{"201271":{"#nid":"201271","#data":{"type":"event","title":"OR Colloquium","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETITLE: Bridging Stochastic and Dynamic Programming: A Unified Framework for Sequential Decision Problems\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESPEAKER: Warren Powell\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EABSTRACT:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStochastic programming and dynamic programming have thrived in different communities, largely motivated by different applications. Dynamic programming has long been associated with small-scale applications, plagued by the well-known \u201ccurse of dimensionality.\u201d Stochastic programming, on the other hand, has been presented as a \u201cricher framework\u201d that scales to large-scale applications. In this talk, I will argue that both of these are myths. I will present a perspective that puts stochastic programming, \u201cdynamic programming\u201d and stochastic search into a common framework where all sequential decision problems are dynamic programs which can be solved using one of four classes of policies. I will offer a formal definition of a state variable (widely overlooked or even avoided in our community), and use this not only to show that \u201cstochastic programming\u201d is actually a form of dynamic programming, but also to show how widely used algorithmic strategies based on scenario trees can be streamlined. Ultimately, I hope to help provide students with a simple, easy-to-follow template for modeling stochastic dynamic problems which mimics the powerful language of mathematical programming.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"OR Colloquium"}],"uid":"27187","created_gmt":"2013-03-21 11:48:56","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 02:03:00","author":"Anita Race","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2013-03-27T13:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2013-03-27T14:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2013-03-27T14:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2013-03-27 17:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2013-03-27 18:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2013-03-27 18:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDavid Goldberg\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:dgoldberg9@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Edgoldberg9@isye.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}