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1998 Program

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Seminar TITLE A grower's view on the application of OR in Beef & Wool SPEAKER Rex Hunter WHEN 5:30PM, Wednesday, February 18, 1998 WHERE Room 8:9:66, RMIT ABSTRACT The discussion will explore the role of a small competitive business in relation to the Theory of the Firm, the identification of niche markets and the role of the futures market in selling some products. CONTACT

Seminar TITLE An ABC of applications of game theory: auditing, banking and credit SPEAKER Prof. Lyn Thomas University of Edinburgh, UK WHEN 5:30PM, Monday, February 23, 1998 WHERE Room 8:9:66, RMIT ABSTRACT This talk outlines three applications of game theory in the financial area. The first involves modelling the coalition structures involved in ATM bank networks as a n-person game. From this one can address what are fair interchange fees that a bank has to pay another one when its customer uses an ATM of that bank. An example using four UK banks is analysed. The second application is to use the same sort of non-zero sun game between the auditor and the firm being audited. This enables one to consider the regulatory regime that is most likely to give socially optimal behaviour by all parties. CONTACT David Noble School of Mathematical Sciences Swinburne University of Technology E-Mail: dnoble@swin.edu.au Tel:+ 613 9214 8266

Seminar TITLE Work in 2000 and Beyond SPEAKER George Brass Charles Brass is the Founder and Chairman of the Future of Work Foundation. His move to this position early in 1995 represents his fourth change in career direction as he explores his great interest in matters affecting people. Charles began his working life by building up a very successful wedding photography business. He then spent five years in the Victorian Education system in a variety of school based roles before enjoying 13 years in Human Resources Management, the final eight as head of the Human Resources Department within the Hoechst Australia Group of Companies. Charles has an honours science degree and various education qualifications as well as an MBA and is an active member of numerous organisations including the Australian Human Resources Institute and the National Speakers Association. The mission of the Future of Work Foundation is, "to engage all Australians in creating a better future for work" a task Charles reckons might keep him busy for a little while. Charles is much in demand as a speaker and presenter, mainly because of the passion with which he puts across his vision for Australia's future. He is also well known for his often unconventional approaches to presentations. WHEN 6:00PM, Wednesday, March 18, 1998 WHERE To be determined ABSTRACT This talk, following the AGM, will be a departure from the norm, in that it will not be a talk about OR. Instead, we have invited along Charles Brass who will give us the benefit of his knowledge regarding the shift in work patterns in recent years and the implications this has for all of us for the future. An outline of his talk is given below, followed by some background biographical details. We hope to see you there. There is hardly an aspect of work which has not undergone radical change in our working lifetimes. The "full-time" job is a decreasing commodity as organisations rightsize and individuals attempt to create some space for private and family pursuits. City centres, while still growing at a remarkable rate, are increasingly becoming residential and recreational precincts. Mobile electronic technology means it is possible for people to work wherever they (or their employers) think appropriate, and whenever the customer demands. "Jobs for Life" has gone, and no-one is quite sure what has replaced them. This presentation will not only explore what has taken place over the past thirty years, but why - and more importantly will highlight what the past can teach us about the future. CONTACT

Seminar TITLE A Telecommunications Network Problem SPEAKER Stephen Taylor WHEN 5:30PM, Wednesday, March 25, 1998 WHERE Classroom 213, 2nd Floor, Richard Berry Building, University of Melbourne ABSTRACT We consider the problem of designing a minimum-cost network of cable for distributing video signal to all sections of an urban subdivision. The network will take a tree structure. The major complication is introduced by the fact that the signal undergoes attenuation for every metre of cable: this may necessitate the use at certain points in the network of costly amplifiers. A further difficulty is that there is further attenuation at each point where the signal splits. This yields a variety of local access network problem. We discuss the computational complexity of the problem, which has been modelled previously as a mixed-integer linear program, and introduce some improvements, actual and potential, to the existing model. We then suggest ideas for a new formulation which may provide improved lower bounds on the cost of the network, and we investigate and compare heuristic approaches. Finally we present promising directions for future research. CONTACT Natashia Boland, Tel: 9344 5547, E-mail: natashia@ms.unimelb.edu.au We regret that we cannot offer free parking to participants.

Seminar TITLE OR Opportunities from Data Warehousing SPEAKER John Kennedy Information Centre Manager, Ansett Australia WHEN 5.30PM, April 15 1998 WHERE VUT City Campus Room 10.78 ABSTRACT IT organisations can now handle considerable, and ever increasing, volumes of data. These data stores - often referred to as "Data Warehouses" are used to support a range of decision support activit ies within organisations. This increase in IT capability provides opportunities to the OR community. This presentation will provide an overview of the Data Warehouse story so far and general directions. The "So what's all the fuss about?" question will be considered and some examples of possible be nefits will be provided. Questions such as: Who and what areas of an organisation can best exploit these possibilities? What can be done to identify data quality problems, and improve the situation? What are appropriate ways of charging for continuing services? What are appropriate ways of justifying the initial expenditures? And others, that can draw on the experience and expertise of the OR community, will be discussed. CONTACT

Seminar TITLE Optimisation and Electricity Markets SPEAKER Dr Andy Philpott Department of Engineering Science University of Auckland, NZ WHEN 5:30PM, Tuesday, April 21 1998 WHERE Medley Theatre, Ground floor, Redmond Barry Building University of Melbourne ABSTRACT In recent years Australia and New Zealand have introduced wholesale electricity spot markets. In these markets generators compete to supply electricity by submitting offers to generate selected quantities of power at their chosen prices. A linear programming model is used to compute market clearing prices (varying with each half hour) at specified nodes of the transmission network. The prices represent the marginal cost of supply of power at each node in each half hour, assuming the generators are dispatched at their offer prices. The linear programming models which are used exhibit some interesting features which we shall discuss. We shall also present some recent work which attempts to shed some light on the optimisation problem which each generator faces, namely how to choose their offers to maximise profit. Coauthor: Dr Eddie Anderson, AGSM, UNSW CONTACT Bruce Craven, Tel: 9344 6761, E-mail: craven@maths.mu.oz.au and Natashia Boland, Tel: 9344 5547, E_mail n.boland@ms.unimelb.edu.au We regret that we cannot offer free parking to participants.

Seminar TITLE Reflections of a Former OR Analyst on the planning Process SPEAKER Harry Anderl Shell Australia WHEN May 20 1998 WHERE ???? ABSTRACT Harry Anderl started as an OR analyst, moved into marketing planning of oil products, smart card systems in Europe, export sales of coal and is now a planner in the upstream oil and gas business. CONTACT

Seminar TITLE The Work of the Transport Research Centre SPEAKER Professor Tony Richardson Director of the Transport Research Centre at RMIT University WHEN 5:45PM for 6:15PM WHERE Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, 200 Berkely St. Carlton ABSTRACT Joint meeting with the Statistics Society. Statisticians commence at 5.45 pm. with Wine and Cheese and proceed to the talk at 6.15 pm. After the talk members of both societies will be welcome to join Tony and the councils for dinner at a local restaurant. CONTACT

Seminar TITLE Challenges in the Privatised Australian Electricity Distribution Industry SPEAKER John Krens Eastern Energy WHEN June 18 WHERE ???? ABSTRACT ???? CONTACT

Seminar TITLE A pot-pourri of integer programming applications SPEAKER David Noble Swinburne University WHEN June 18 WHERE ???? ABSTRACT ???? CONTACT

Seminar TITLE ????? SPEAKER Ralph Snyder Monash University WHEN August 19 WHERE ???? ABSTRACT ???? CONTACT

Conference TITLE Student Conference SPEAKERS ????????? WHEN September WHERE ???? Program ???? CONTACT

One Day Conference TITLE Recent Advances SPEAKERS ????????? WHEN September WHERE ???? Program ???? CONTACT

Conference TITLE Optimization Day WHEN June 29-30, 1998 WHERE Perth, Western Australia Description The 1998 Optimization Day will be held at the University of Western Australia. A preliminary notice can be found at the web site: http://www.maths.uwa.edu.au/ . This follows four successful Optimization Day mini-conferences in last four years. These were held in Ballarat, UNSW, Melbourne and RMIT. The reason to bring this event this year to UWA is that there is an international conference to be held in Curtin University of Technology 1-3 July. As such we hope more participates from Eastern States would come to Perth to join this Optimization Day mini-conference. Please register your interest as soon as possible. CONTACT Xiao Qi Yang, E-mail: yangx@maths.uwa.edu.au

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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 1998/9

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Chairperson:

David Noble
School of Mathematical Sciences
Swinburne University of Technology
P O Box 218
HAWTHORN VIC 3122
Australia
E-Mail: dnoble@swin.edu.au
Tel: (W) + 613 9214 8266
FAX: 9819 0821

Vice-Chairperson:

Kaye E. Marion (Ms)
Department of Statistics & OR
RMIT
360 Swanston Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
Australia
E-Mail:
Tel: (W) + 613 9660 3162
FAX: + 613 9660 2454

Secretary:

Baikunth Nath (Dr)
School of Computing and Inform. Technology
Monash University
CHURCHILL VIC 3842
Australia
E-Mail: B.Nath@fcit.monash.edu.au
Tel: (W) + 613 9902 6468
FAX: 9902 6842

Treasurer:

Lutfar Khan (Dr)
Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
Victoria University of Technology
P O Box 14428, MCMC
MELBOURNE VIC 8001
Australia
E-Mail: Khan@matilda.vut.edu.au
Tel: (W) + 613 9688 4687
FAX: + 613 9688 4050

Newsletter Editor:

Harry Gielewski
28 Kennedy Street
RESERVOIR VIC 3073
Australia
E-mail: harryg@matilda.vut.edu.au
Tel: (W) + 613 9350 4726
Mobile: 0414 650 110

Student representative:

??????

Committee:

Peter Cerone (Assoc Prof)
Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
Victoria University of Technology
PO Box 14428 MCMC
MELBOURNE VIC 8001
E-Mail: pc@matilda.vut.edu.au
tel: (W) + 613 9688 4689
FAX: + 613 9688 4050

Dudley Foster
23 Wolseley Crescent
BLACKBURN VIC 3130
Australia
Tel: (W) + 613 9248 1069 Mobile: 0417 342 272

Paul Lochert (Assoc Prof)
Department of Mathematics
Monash University
P.O. Box 197
CAULFIELD EAST VIC 3145
Australia
E-Mail: P.Lochert@sci.monash.edu.au
Tel: (W) + 613 9903 2647
FAX: + 613 9903 2227

Dineli Mathers
Monash University

Moshe Sniedovich (Dr)
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Melbourne
PARKVILLE VIC 3052
E-Mail: moshe@mundoe.maths.mu.oz.au
moshe@mundoe.maths.mu.oz.au
WWW: http://www.maths.mu.oz.au/~moshe/
Tel: (W) + 613 9344 5559
FAX: + 613 9344 4599

Patrick Tobin
School of Mathematical Sciences
Swinburne University of Technology
P O Box 218
HAWTHORN VIC 3121
Australia
E-Mail: ptobin@swin.edu.au
Tel: (W) + 613 9214 8013
FAX: + 613 9819 0821

Ex-Officio:

Stephen Weal
Division of Swinburne at Lilydale
Swinburne University of Technology
Locked Bag 218
Lilydale VIC 3190
Australia
E-Mail: sweal@swin.edu.au
Tel: (W) + 613 9215 7131
FAX: + 613 9215 7070

Co-opted:

Santosh Kumar (Professor)
Department of Applied Mathematics
National University of Science & Technology
P O Box 346, Bulawayo
ZIMBABWE
E-Mail: MANGENA@esanet.zw

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Archive

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• 1995 Program
• 1996 Program
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• APORS 97
• 1998 Program

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