COIN-OR
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
COIN-OR stands for the Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research. The stated goal of the COIN-OR project is "to create for mathematical software what the open literature is for mathematical theory." The open literature (e.g., a research journal) provides the OR community with a peer-review process and an archive. Papers in operations research journals on mathematical theory often contain supporting numerical results from computational studies. The software implementations, models, and data used to produce the numerical results are typically not published. The status quo impeded researchers needing to reproduce computational results, make fair comparisons, and extend the state of the art.
The success of Linux, Apache, and other projects popularized the open-source model of software development and distribution. A group at IBM Research proposed open source as an analogous yet viable means to "publish" software, models, and data. COIN-OR was conceived as an intiative to promote open-source in the computational Operations Research community and to provide the on-line resources and hosting services required to enable others to run their own open-source software projects.
The COIN-OR website was launched as an experiment in 2000, in conjunction with 17th International Symposium on Math Programming in Atlanta, Georgia. Today, COIN-OR has more than 20 projects, including tools for linear programming (e.g., COIN-OR CLP), nonlinear programming (e.g., Ipopt), , integer programming (e.g., Cbc, Bcp and COIN-OR SYMPHONY) and more. COIN-OR is hosted by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, INFORMS, and run by the educational, non-profit COIN-OR Foundation.
[edit] Significance
- COIN-OR is recognized by the National Science Foundation.
At the National Science Foundational workshop on Cyberinfrastructure and OR, only 3 examples were given: COIN-OR, NEOS, and CONDOR. Funded proposals of NSF awardees include publishing their work on COIN-OR.
- COIN-OR is changing the way research is done in the field of OR/MS.
Novel work in non-linear mixed-integer programming: Bonmin was only made possible by having access to linear programming solver source code (Clp), non-linear programming solver source code (IPOPT), branch-and-cut source code (Cbc), cut generation library (Cgl), interfaces and expertise made possible by COIN-OR. http://egon.cheme.cmu.edu/ibm/page.htm)
- COIN-OR is recognized by the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS).
The first DIMACS workshop on COIN-OR was held in 2006, http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/COIN/
- COIN-OR provoked the creation of the Common Public License.
- COIN-OR changed IBM Research.
COIN-OR (circa 2000) promoted open source as a model for university collaborations. See "IBM, top universities continue software Intellectual Property reform" published December 2006, http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/news.20061214_ocr.html
- COIN-OR is referenced in the scientific literature.
- COIN-OR is being used by business.
See also:
