Dr Michael Forbes
Senior Lecturer
School of Mathematics and Physics
+61 7 336 53807
Building 69, Room 624
Teaching and learning
Dr Forbes teaches 3rd and 4th year operations research
Researcher biography
Dr Forbes has an extensive background in applying optimisation methods to industrial problems. He spent over 20 years working in industry before returning to academia in 2010. Dr Forbes now focuses on building Mixed Integer Programming models for industrial applications and specialised techniques for solving difficult Mixed Integer Programming models.
Dr Forbes has experience in many application areas including
- vehicle routing;
- supply chain optimisation;
- mine planning;
- public transport vehicle and crew scheduling and rostering (buses, trains and planes);
- hospital staff scheduling and rostering, including operation scheduling and room allocation;
- power generation and planning;
- network design (communications, electricity, gas, water);
- maintenance scheduling.
Journal Articles
Rist, Yannik, Tilk, Christian and Forbes, Michael (2024). Benders decomposition with delayed disaggregation for the active passive vehicle routing problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 318 (3), 836-850. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2024.05.041
Jeuken, Rick and Forbes, Michael (2024). The value of drilling-a chance-constrained optimization approach. Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 41 (5), 2279-2289. doi: 10.1007/s42461-024-01061-8
Tule, Sanjana, Foley, Gabriel, Zhao, Chongting, Forbes, Michael and Bodén, Mikael (2024). Optimal phylogenetic reconstruction of insertion and deletion events. Bioinformatics, 40 (s1), i277-i286. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae254
Harris, Mitchell G., Forbes, Michael A. and Taimre, Thomas (2023). Logic-based benders decomposition for wildfire suppression. Computers & Operations Research, 160 106392, 106392. doi: 10.1016/j.cor.2023.106392
Forbes, M. A., Harris, M.G., Jansen, H.M., van der Schoot, F.A. and Taimre, T. (2023). Combining optimisation and simulation using logic based benders decomposition. European Journal of Operational Research, 312 (3), 840-854. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2023.07.032
Harris, Mitchell and Forbes, Michael (2023). The Snake Eggs puzzle: preparing students for Benders decomposition. INFORMS Transactions on Education, 23 (3), 210-217. doi: 10.1287/ited.2023.0281
Rist, Yannik and Forbes, Michael (2022). A column generation and Combinatorial Benders Decomposition algorithm for the selective Dial-A-Ride-Problem. Computers and Operations Research, 140 105649, 105649. doi: 10.1016/j.cor.2021.105649
Rist, Yannik and Forbes, Michael A. (2021). A new formulation for the dial-a-ride problem. Transportation Science, 55 (5), 1113-1135. doi: 10.1287/trsc.2021.1044
Raygani, Saeid Veysi, Forbes, Michael and Martin, Daniel (2020). Robust risk-averse unit commitment with solar PV systems. IET Renewable Power Generation, 14 (15), 2966-2975. doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2019.1489
Jeuken, Rick, Forbes, Michael and Kearney, Michael (2020). Optimal blending strategies for coking coal using chance constraints. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 72 (12), 2690-2703. doi: 10.1080/01605682.2020.1811167
Alyasiry, Ali Mehsin, Forbes, Michael and Bulmer, Michael (2019). An exact algorithm for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows and last-in-first-out loading. Transportation Science, 53 (6) trsc.2019.0905, 1695-1705. doi: 10.1287/trsc.2019.0905
Pearce, Robin H. and Forbes, Michael (2019). Disaggregated benders decomposition for solving a network maintenance scheduling problem. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 70 (6), 941-953. doi: 10.1080/01605682.2018.1471374
Pearce, Robin H. and Forbes, Michael (2018). Disaggregated Benders decomposition and branch-and-cut for solving the budget-constrained dynamic uncapacitated facility location and network design problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 270 (1), 78-88. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2018.03.021
Liu, Haoquan, Austin, Kevin, Forbes, Michael and Kearney, Michael (2017). Monte-Carlo Tree Search in Dragline Operation Planning. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 3 (1) 8053797, 419-425. doi: 10.1109/LRA.2017.2757964
Pearce, Robin and Forbes, Michael (2017). Puzzle - The Fillomino Puzzle. INFORMS Transactions on Education, 17 (2), 85-89. doi: 10.1287/ited.2016.0166
Ferris, Peter, Forbes, Chris, Forbes, Joe, Forbes, Michael and Kennedy, Paul (2015). Optimizing network designs for the world's largest broadband project. Interfaces, 45 (1), 83-97. doi: 10.1287/inte.2014.0785
Hollis, BL, Forbes, MA and Douglas, BE (2006). Vehicle routing and crew scheduling for metropolitan mail distribution at Australia Post. European Journal of Operational Research, 173 (1), 133-150. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2005.01.005
Al-Amin, M, Forbes, MA and Noble, DH (1999). Production of locomotive rosters for a multi-class single-locomotive problem. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 50 (10), 1004-1010. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2600802
Forbes, MA, Holt, JN, Kilby, PJ and Watts, AM (1994). Budi - a Software System for Bus Dispatching. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 45 (5), 497-508. doi: 10.1057/jors.1994.77
Forbes, MA, Holt, JN and Watts, AM (1994). Network Optimization Applied to Reclamation Works in Coal-Mining. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 45 (2), 143-150. doi: 10.1057/jors.1994.20
Forbes, MA, Holt, JN and Watts, AM (1994). An Exact Algorithm for Multiple Depot Bus Scheduling. European Journal of Operational Research, 72 (1), 115-124. doi: 10.1016/0377-2217(94)90334-4
Forbes, MA, Holt, JN and Watts, AM (1991). Exact Solution of Locomotive Scheduling Problems. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 42 (10), 825-831. doi: 10.1057/jors.1991.163
Conference Papers
D'Addio, Nathan, Abeygunawardana, Anula, Forbes, Michael, Ledwich, Gerard and Shafiei, Mehdi (2017). Approach to large distribution network optimisation using modern implementation of benders decomposition. 24th International Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution, CIRED 2017, Glasgow, Scotland, 12-15 June 2017. IEEE. doi: 10.1049/oap-cired.2017.0727
Liu, Haoquan, Kearney, Michael and Forbes, Michael (2017). Planning dragline positioning sequence with A* search algorithm. 20th World Congress of the International-Federation-of-Automatic-Control (IFAC), Toulouse, France, 9 - 14 July 2017. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Science BV. doi: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.1924