Operations Research

Listed on this page are current research projects being offered for the Vacation Scholarship Program.

For more information on this research group see: Operations Research

Floods, fires and explosions: how to design survivable networks in the modern age.

Much of society’s critical infrastructure takes the form of large-scale networks. Think of examples such as the power grid, the NBN, gas and water pipelines, and transportation networks. All such networks are potentially vulnerable to natural disasters, or even terrorist attacks. Significant interruption to these networks can wreak havoc. So the question is: how do we design these networks to be robust against local, regional destruction, without blowing the national budget?

In this project we will use planar geometric graph models for this problem and analyse survivability when the destruction region is modelled as a circular disk. In particular, we would like to find algorithms for optimally designing networks that are survivable against failures of a given maximum radius. The project will use mathematical tools from graph theory, optimisation, computer science and just a little bit of Euclidean geometry.

Contact: Charl Ras cjras@unimelb.edu.au

Charging Coordination for Plug-in Electric Vehicle Fleets

With an increasing uptake of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs), it is becoming increasingly important for aggregate charging behaviour to be coordinated in way that does not place undue stress on electricity distribution infrastructure. On the other hand, PEV owners typically make charging decisions based on individual factors (such as minimising electricity costs) rather than factors affecting electricity distribution infrastructure as a whole. To reconcile these competing interests, this project will examine decentralised algorithms based on game theory for making coordinated optimal charging decisions in fleets of non-cooperation PEVs.

Contact: Matthew Tam matthew.tam@unimelb.edu.au