OR 2024 was hosted by the Technical University of Munich. The organizing committee of the conference therefore included representatives of the TUM School of Management, as well as Martin Bichler (Chair of Decision Sciences and Systems), Andreas Schulz (Chair of Operations Research) and Stefan Weltge (Chair of Discrete Mathematics) from the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology.
More than 700 participants gathered on the downtown campus of TUM in Maxvorstadt. They presented more than 500 scientific contributions organized in 23 streams. The diversity and bandwidth of research in the field of optimization ranged from mathematical and algorithmic foundations to applications.
Three plenary lectures were given by renowned international experts: Dolores Romero Morales (Professor of Operations Research at Copenhagen Business School) spoke on the topic of “Fairness and Transparency in AI: An OR Perspective”. Paul Klemperer (Edgeworth Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford) dedicated his presentation to the area of “Multiproduct Auction Design”. Paul Bixby (President and co-founder of Gurobi Optimization) gave an overview of the “History of Computational Progress in LP and MIP”.
In addition to presentations, the program included sessions and practical workshops, such as “Modeling and Solving Routing Problems” with Léa Blaise and Julien Darlay (both Hexaly) and “Gurobi under the Hood” with Robert Luce (Gurobi Optimization). The Society for Operations Research (GOR) prizes for doctoral, company and master's theses were also awarded during the conference. Especially for PhD students, the Dokt!OR program offered discussion panels on career development and publishing in leading scientific journals.
In addition to the academic content, the participants experienced the local culture at a Bavarian reception in the Augustiner Bräustuben. Traditional food and music awaited them, as well as a conference dinner with a view of the Olympic Games 1972 site. Excursions to the BMW plant, the historic Spaten brewery and Nymphenburg Palace added to the cultural experience in Munich.