To launch the New Year, the Optimal Decision Analytics Blog is featuring a series of articles about research topics that are ripe for exploration, whether in the form of projects by seasoned researchers or in studies carried out as doctoral thesis investigations. Continue reading

Based on reader votes, the winners of the contest for additional Principles for Courtship Algorithms have now been determined. A tally of email responses (together with a few posted on the web) identifies the top three entries to be as follows: First Place (a tie): "Do you have a sister?"... Continue reading

A number of readers have provided comments to suggest additional “Principles” for Courtship Algorithms. These comments have added further intriguing refinements to this new class of metaheuristic strategies. You are invited to vote on your three favorites. Authors of the three selections that receive the most votes will be awarded... Continue reading

As metaheuristics continue to play an increasingly important role in the field of Analytics, the connection between metaheuristics and Analytics invites closer examination. This leads, improbably but interestingly, to the topic of metaheuristic metaphors and – as I’ll describe in a moment – to the topic of sex. To set... Continue reading

I was prepared for the genie’s visit this time. When he stepped out of the mists and touched his turban in greeting, I found myself reacting as I might respond to a familiar gesture of an old friend. Nothing quite compares to the sense of anticipation that results upon confronting... Continue reading

The second visit of the Analytics Genie was fully as unexpected as the first. The sudden appearance of mist billowing out of nowhere in the corner of my study and the image of an imposing figure in a turban materializing within it is not the sort of thing one easily... Continue reading

Long holding the conviction that genies were creatures of myth and fantasy, I was caught by surprise the other day while working in my study to notice a bluish haze rising from an unseen source in the corner and a figure in a turban materializing within it. Before I had... Continue reading