18:30 Wed 4 Mar 2026, BCS London & online: Introduction to Operations Research with Google OR-Tools
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Immo Hüneke
Feb 20, 2026, 9:20:12 AMFeb 20
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BCS Software Practice Advancement specialist group
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SPA-410: An Introduction to Operations Research with Google OR-Tools
Speaker: Nicholas Stylianou
When: Wednesday 4th March 2026, 18:00 for 18:30 - 20:00 GMT
Where: BCS London, 25 Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7BP and also online
Price: Free
Booking Link: https://spa04032026.eventbrite.co.uk
Your confirmation email will provide the next step to enable you to access the webinar. 48 hours and 1 hour prior to the event reminder emails will be sent to those registered, with the non-transferable URL needed to gain access. The session will be recorded. If you do not wish to feature in the recording, please keep your microphone muted.
AGENDA
* 6:00pm - networking in BCS London over refreshments
* 6:30pm - presentation and demo begins
* 8:00pm - networking in BCS London (pizza & refreshments)
* 8:45pm at the latest: everyone off the premises (reconvene at The Old Doctor Butler's Head for more drinks & networking)
SYNOPSIS
Modern Operations Research provides a scientific framework for today's complex decision-making landscape. Google OR-Tools supports this by providing a high-performance, open-source software suite that gives access to powerful optimisation techniques that can be applied to real-world industrial applications.
In this presentation I will introduce the field of Operations Research and Google OR-Tools. I'll then demonstrate the use of OR-Tools in practice by outlining the key elements that define an Operations Research problem and showing how these key elements provide a context for the different types of problem and the "solvers" that OR-Tools provides access to for solving them. I'll describe the generic process for working with solvers and illustrate this process in action through various examples using the OR-Tools Python wrapper. I'll finish by reflecting on some of the interesting design features of OR-Tools and outlining some of the current challenges for Operations Research.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Since graduating from the Department of Computing at Imperial College London in the mid-1990s, Nicholas has worked in the IT industry as a CAD/CAM Software Engineer, UNIX Systems Administrator, Enterprise Architect and Text/Data Mining Analyst. He is now an Independent Researcher and Software Engineer specialising in Computational Musicology. He has presented at the "Mathematics and Computation in Music" biennial international conference, and also successfully authored and published his first book "Heptatonics" (2019), with a second volume currently in preparation. Alongside this he also continues to work more broadly on IT projects in industry, having established Reach Computing Ltd in 2017, and has been an active member of the BCS since 2011.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BCS SPA Home Page - http://bcs-spa.org/
Meetings Schedules
London - http://bcs-spa.org/index.php?page=london-meeting-programme
Cambridge - see http://http://softwareast.ning.com/events
Presentation materials from previous talks are available from the BCS SPA resources site: http://bcs-spa.org/resources.html
Also see YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKBhokJ0qd3_wlvr0j85YhmNfNj8ZJ8M-
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SPA London Meetings Programme Organiser - Immo Huneke, Zuhlke Engineering Ltd. [mailto:Im...@Huneke.Co.UK]
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Forthcoming meetings: We're looking for volunteers to present or lead workshops on topics of interest to software practitioners. Please come forward with suggestions!
1 Apr 2026: SPA-411 Mark Collins-Cope: Stop BASHing your head against the wall! (subject to confirmation)
========================================
SPA-410: An Introduction to Operations Research with Google OR-Tools
Speaker: Nicholas Stylianou
When: Wednesday 4th March 2026, 18:00 for 18:30 - 20:00 GMT
Where: BCS London, 25 Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7BP and also online
Price: Free
Booking Link: https://spa04032026.eventbrite.co.uk
Your confirmation email will provide the next step to enable you to access the webinar. 48 hours and 1 hour prior to the event reminder emails will be sent to those registered, with the non-transferable URL needed to gain access. The session will be recorded. If you do not wish to feature in the recording, please keep your microphone muted.
AGENDA
* 6:00pm - networking in BCS London over refreshments
* 6:30pm - presentation and demo begins
* 8:00pm - networking in BCS London (pizza & refreshments)
* 8:45pm at the latest: everyone off the premises (reconvene at The Old Doctor Butler's Head for more drinks & networking)
SYNOPSIS
Modern Operations Research provides a scientific framework for today's complex decision-making landscape. Google OR-Tools supports this by providing a high-performance, open-source software suite that gives access to powerful optimisation techniques that can be applied to real-world industrial applications.
In this presentation I will introduce the field of Operations Research and Google OR-Tools. I'll then demonstrate the use of OR-Tools in practice by outlining the key elements that define an Operations Research problem and showing how these key elements provide a context for the different types of problem and the "solvers" that OR-Tools provides access to for solving them. I'll describe the generic process for working with solvers and illustrate this process in action through various examples using the OR-Tools Python wrapper. I'll finish by reflecting on some of the interesting design features of OR-Tools and outlining some of the current challenges for Operations Research.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Since graduating from the Department of Computing at Imperial College London in the mid-1990s, Nicholas has worked in the IT industry as a CAD/CAM Software Engineer, UNIX Systems Administrator, Enterprise Architect and Text/Data Mining Analyst. He is now an Independent Researcher and Software Engineer specialising in Computational Musicology. He has presented at the "Mathematics and Computation in Music" biennial international conference, and also successfully authored and published his first book "Heptatonics" (2019), with a second volume currently in preparation. Alongside this he also continues to work more broadly on IT projects in industry, having established Reach Computing Ltd in 2017, and has been an active member of the BCS since 2011.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BCS SPA Home Page - http://bcs-spa.org/
Meetings Schedules
London - http://bcs-spa.org/index.php?page=london-meeting-programme
Cambridge - see http://http://softwareast.ning.com/events
Presentation materials from previous talks are available from the BCS SPA resources site: http://bcs-spa.org/resources.html
Also see YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKBhokJ0qd3_wlvr0j85YhmNfNj8ZJ8M-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPA London Meetings Programme Organiser - Immo Huneke, Zuhlke Engineering Ltd. [mailto:Im...@Huneke.Co.UK]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forthcoming meetings: We're looking for volunteers to present or lead workshops on topics of interest to software practitioners. Please come forward with suggestions!
1 Apr 2026: SPA-411 Mark Collins-Cope: Stop BASHing your head against the wall! (subject to confirmation)
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