Societal challenges
From electoral redistricting to the organization of a hospital service, through the protection of biodiversity or the use of renewable energies, the applications of operations research concern very varied, sometimes unexpected, domains where its modeling methods and tools help humans in their decision-making. The goal: finding an optimal solution (or at least "not too bad") among a large number of possibilities. O.R. enables the design, configuration and operation of complex systems that are of great importance for businesses or for local authorities.
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Electoral redistricting: the mathematics of voting | Tangente
The bill to renew democratic life, as presented to the Council of Ministers in August 2019, includes a major reform of parliamentary elections. How, and to what extent, can the principle of "one person, one vote"—the foundation of the republican ideal that all citizens should have an equal say at the ballot box—be achieved with this new electoral map?
Surgical scheduling using operations research | Tangente
Healthcare is a broad field of application for operations research, which provides tools for optimizing the use of limited resources—budgets, beds, healthcare staff, and so on—to meet demand. The hospital network employs thousands of people to treat tens of thousands of patients, using tonnes of medicines and equipment. Managing such a large and varied demand for care has become a scientific challenge.
Operations research in healthcare: medical assignment problems | Tangente
Hospitals face many optimization problems that can be solved optimally within a reasonable time using so-called polynomial-time algorithms. Among them, the Hungarian algorithm is used to assign resources, while the Gale–Shapley algorithm is used for matching (or pairing).
Animal welfare
Respect for animal welfare has become a major public concern. Anticipating the emergence of certification labels, a group of researchers came together in the 2000s to propose that the European Commission develop animal-welfare assessment protocols: the Welfare Quality® project.
Operations research to preserve biodiversity
Biodiversity, a blend of "biological" and "diversity," refers to the variety of living organisms and their habitats. Its increasingly rapid erosion has made preserving it a major priority for some countries.
Optimizing renewable energy use | Tangente
Fossil fuels result from a decomposition process lasting several million years, which concentrates them into a form that can be transported, stored and released when needed. By contrast, the energy carried by sunlight, blowing wind or flowing water must be captured directly where it occurs.