18th INFORMS Computing Society (ICS) Conference
Toronto, Canada, 14 — 16 mars 2025
18th INFORMS Computing Society (ICS) Conference
Toronto, Canada, 14 — 16 mars 2025

Embedding Machine Learning Models in Optimization
16 mars 2025 13h00 – 14h30
Salle: East Common
Présidée par Anirudh Subramanyam
2 présentations
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13h00 - 13h22
MathOptAI.jl: Embedding trained machine learning surrogates in JuMP models
A natural approach to combine optimization and machine learning is to replace a difficult-to-model process with a machine learning surrogate then optimize over the trained model for future decision-making. To avoid the error-prone work of translating a trained machine learning model into a solver or modeling language's API, software packages such as OMLT and gurobi-machinelearning have been developed to incorporate trained surrogate models into the Pyomo and GurobiPy modeling frameworks. In this talk, we present MathOptAI.jl, a software package for embedding trained surrogates into JuMP optimization models. We highlight the design decisions that differentiate MathOptAI.jl from similar packages and present benchmarks comparing different formulations of a neural network surrogate in nonlinear optimization problems.
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13h22 - 13h44
Neural Embedded Mixed-Integer Optimization for Location-Routing Problems
We present a novel framework that combines machine learning with mixed-integer optimization to solve the Capacitated Location-Routing Problem (CLRP). The CLRP is a classical yet NP-hard problem that integrates strategic facility location with operational vehicle routing decisions, aiming to simultaneously minimize both fixed and variable costs. The proposed method first trains a permutationally invariant neural network that approximates the vehicle routing cost for serving any arbitrary subset of customers by any candidate facility. The trained neural network is then used as a surrogate within a mixed-integer optimization problem, which is reformulated and solved using off-the-shelf solvers. The framework is simple, scalable, and requires no routing-specific knowledge or parameter tuning. Computational experiments on large-scale benchmark instances confirm the effectiveness of our approach. Using only 10,000 training samples generated by an off-the-shelf vehicle routing heuristic and a one-time training cost of approximately 2 wall-clock hours, the method provides location-allocation decisions that are within 1% of the best-known solutions for large problems in less than 5 seconds on average. The findings suggest that the neural-embedded framework can be a viable method for tackling integrated location and routing problems at scale. Our code and data are publicly available.