********************************************************************

                                                     Seminar

             Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
                                  The Chinese University of Hong Kong

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title	:	The Challenge of Designing in Complex Systems
Speaker	:	Prof. Dr. Hans-Jakob Luethi
		the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich
Date	:	March 23th, 2009 (Monday)
Time	:	4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Venue	:	Room 513
		William M.W. Mong Engineering Building
		(Engineering Building Complex Phase 2)
		CUHK

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abstract:
　

This lecture reflects on many years of experience at IFOR (Institute of Operations Research ETH Zurich) working on the cutting edge of academia and practice. The lecture will begin with some thoughts about the notion of Systems Complexity by focusing on what we will call “Organized Complexity”. In this context, the notion of “design” will be reviewed with an explicit emphasis on emergent system properties, such as “Flexibility” and “Adaptability”, “Robustness” and “Stability”, “Equilibria” and “Self -Organization”. To illustrate the concepts some challenging in-house real world examples carried out with our industrial partners will be presented:
• The Value of Flexibility in Power Production (in collaboration with AXPO
Switzerland) [1]
• Market Design for Emission Trading and the Emergence of Windfall Profits [2]
• Constructing Robust Timetables for Railways (in collaboration with SBB
Switzerland) [3]
• Power at Risk in Electricity Grid Management: Reliability and Vulnerability of
Networks (in collaboration with RWE, Germany) [4 ]

The key message of this lecture will be that the focus should be placed on the design of
emergent (qualitative) system properties rather than on optimality properties in organized
complex systems subsequently yielding to nontrivial innovations in modeling. In particular,
the colloquial notions of Flexibility, Adaptability, Robustness, Equilibrium and Windfall
Profits have to be rigorously defined in order to make them tangible for OR in spite of the
inherent, computational complexity. These mathematical innovations will be discussed along with the presentation of some of the examples described above.
The lecture will conclude with a discussion on further research challenges when dealing with complexity in OR.

The lecture is based on the following publications, which can be downloaded from
http://www.ifor.math.ethz.ch/publications
[1] Doege J., Fehr M., Hinz J., Luethi H.-J., Wilhelm M. (2008): \"Risk Management in
Power Markets: The Hedging Value of Production Flexibility.\" (to appear in EJOR).
Awarded with the EURO Excellence in Practice Price.
[2] Carmona R., Fehr M., Hinz J., Porchet A. (2008): \"Market Design For Emission Trading Schemes.\" (to appear in SIAM Review)
[3] Wüst R., Laube F., Roos S., Caimi G. (2008): \"Sustainable Global Service Intention as
objective for Controlling Railway Network Operations in Real Time.\" Proceedings of the 8th World Congress of Railway Research (WCRR), Seoul, Korea
[4] Guarisco M., Friedrich C., Laumanns M., Zdrallek M. (2008): \"A Grid Operation Model: Resource Demand For An Adequate Quality Of Supply.\" Proceedings of the 16th Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC 2008), Glasgow, Scotland, 14-18 July, 2008

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Biography:
　

Prof. Dr. Hans-Jakob Lüthi, IFOR ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
http://www.ifor.math.ethz.ch/staff/luethi

H.-J. Lüthi studied mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
Zurich and obtained a doctorate degree in 1973. He was an adjunct professor at ETH in
operations research, visiting professor at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica, Rio de
Janeiro, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, and Center of Operations Research at
MIT. Before joining the department of mathematics of ETH in 1993 as Professor of
Operations Research he was directing a consulting firm in the area of information and
organizational engineering.
His main research areas are in the design of mathematical models and algorithms for
industrial and economical decision support. In particular, his core competence lies in
bridging the interface between optimization techniques and mathematical modeling -
enabling innovative applications of Operations Research techniques.

************************* ALL ARE WELCOME ************************

Host	:	Prof. Leung, May-Yee, Janny
Tel	:	(852) 2609-8238
Email	:	janny@se.cuhk.edu.hk
Enquiries	:	Prof. Nan Chen or Prof. Sean X. Zhou
	:	Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
		CUHK
Website	:	http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~seg5810
Email	:	seg5810@se.cuhk.edu.hk

********************************************************************