4 Presentations

• 
  10:30 AM - 10:55 AM

  Challenges in Optimal and Sustainable Water Allocation for Berry Farming

  • Kathleen Fowler, presenter, Clarkson University

  We present results and challenges in seeking to meet a sustainable water yield while maximizing profit and demand via derivative-free constrained optimization. The goal is a coupled hydrological decision-making tool using modeling, simulation, and optimization to understand trade-offs and guide practitioners that is flexible and applicable across various agricultural regions.

• 
  10:55 AM - 11:20 AM

  Application of Black Box Optimization for Flood Control and Hydropower Production

  • Pascal Côté, presenter, Rio Tinto
  • Jean Paquin, Rio Tinto Alcan
  • Quentin Desreumaux, Université de Sherbrooke

  The Kemano Hydropower System is located in British Columbia and is operated by Rio Tinto Alcan. Many challenges arise while operating with this system such as: supply the load from the Aluminium Smelter, flood control, dam protection and other environmental constraints. A Stochastic Dynamic Programming Controller is used to tackle these problems. As all the constraints cannot be satisfied, a black box optimization technique is used. It calibrates the controller so that the probabilities of constraint violations, when simulate by it on the historical scenarios, are under the decision maker criteria’s.

• 
  11:20 AM - 11:45 AM

  New Approach for the Optimization of a Hydrologic Model with the MADS Algorithm

  • Dominique Cartier, presenter, Polytechnique Montréal

  Hydrologic models are employed to model the water cycle through parameterized equations to estimate flows at the outlet of a watershed. Two optimization strategies oriented on physical processes are compared to the method currently used at Hydro-Québec, based on the robustness of the parameterization in the context of climate changes.

• 
  11:45 AM - 12:10 PM

  Alternatives for Optimization in Systems and Control: Convex and Non-Convex Approaches

  • Émile Simon, presenter, Université Catholique de Louvain

  In this presentation, we will develop a short overview of main trends of optimization in systems and control, and from there outline some new perspectives emerging today. More specifically, we will focus on the current situation, where it is clear that convex and Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) methods have become the most common option. However, because of its vast success, the convex approach is often the only direction considered, despite the underlying problem is non-convex and that other optimization methods specifically equipped to handle such problems should have been used instead. We will present key points on this topic, and as a side result we will propose a method to produce a virtually infinite number of papers.