COIN-OR Cup 2014 Winners:
Mehdi Towhidi and Dominique Orban
The winners of the 2014 COIN-OR Cup are Mehdi Towhidi and Dominique Orban, developers of CyLP. CyLP is a high-level Python package that allows researchers and advanced users to modify the behavior of the COIN-OR solvers Cbc and Clp by altering the branch-and-bound strategy or customizing the simplex pivot rule, for example. Previously such modifications required an extensive understanding of otherwise unnecessary low-level implementation details. CyLP has already attracted a number of users from industry and academia.
CyLP significantly lowers the barrier to making advanced use of COIN-OR solvers and was contributed back to COIN-OR as an official project this year. The judges therefore found Mehdi Towhidi and Dominique Orban deserving winners of the tenth annual COIN-OR Cup.
San Francisco, California, November 10, 2014