Kyungsik Lee's Optimization Lab

연구실 소개

This lab aims to foster optimization experts and conduct research on the development and application of optimization techniques, with the goal of improving and innovating optimization theories and technologies, and creating value in industrial settings through the creative application of optimization methods. We develop theories and application methods for various optimization techniques, focusing on integer optimization, and apply optimization techniques to real-world problems in diverse industries such as semiconductors, displays, energy, logistics, and transportation. Optimization is a technique that extracts core elements of decision-making problems in reality, creates mathematical models, and finds optimal solutions for these models. Since industrial engineering is a discipline that realizes innovation in industrial settings, optimization techniques as industrial engineering tools must also be utilized in daily industrial practices to ensure their usefulness and sustainability as tools for industrial innovation. The perceived deficiencies and the need for changes/improvements in these techniques during this process lead to valuable research on optimization techniques themselves. This laboratory fundamentally aims to disseminate optimization techniques across industries and expand the base of optimization technique utilization by creating value in industrial settings. First, this lab aims to cultivate personnel who can effectively utilize optimization techniques as problem-solving tools. The process of applying optimization techniques in industrial settings involves defining the problem to be solved and a valid model for it, considering internal and external environments, organizational structures, business processes, and information resources from vague issues, selecting/combining appropriate techniques as needed, and applying them to real-world business processes using relevant software. In this process, the most important basic abilities for an industrial engineer are the ability to identify the real problem to be solved, modeling ability, and the ability to select and utilize appropriate optimization techniques. Furthermore, a deep understanding of the principles of optimization techniques enables sophisticated utilization, improvement, innovation, and the conception of new techniques. Second, we conduct research to improve and develop theories and application methods to make optimization techniques more useful in reality. From this perspective, the main research topics of this lab focus on integer optimization techniques and robust optimization techniques under uncertainty. Third, we conduct research on applying optimization techniques to solve practical problems in industrial settings. For example, we are conducting research on optimization issues related to the design and operation of Korea's power system, optimization issues in the semiconductor and display industries, and issues related to the design/operation of production systems, including the paper industry.