Foreword
GERAD celebrates this year its
25th
anniversary. The Center was
created in 1980 by a small group of professors and researchers of HEC
Montrkal,
McGill University and of the ~cole Polytechnique de Montrkal.
GERAD's activities achieved sufficient scope to justify its conversi?n in
June 1988 into a Joint Research Centre of HEC Montrkal, the Ecole
Polytechnique de Montrkal and
McGill University. In 1996, the Univer-
sit6 du Qukbec
k
Montrkal joined these three institutions. GERAD has
fifty members (professors), more than twenty research associates and
post doctoral students and more than two hundreds master and
Ph.D.
students.
GERAD is a multi-university center and a vital forum for the develop-
ment of operations research. Its mission is defined around the following
four complementarily objectives:
rn
The original and expert contribution to all research fields in
GERAD's area of expertise;
rn
The dissemination of research results in the best scientific outlets
as well as in the society in general;
rn
The training of graduate students and post doctoral researchers;
rn
The contribution to the economic community by solving important
problems and providing transferable tools.
GERAD's research thrusts and fields of expertise are as follows:
rn
Development of mathematical analysis tools and techniques to
solve the complex problems that arise in management sciences and
engineering;
rn
Development of algorithms to resolve such problems efficiently;
rn
Application of these techniques and tools to problems posed in
relat,ed disciplines, such as statistics, financial engineering, game
theory and artificial
int,elligence;
rn
Application of advanced tools to optimization and planning of large
technical and economic systems, such as energy systems,
trans-
portation/communication networks, and production systems;
rn
Integration of scientific findings into software, expert systems and
decision-support systems that can be used by industry.
