets of possible alternative configurations efficiently even when exploring only a fraction of all possible alternatives.
The approach of the Optimizer is to apply the biological principle of natural evolution to artificial systems. This is called evolutionary algorithms or evolutionary domains. These algorithms have been applied successfully to numerous problems in: Machine Learning Social Systems Economics Population Genetics Studies of Evolution Learning
This is an iterative procedure consisting of a constant size population of individuals, each one represented by a finite string of symbols, known as genome, encoding a possible solution in a given problems space. This "search" space comprises all possible solutions to the problem at hand which is generally too large to be searched exhaustively. This metaheuristic approach is part of a family of approaches that include genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, and tabu search. David Hoffman is a Term Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He teaches in the Engineering Science and Project Management graduate programs, focusing on applications of simulation as applied to operations, processes and projects risk analysis. Dr. Hoffman also teaches Systems Thinking and Simulation at Alaska Pacific University. He is retired from the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he directed the development activities at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center. Activities included establishing partnerships, cooperative agreements and representing the center to the public, industry, academic institutions, corporations, state and federal agencies and other stakeholders.
Dr. Hoffman has over 30 years of academic experience in business administration and practical problem solving teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses in management, systems dynamics, management science / operations research, quantitative methods, and research methodology. Special interests are in process modeling, operations management, visualization of technical and quantitative information and applying decision support techniques.
As always, the lectures are free and open to the public. Please feel free to share this invitation with your colleagues. Parking is complimentary on the UAA campus on Fridays.
To discuss this event online and to access further resources on this and other complex systems events, please visit: http://intheworks.uaa.alaska.edu:8000/cafe/?q=node/38
