About OPL

The OPL Laboratory is a high-level laboratory affiliated with the Industrial Engineering Department at the Federal University of Ceará - UFC, led by professor Anselmo R. Pitombeira Neto.

The laboratory develops research projects with an emphasis on the mathematical and computational modeling of production, logistics, transportation, energy and health problems, using Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research techniques.

Operations Research (OR) is a branch of Applied Mathematics that studies the use of mathematical optimization and stochastic simulation to solve decision problems. Among the best-known OR techniques are linear and integer programming, nonlinear programming, combinatorial optimization, dynamic programming and discrete-event simulation.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of Computer Science that seeks to develop intelligent systems and agents capable of automating cognitive tasks commonly performed by human beings.

OR offers mature solutions for planning problems, in which data are well structured and known at the moment of decision-making. On the other hand, many real-world problems involve uncertainty and unstructured data, which classical OR techniques cannot handle. In such problems, the predictive capabilities of AI techniques enable the treatment of large volumes of data and uncertainty, opening up new solution possibilities that are impossible for classical OR techniques.

The laboratory's objectives are to develop research with an emphasis on real-world problems and the training of human resources at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels.

The OPL Laboratory is certified by CNPq.