KARLA L

KARLA L. HOFFMAN

 

 

Office:

Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department                   Home:

George Mason University                                                                     6921 Clifton Road       

Mail Stop 4A6                                                                                     Clifton, Virginia 20124

Fairfax, VA 22030

(703) 993-1679

(703) 993-1521

E-mail: khoffman@gmu.edu                                             

 

Academic Degrees:

 

BA                   1969                                        Mathematics    

Rutgers University

 

MBA               1971                                        Operations Research   

George Washington University

                                                                        School of Business

 

DSc                 1975                                        Operations Research

                                                                        George Washington University

                                                                        School of Engineering and Applied

    Sciences

                                                Dissertation:  A Successive Underestimation

Function for Concave Minimization

                                                (James Falk, Director)

 

 

George Mason University Positions:

 

2002 – present    Professor                               Systems Engineering and Operations

    Research (SEOR) Department

1998 – 2001       Chair                                     SEOR Department

1997 – 1998       Chair                                     Operations Research and Operations

    Engineering (ORE) Department

1996 – 1997      Acting Chair                           ORE Department

1989 – present   Professor                                SEOR Department

1984 – 1989      Assoc Professor                     Operations Research and Applied Statistics

      Department

 

Prior Positions:

1976 – 1984      Mathematician                        Operations Research Division

Center for Applied Mathematics

National Institute of Standards and    

    Technology

 

1977 – 1984    Assoc. Prof. Lecturer               The George Washington University

                                                                        Operations Research Department

 

Spring, 1982    Visiting Assoc. Prof.                 The University of Maryland

                        College of Business Administration

 

1975 – 1976    Postdoctoral Research  Fellow  National Academy of Science

at National Institute of Standards and Technology

 

1973 – 1975    Research Assistant                    Institute for Management Science and

   Engineering

George Washington University

 

1972 – 1973    Operations Research                Internal Revenue Service

                        Analyst                                     Washington, DC

 

Consulting Activities:

 

Serves as a consultant to Decisive Analytics Corporation on the dispatching, scheduling and routing

of trucks and to the Federal Communications Commission on auction design and implementation, and

Shell Oil Company on ship routing.  Has consulted to Sverdup Technologies on facility location, Jacobs

Technologies on facility location, The RAND Corp on optimization modeling, Bell Atlantic on capital

budgeting and new technology evaluation, Rohm and Hess on new technology assessment, PCS One

on game theory and auction strategies; and USAir, Delta and Northwest Airlines on scheduling, Hughes

Data Systems, BTG, and Trident Systems on bidding strategies.  She has also served as a consultant to

a variety of government agencies including FERC, DOT, DOE and DOD.

 

Research Interests:

 

Combinatorial Optimization, Auction Theory and Design, Global Optimization, Mathematical Modeling,

Analysis of Algorithms, Software Testing


 

Awards:

 

2005                Kimball Medal, The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

 

2003                Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management

Sciences

 

1989                Distinguished Faculty Award, George Mason University

(Annual award honoring one outstanding faculty member from each school within G.M.U.)

 

1984                National Institute of Standards and Technology Applied Research Award

(Highest award given for applied research in a non-measurement field - only mathematician

to receive this award)

 

1984                U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for Meritorious Service

 

1975-1976                      National Science Foundation/National Academy of Sciences Postdoctoral

                        Research Fellow

 

1969                Cum Laude, Rutgers University

 

 

Research Grants and Contracts:

 

2004 – 2005    Federal Aviation Administration: “Market Clearing Mechanisms to

                        Alleviate Congestion at LaGuardia Airport  (PI with

                        Michael Ball of Univ. of Maryland)                                                                                 

2003    – 2004     Office of Naval Research: “Mathematical Optimization Methods for Design of

1.        the Army Unattended Ground Sensor”  (Andrew Loerch is Co-PI)

 

2003 – 2006    National Science Foundation: “Airtransport Systems Engineering and Market

Mechanisms” (Principal investigator is C.H. Chen.) 

 

2002 – 2005    Office of Naval Research:  “Advancing the Solvability of Combinatorial

Optimization Problems” (Manfred Padberg is funded under                                                      

this grant.  I am Principal Investigator).

 

2000– 2002     Air Force Office of Scientific Research: “Real Time Scheduling And Routing 

(two-year grant)

 

1996 – 2000    Office of Naval Research: “ Solving combinatorial optimization problems arising

in strike-force planning”. Joint research with M. W. Padberg.  

                        (four-year grant)

 

1995               Grumman Data Systems: “The use of optimization to evaluate computer hardware

configurations

 

1993 – 1995    Office of Naval Research: “Advances in solving large-scale combinatorial optimization

problems” Joint research with M. W. Padberg. (three-year grant)

 

1992 – 1995    Office of Naval Research: `”Doctoral Research Funding in Combinatorial Optimization” 

AASERT Award which supports a doctoral student  for three years of study and research.

 

1990 – 1992    Office of Naval Research: “Solution Procedures for Large-scale Combinatorial

Optimization Problems” Joint research with  M. W. Padberg. (three year grant)

 

1990 – 1992    Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Office of Naval Research:

            “Solution Procedures for Large-scale Combinatorial

            Optimization Problems”.  Joint research with Manfred W. Padberg.

 

1989 – 1990    Center for Information Technology  (CIT): “Using distributed processor to solve large

compute-bound optimization problems”,  Joint research with Timothy Cannon,

Stephen Nash, and Ariela Sofer. (one year grant)

 

1987 – 1990    National Science Foundation: Systems Theory and Operations Research,

                        Solving  Large Discrete Optimization Problems Using Polyhedral Theory and Branch

& Cut”, Joint research with M. W. Padberg.  (three year grant)

 

1987 – 1989    Office of Naval Research: “Polyhedral Theory and Scientific Computation

for Solving Large Discrete Optimization Problems” Joint research with                                      

M. W. Padberg. (three year grant)

 

Editorial Activities:

 

2004 – present             Editorial Board, Interfaces

 

2000 – present             Editorial Board, Information Systems Frontiers

 

2000 – present             Editorial Board, Annals of Operations Research

 

1991 – present             Associate Editor, Computational Optimization and Applications

 

1994 – 1998                Associate Editor, SIAM Journal on Optimization

 

1987 – present             Associate Editor, Mathematical Programming, Series B

 

1984 – 1997                Associate Editor, International Abstracts of Operations Research

 

1987 – 1992                Associate Editor, ORSA Journal on Computing

 

1987                           Associate Editor, Operations Research special issue on Decision

            Support Systems

 

1978 – 1982                Founding Editor of the Newsletter of the Committee on Algorithms

of the Mathematical Programming Society

 

Professional Society Activities

 

Present                         Chair                2007 Puerto Rico INFORMS Summer Meeting

                                                            (INFORMS is the Institute for Operations Research

                                                            and the Management Sciences)

 

2004 – present             Member           The INFORMS Publications Committee

 

2004                            Member           INFORMS Nominating Committee

 

2004                            Member           INFORMS Strategic Planning Committee

 

2002                            Member           INFORMS Professional Recognition Committee

 

2002                            Member           Committee for the International Mathematical                                                               

Olympiad held at George Mason University

 

1999-present                Member           Organizing Committee for Practice Meeting for                                                             

INFORMS

 

2000-2001                   Member           Strategic Planning Committee of INFORMS

 

1999                            Member           Council of Scientific Society Presidents

 

1995-1999                   Exec Comm.    INFORMS

 

1998                            President          Institute for Operations Research and the

                                                            Management Sciences (INFORMS)

 

1997                            Pres.-elect        INFORMS

 

1995-1996                   Treasurer          INFORMS

 

1993-1994                   Treasurer          Operations Research Society of America (ORSA)

 

1991-1994                   Chair                ORSA/The Institute of Management Sciences                                                  

(TIMS) Joint Finance Committee

 

1990-1993                   Member           TIMS' Academic/Practitioner's Interface Committee

 

1991-1992                   Member           1992 ORSA Practice Prize

 

1989-1991                   Member           Conference Board on the Mathematical Sciences

                                                            (TIMS’ representative)

 

1989-1990                   Co-chair           1989 Lanchester Prize Committee, ORSA

            Prize Committee to determine best-published paper                                          

in Operations Research during the years 1986-1988.

 

1985-1988                   Council              The Mathematical Programming Society

 

1985-1988                   Council ORSA

 

1988                            Chair                ad-hoc Committee on Practice, ORSA

 

1987-1990                   Chair                Membership Committee, Mathematical

                                                            Programming Society

 

1988                            Associate         ORSA/TIMS Spring General Meeting, DC

                                    Program

                                    Chair   

 

1987                            Nominating       ORSA

                                    Committee

 

1982-1986                   Chair                ORSA's Technical Section Committee

 

1985                            Co-Director     ORSA Symposium on the Impact of                                                                                                    

Microcomputers on Operations Research

 

1984                            Co-Director     NATO Advanced Study Institute on Computational

            Mathematical Programming

 

1982-1985                   Chair                Committee on Algorithms of the Mathematical

            Programming Society

 

198l-1983                    Reviewer          ORSA Literature for Current Index in Statistics

 

1981                            Chair                ORSA's Computer Science Technical Section

 

1980                            Member           ORSA's Nominating Committee

 

1980                            Member           ORSA's Committee on Awards

 

1980                            Vice Chair        ORSA's Computer Science Technical Section

 

1979                            Sec/Treas.        ORSA's Computer Science Technical Section

 

University Committees

 

2005                            Chair                Search Committee for Chair of ECE Department

                                                            (internal search)

 

2005                            Member           Search Committee for Chair of Systems Engineering

                                                            and Operations Research Department (internal

search)

 

2004                            Chair                Review for Reappointment of  Dean of School of

Computational Science Review

 

2002                            Chair                Search Committee for Chair of CEIE

 

2000                            Member           Committee to Evaluate Dean of School of

                                                            Management

 

1999                            Member           Provost Search Committee

 

1997-1998                   Member           Planning and Resource Management Committee

 

1997-1998                   Member           Graduate Planning Council

 

1997                            Member           President’s Council

 

1996                            Member           University Life Committee

 

1996                            Member           Dean Search, School of Management

 

1996                            Member           Long Range Planning Subcommittee of ACAC

 

1995-1996                   Member           Faculty Research Oversight Committee

 

1995                            Member           ACS Network Advisory Committee

 

1993                            Member           Promotion and Tenure Committee for School of                                                                       

Management

 

1992                            Member           Arts and Sciences Grievance Committee


 

 School-wide (ITE) Committees (served sometime while at GMU):

 

 ITE Administrative Council

 ITE Dean Search Committee

 Promotion and Tenure Committee

 Graduate Studies Committee

 Grievance Committee

 SITE Computing Committee

 

Department Committees (SEOR) (served sometime on each of these committees while at GMU):

 

 Promotion and Tenure Committee

 Recruitment and Hiring Committee

 Library Committee

 Graduate Studies Committee

 Undergraduate Studies Committee

 

Publications

 

Books

 

Impacts of Microcomputers on Operations Research (co-edited with Saul Gass,

Harvey Greenberg and Warren Langley) North Holland Press  (1986)

 

Computational Mathematical Programming (co-edited with R. H. Jackson and

J. Telgen) Mathematical Programming Study 31, North Holland Press (1987)

 

Refereed Publications

 

“A Successive Underestimation Method for Concave Minimization” (with James E.

Falk) Mathematics of Operations Research, 1,251-259 (1976)

 

“A Non-convex Max-Min Problem” (with James F. Falk). Naval Research Logistics

Quarterly 24, 44l-450 (1977).

 

“Methodology and Analysis for Comparing Discrete Linear L1 Approximation Codes”

(with J. Gilsinn, R.H.F. Jackson, E. Leyendecker, P. Saunders, and D. Shier). Communications

 in Statistics, Simulation and Computation B6, 399-413 (1977).

 

“A Lexical Synthesis Approach to User-Oriented Input Specification” (with Christoph Witzgall).

Tools for Improved Computing in the 80's: Proceedings of the l7th Technical Symposium

of the Association of Computing Machinery. pp.179-185. ACM Publications. (1977)

 

“A Test Problem Generator for Discrete Linear L1 Approximation Problems” (with D.R.

Shier)  ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (1980)

 

“A Method for Globally Minimizing Concave Functions Over Convex Sets”, Mathematical

Programming 20 22-32 (1981).

 

“Documentation for a Model: A Hierarchical Approach”(with S.I.Gass, R.H.F. Jackson, L.S.

Joel, and P.B. Saunders) Computers and Operations Research 24,  (1981).

 

“In Pursuit of a Methodology for Testing Mathematical Programming Software” (with R.H.F.

Jackson). Evaluating Mathematical Programming Techniques (ed John M. Mulvey). 

Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, No. 199 (1982).}

(note: only weakly refereed)

 

“Estimating the parameters of a Queuing System” (co-authored with C.M. Harris).

European Journal of Operations Research 27 207-214 (1986).

 

“Evaluation and Modeling of the IRS Telephone Taxpayer Information System” (with C.M.

Harris and P.B. Saunders). Operations Research 35 504-523 (1987)

 

“LP-Based Combinatorial Problem Solving” (with M. Padberg) Annals of Operations

Research 4 145-194 (1986).

 

“Concave Minimization via Collapsing Polytopes” (with J. Falk). Operations Research

34, 919-929, (1986)

 

“Comparison of Mathematical Programming Software: A Case Study Using Discrete L1

Approximation Codes”.(with P.D. Domich, R.H.F. Jackson, P.B. Saunders and D.R. Shier)

Computers and Operations Research 14 435-447 (1987)

 

“Operations Research: The Next Decade” (committee member, the Committee On the Next

Decade in Operations Research) report published in Operations Research, OR Forum Section,

36  619-637 (1988) (note: one of 30 authors)

 

“Large-scale 0-1 linear programming on distributed workstations” (with Timothy Cannon)

Annals of Operations Research 22 181-217 (1990).

 

“Locating Tax Facilities: A Graphics-Based Microcomputer Optimization Model” (with P. D.

Domich, R. H. F. Jackson, and M. McLain Management Science 37 960-979 (1991)

 

“Improving LP-representations of Zero-one Linear Programs for Branch-and-Cut” (with Manfred

Padberg) ORSA Journal on Computing 3 121-134 (1991)

 

“Solving large-scale crew-scheduling arising in the airline industry” (with Manfred Padberg)

Management Science 39 657-682 (1993).

 

“Solving Latin-cube Sampling Problems using the Multi-dimensional Generalized Assignment

Problem” (with C. Harris and L. Yarrow). European Journal of Operations Research (1994)

 

“An integer-programming approach to solving a latin-hypercube sampling problem” (with C.

Harris and L. Yarrow) O.R. Spektrum (1995).

 

Bestimmung optimaler Einsatzplane fur Flugpersonal” (with Manfred Padberg) in Mathematics

in der Praxis, eds A. Bachem, M. Junger and R. Schrader. Springer Press.

 (1996)

 

“Integer and Combinatorial Programming” (with Manfred Padberg) Encyclopedia of Operations

Research 76-83  (1996) ( note: only weakly refereed) updated version will appear in Second

Edition, 2000.

 

“The Traveling Salesman Problem” (with Manfred Padberg) Encyclopedia of Operations Research

76-83  (1996) (note: only weakly refereed) updated version in Second Edition, 2000, 94-100).

 

“Set-covering, packing and partitioning problems  (with Manfred Padberg) Encyclopedia of

Optimization  (2000) (note: only weakly refereed)

 

"Combinatorial Optimization: History and Future Challenges", Journal of Applied and

Computational Mathematics, 124  (2000) 341-360.

 

“A column generation and branch-and-cut approach to the bandwidth packing problem”

(with Christine Villa) submitted to the NIST Journal of Research to appear in a special issue

honoring Christoph Witzgall (expected publication date: First quarter, 2006).

 

“Observations and Near-Direct Implementations of the Ascending Proxy Auction” (with D.

Menon, S. VandenHeever, and T. Wilson) to appear as Chapter 17 in Combinatorial Auctions

MIT Press (publication date: December, 2005).

 

“Auctions for the Safe, Efficient and Equitable Allocation of Airspace System Resources”

(with M. Ball and G. Donohue) to appear as Chapter 20 in Combinatorial Auctions MIT

(expected publication date: December, 2005).

 

“Testing Linear Pricing Algorithms for use in Ascending Combinatorial Auctions” (with  M.

Dunford, D. Menon, R. Sultana, and T. Wilson) submitted to INFORMS Journal of Computing

(2005)

 

“The Dance of the Thirty Ton Trucks” (with Martin Durbin) accepted subject to minor revisions. 

Operations Research (accepted July, 2005)

 

Technical Reports:

 

“Determining Aircraft Altitude by Multilateration:  An Error Analysis. (with Judith F. Gilsinn)

National Bureau of Standards Technical Report  for the Federal Aviation Administration (1978).

  

“Resource Requirement and Allocations in IRS' Audit Division” (with Lambert S. Joel and Martin

H. Pearl).  National Bureau of Standards Technical Report NBSIR 79-l7ll2, NIST, Gaithersburg,

MD 20899 (1979).

 

“Interim Report on Model Assessment Methodology:  Documentation Assessment” (with Saul I.

Gass, Richard H.F. Jackson, Lambert S. Joel,and Patsy B. Saunders). National Bureau of Standards

Technical Report  NBSIR 80-197l, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (1980).

 

“Probabilities of Vertical Overlap:  A Sensitivity Analysis” (with Howard K. Hung and Judith F.

Gilsinn).National Bureau of Standards Technical Report NBSIR 80-1990, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD

20899 (1980).}

 

“Methods for Model Evaluation (with Richard H. F. Jackson). The Application of Systems

Science to National Energy Policy Planning a NATO Advanced Research Institute

Publication (1980).

 

“An Annotated Restatement of the Midterm Oil and Gas Supply Modeling System Methodology”

(with Lambert S. Joel). National Bureau of Standards Technical Report NBSIR 80-2044. NIST,

Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (1980).

 

“The NBS Energy Model Assessment Project:  Summary and Overview”. (with S. I. Gass, R.H.F.

Jackson, L.S. Joel, and P.B. Saunders) National Bureau of Standards Technical Report NBSIR

80-2128. NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (1980).

 

“Evaluation of L1 Codes Using Polynomial Approximation Problems” (with P.D. Domich, R.H. F.

Jackson, P.B. Saunders, and D.R. Shier).Technical Report NBSIR-81-2428. NIST, Gaithersburg,

MD 20899 (1981)

 

“Evaluation of the IRS Telephone Information System:  Simulation and Analysis” (with Patsy B.

Saunders). National Bureau of Standards Technical Report NBSIR 8l-2198. NIST, Gaithersburg,

MD 20899 (1980).

 

“Methods for Model Evaluation” (with R.H.F. Jackson) Energy Policy Planning (ed Bayraktar,

Cherniavski, Laugton and Ruft) NATO Conference Series, Series II: Systems Science (198l).

 

“Testing Mathematical Programming Software:  Progress and Problems” (with R.H.F. Jackson).

National Bureau of Standards NBSIR 82-2245.  NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (1982).

 

“LP-Based Combinatorial Problem Solving (with M. Padberg). Computational Mathematical

Programming ed. Klaus Schittkowski. Springer-Verlag (1984).

 

“The Facility Location Problem: An Interactive Graphics-Based Approach” (with P. D. Domich,

R. H. F. Jackson and M. Mc Lain). National Bureau of Standards Technical Report

NBS-IR 86-3482.  NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 20899(1986).   

 

“Using the Smoothed anchoring method to obtain current price estimates” (with M. Dunford,

M. Durbin, D. Menon, and R. Sultanta) in Public Notice (DA 02-260) FCC 2002

Attachments B 1-7.

 

“Auction of Licenses in the 747-762 and 777-792 Bands, Round Results Process and Results

Replication” (with M. Dunford, D. Menon, and R. Sultana) in Public Notice (DA 02-995)

pp 1-15.  2002

 

“A Package Bidding Tool for the FCC’s Spectrum Auctions, and its Effect on Auction

Outcomes with (Dinesh Menon, and Susara A. van den Heever) Technical Report. 2005