Seminar Schedule: Year 2020

• Friday, November the 6th 2020. Time: 16:00

Pau Fonseca. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

Simulation models to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies in containing Covid-19.

• Friday, February the 14th 2020. Time: 12:00

Xavier Basagaña. Institut de Salut Global de Barcelona (ISGlobal), Barcelona

How is the number of pollution-related deaths estimated?

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Optimization in gas distribution networks

GUEST: Julio González Díaz

LANGUAGE: Spanish
PLACE: Online. Fill this form  before December the 15th at 20:00 to receive the link.

DATE: Wednesday, december the 16th  2020. Time: 12:00

ABSTRACT: In this talk we will address the following problem that appeared while collaobrating with the gas company Reganosa: given a gas distribution network to be used to satisfy a set of demands from a set of production points, determine the optimal way of routing the gas in order to minimize the transportation cost. As the gas flows through the network its pressure decreases as a consequence of friction with the pipes. Due to this, it is necessary to compress again the gas in compression stations. The goal is to minimize the cost of these compressions.

In the talk, we will present an optimization algorithm based on successive linear programmaing. Also, different extensions of the proposed models will be described, including the extension to optimization under uncertainty.

Moerover, we will present GANESO  (GAs NEtwork Simulation and Optimization), which is the tool that resulted from the cooperation with Reganosa. It includes in its core the aforementioned algorithms and it also incorporates other additional functionalities. 

ABOUT THE AUTOR:  

Julio González Díaz is Profesor Contratado Doctor del Departamento de Estadística, Análisis Matemático y Optimización  in Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. PhD. González defended his PhD thesis on Game Theory in 2005 in this same university. Afterwards, he benefited from different postdoc contracts, first in  Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Juan de la Cierva) and later at Northwestern  University (Fulbright and Marie Curie). In 2009 he returned back to Santiago holding a Ramón y Cajal contract.

The current research of Julio is focused in theory and practive of operations research, with a strong interest in the design of optimization algorithms.

You can find further information on Julio's work at his personal webpage.

Simulation models to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies in containing Covid-19.

SPEAKER: Pau Fonseca
LANGUAGE: Catalan
PLACE:  https://meet.google.com/jir-cwjd-uov

DATE:  Friday, November the 6th 2020. Time: 16:00

ABSTRACT: The aim of the SDL-PAND project, which includes this talk, is to develop a functional prototype that allows to evaluate pandemic containment alternatives, based on a graphical conceptualization of the models, which represent the modeling hypotheses. The system must allow it to expand by incorporating new working hypotheses and using on two fundamental sources, data on the evolution of the pandemic (data showing the past) and sensor data (mobile phones or other devices) showing a present vision of the situation. This will allow to define forecasting models of the propagation of the pandemic from the analysis of citizens behavior. The model must also be able to expand its semantics and computing capabilities (from, for example, co-simulation) to include models of traffic management, evacuation, etc.The aim of the project is both to generate a web application to analyze alternatives, and to define a working methodology that allows to establish a common framework for the different specialists, who must collaborate in the definition of complex models. This allows us to understand the hypotheses that govern the models and, from them, to understand the causality that derives from the multidisciplinary knowledge provided by specialists from different areas, who would not otherwise enter into this discussion.The validation of the proposal and the resulting tool will be carried out by the Catalan Institute of Oncology and a team of doctors from the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.

SOBRE L'AUTOR:  Dr. Pau Fonseca is Professor of the Statistics and Operations Research Department of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTECH and a Researcher of the inLab. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics and Operations Research and a M.S. in Computer Science. He participates in several competitive projects related to simulation and technology transfer, like the simulation of the International Airport of Barcelona, or the simulation of Almirall Prodesfarma enterprise. His research interest includes environmental and social simulation, and formal representation of simulation models, interest that leads him to collaborate with the ITU‐T in the definition of the new version of the Specification and Description Language (SDL‐2010).

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How is the number of pollution-related deaths estimated?

SPEAKER: Xavier Basagaña
LANGUAGE: Catalan
PLACE:  Seminari EIO, ETSEIB (ed. Eng. Industrial), Planta 6, Campus Sud. UPC, Av. Diagonal 647, Barcelona

DATE:  Friday, February the 14th 2020. Time: 12:00

ABSTRACT: Exposure to pollution has been related to a large number of health problems. For instance, it has been estimated that exceeding the levels of fine particles recommended by the World Health Organization represents in Barcelona about 350 deathds per year. In this talk we will discuss different types of study that relate pollution with health and the statistical methods used therein. The challenges and limitations in this field will be discussed and the talk will conclude with an evaluation of the current degree of evidence.

SOBRE L'AUTOR:  Xavier Basagaña holds a Bsc and a Master's degree in Statistics, and a PhD in Biostatistics. He works currently as a researcher in the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). His research has been focused on analyzing the effect of air pollution and other environmental factors on health, and on improving the statistical methods applied in epidemiology.

More information on Xavier Basagaña can be found following this link

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