IBM develops Optimisation model to help fight calamities

Mumbai, Apr 1 (UNI) IBM today announced that its scientists have created specialised math algorithms to help model and manage natural disasters -- wildfires, floods and diseases.

The ''stochastic optimization model'' developed by IBM math scientists in IBM Research Labs in New York and India creates flood scenarios in terms of their severity, location and spread characteristics, expresses budgetary restrictions by geography and funding agencies, optimises resource acquisition/deployment decisions, obtains strategic resource organization recommendations and obtains tactical optimal deployment decisions.

The two labs worked with business experts from IBM's Global Business Services and directly with clients to arm government bodies, relief agencies and companies with tools for strategic planning for more effective allocation of resources for natural disaster management and mitigation in creating the model, IBM said in a release here.

IBM's math team works on seemingly unsolvable problems in business, government and society. The mathematicians' magic potion is bottled up in complex algorithms -- essentially math equations that helps speed up and simplify complex tasks into everyday life -- such as determining the fastest route to deliver packages, detecting fraud in health insurance claims, automating complex risk decisions for international financial institutions, scheduling supply chain and production at a manufacturing plant to maximise efficiency or detecting patterns in medical data for new insights and breakthroughs.

''The challenge lies in matching high-end mathematical programming technologies with high-impact business and societal problems, while using open platforms and standards. Our researchers have worked on innovative optimisation solutions designed to create a roadmap for a responsive disaster risk reduction,'' IBM India Research Laboratory Director Dr Daniel Dias said in the release.

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