publications

2025

1. Sparsity-Driven Aggregation of Mixed Integer Programs

   Liding Xu, Gioni Mexi, and Ksenia Bestuzheva

   In 23rd International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2025), 2025

   Abs DOI

   Cutting planes are crucial for the performance of branch-and-cut algorithms for solving mixed-integer programming (MIP) problems, and linear row aggregation has been successfully applied to better leverage the potential of several major families of MIP cutting planes. This paper formulates the problem of finding good quality aggregations as an 𝓁₀-norm minimization problem and employs a combination of the lasso method and iterative reweighting to efficiently find sparse solutions corresponding to good aggregations. A comparative analysis of the proposed algorithm and the state-of-the-art greedy heuristic approach is presented, showing that the greedy heuristic implements a stepwise selection algorithm for the 𝓁₀-norm minimization problem. Further, we present an example where our approach succeeds, whereas the standard heuristic fails to find an aggregation with desired properties. The algorithm is implemented within the constraint integer programming solver SCIP, and computational experiments on the MIPLIB 2017 benchmark show that although the algorithm leads to slowdowns on relatively "easier" instances, our aggregation approach decreases the mean running time on a subset of challenging instances and leads to smaller branch-and-bound trees.

2. State-of-the-art Methods for Pseudo-Boolean Solving with SCIP

   Gioni Mexi, Dominik Kamp, Yuji Shinano, and 8 more authors

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.03390, 2025

   arXiv
3. A Frank-Wolfe-based primal heuristic for quadratic mixed-integer optimization

   Gioni Mexi, Deborah Hendrych, Sébastien Designolle, and 2 more authors

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.01299, 2025

   Abs arXiv

   We propose a primal heuristic for quadratic mixed-integer problems. Our method extends the Boscia framework – originally a mixed-integer convex solver leveraging a Frank-Wolfe-based branch-and-bound approach – to address nonconvex quadratic objective and constraints. We reformulate nonlinear constraints, introduce preprocessing steps, and a suite of heuristics including rounding strategies, gradient-guided selection, and large neighborhood search techniques that exploit integer-feasible vertices generated during the Frank-Wolfe iterations. Computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in solving challenging MIQCQPs, achieving improvements on QPLIB instances within minutes and winning first place in the Land-Doig MIP Computational Competition 2025.

2024

1. Cut-based Conflict Analysis in Mixed Integer Programming

   Gioni Mexi, Felipe Serrano, Timo Berthold, and 2 more authors

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.15110, 2024

   Abs arXiv

   For almost two decades, mixed integer programming (MIP) solvers have used graph-based conflict analysis to learn from local infeasibilities during branch-and-bound search. In this paper, we improve MIP conflict analysis by instead using reasoning based on cuts, inspired by the development of conflict-driven solvers for pseudo-Boolean optimization. Phrased in MIP terminology, this type of conflict analysis can be understood as a sequence of linear combinations, integer roundings, and cut generation. We leverage this MIP perspective to design a new conflict analysis algorithm based on mixed integer rounding cuts, which theoretically dominates the state-of-the-art method in pseudo-Boolean optimization using Chvátal-Gomory cuts. Furthermore, we extend this cut-based conflict analysis from pure binary programs to mixed binary programs and-in limited form-to general MIP with also integer-valued variables. We perform an empirical evaluation of cut-based conflict analysis as implemented in the open-source MIP solver SCIP, testing it on a large and diverse set of MIP instances from MIPLIB 2017. Our experimental results indicate that the new algorithm improves the default performance of SCIP in terms of running time, number of nodes in the search tree, and the number of instances solved.

2. The SCIP optimization suite 9.0

   Suresh Bolusani, Mathieu Besançon, Ksenia Bestuzheva, and 8 more authors

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.17702, 2024

   arXiv
3. Probabilistic Lookahead Strong Branching via a Stochastic Abstract Branching Model

   Gioni Mexi, Somayeh Shamsi, Mathieu Besançon, and 1 more author

   In Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research, 2024

   Abs

   Strong Branching (SB) is a cornerstone of all modern branching rules used in the Branch-and-Bound (BnB) algorithm, which is at the center of Mixed-Integer Programming solvers. In its full form, SB evaluates all variables to branch on and then selects the one producing the best relaxation, leading to small trees, but high runtimes. State-of-the-art branching rules therefore use SB with working limits to achieve both small enough trees and short run times. So far, these working limits have been established empirically. In this paper, we introduce a theoretical approach to guide how much SB to use at each node within the BnB. We first define an abstract stochastic tree model of the BnB algorithm where the geometric mean dual gains of all variables follow a given probability distribution. This model allows us to relate expected dual gains to tree sizes and explicitly compare the cost of sampling an additional SB candidate with the reward in expected tree size reduction. We then leverage the insight from the abstract model to design a new stopping criterion for SB, which fits a distribution to the dual gains and, at each node, dynamically continues or interrupts SB. This algorithm, which we refer to as Probabilistic Lookahead Strong Branching, improves both the tree size and runtime over MIPLIB instances, providing evidence that the method not only changes the amount of SB, but allocates it better.

4. A Multi-Reference Relaxation Enforced Neighborhood Search Heuristic in SCIP

   Suresh Bolusani, Gioni Mexi, Mathieu Besançon, and 1 more author

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.00718, 2024

   arXiv
5. Branch and price for the length-constrained cycle partition problem

   Mohammed Ghannam, Gioni Mexi, Edward Lam, and 1 more author

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.17937, 2024

   arXiv

2023

1. Improving Conflict Analysis in MIP Solvers by Pseudo-Boolean Reasoning

   Gioni Mexi, Timo Berthold, Ambros Gleixner, and 1 more author

   In 29th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2023), 2023

   Abs DOI

   Conflict analysis has been successfully generalized from Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solving to mixed integer programming (MIP) solvers, but although MIP solvers operate with general linear inequalities, the conflict analysis in MIP has been limited to reasoning with the more restricted class of clausal constraint. This is in contrast to how conflict analysis is performed in so-called pseudo-Boolean solving, where solvers can reason directly with 0-1 integer linear inequalities rather than with clausal constraints extracted from such inequalities. In this work, we investigate how pseudo-Boolean conflict analysis can be integrated in MIP solving, focusing on 0-1 integer linear programs (0-1 ILPs). Phrased in MIP terminology, conflict analysis can be understood as a sequence of linear combinations and cuts. We leverage this perspective to design a new conflict analysis algorithm based on mixed integer rounding (MIR) cuts, which theoretically dominates the state-of-the-art division-based method in pseudo-Boolean solving. We also report results from a first proof-of-concept implementation of different pseudo-Boolean conflict analysis methods in the open-source MIP solver SCIP. When evaluated on a large and diverse set of 0-1 ILP instances from MIPLIB2017, our new MIR-based conflict analysis outperforms both previous pseudo-Boolean methods and the clause-based method used in MIP. Our conclusion is that pseudo-Boolean conflict analysis in MIP is a promising research direction that merits further study, and that it might also make sense to investigate the use of such conflict analysis to generate stronger no-goods in constraint programming.

2. Using multiple reference vectors and objective scaling in the Feasibility Pump

   Gioni Mexi, Timo Berthold, and Domenico Salvagnin

   EURO Journal on Computational Optimization, 2023

   Abs DOI

   The Feasibility Pump (FP) is one of the best-known primal heuristics for mixed-integer programming (MIP): more than 15 papers suggested various modifications of all of its steps. So far, no variant considered information across multiple iterations, but all instead maintained the principle to optimize towards a single reference integer point. In this paper, we evaluate the usage of multiple reference vectors in all stages of the FP algorithm. In particular, we use LP-feasible vectors obtained during the main loop to tighten the variable domains before entering the computationally expensive enumeration stage, a procedure we refer to as mRENS. Moreover, we consider multiple integer reference vectors to explore further optimizing directions and introduce alternative objective scaling terms to balance the contributions of the distance functions and the original MIP objective. Our computational experiments demonstrate that the new method can improve performance on general MIP test sets. In detail, our modifications provide a 29.3% solution quality improvement and 4.0% running time improvement in an embedded setting, needing 16.0% fewer iterations over a large test set of MIP instances. In addition, the method’s success rate increases considerably within the first few iterations. In a standalone setting, we also observe a moderate performance improvement, which makes our version of FP suitable for the two main use-cases of the algorithm.

3. Scylla: A Matrix-Free Fix-Propagate-and-Project Heuristic for Mixed-Integer Optimization

   Gioni Mexi, Mathieu Besançon, Suresh Bolusani, and 3 more authors

   In Operations Research Proceedings 2023, 2023

   Abs

   We introduce Scylla, a primal heuristic for mixed-integer optimization problems. It exploits approximate solves of the Linear Programming relaxations through the matrix-free Primal-Dual Hybrid Gradient algorithm with specialized termination criteria, and derives integer-feasible solutions via fix-and-propagate procedures and feasibility-pump-like updates to the objective function. Computational experiments show that the method is particularly suited to instances with hard linear relaxations.

2022

1. Length-constrained cycle partition with an application to UAV routing*

   Kai Hoppmann-Baum, Oleg Burdakov, Gioni Mexi, and 2 more authors

   Optimization Methods and Software, 2022

   Abs DOI

   This article discusses the Length-Constrained Cycle Partition Problem (LCCP), which constitutes a new generalization of the Travelling Salesperson Problem (TSP). Apart from nonnegative edge weights, the undirected graph in LCCP features a nonnegative critical length parameter for each vertex. A cycle partition, i.e. a vertex-disjoint cycle cover, is a feasible solution for LCCP if the length of each cycle is not greater than the critical length of each vertex contained in it. The goal is to find a feasible partition having a minimum number of cycles. Besides analyzing theoretical properties and developing preprocessing techniques, we propose an elaborate heuristic algorithm that produces solutions of good quality even for large-size instances. Moreover, we present two exact mixed-integer programming formulations (MIPs) for LCCP, which are inspired by well-known modeling approaches for TSP. Further, we introduce the concept of conflict hypergraphs, whose cliques yield valid constraints for the MIP models. We conclude with a discussion on computational experiments that we conducted using (A)TSPLIB-based problem instances. As a motivating example application, we describe a routing problem where a fleet of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) must patrol a given set of areas.

2020

1. Minimum Cycle Partition with Length Requirements

   Kai Hoppmann, Gioni Mexi, Oleg Burdakov, and 2 more authors

   In Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research, 2020

   Abs

   In this article we introduce a Minimum Cycle Partition Problem with Length Requirements (CPLR). This generalization of the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) originates from routing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Apart from nonnegative edge weights, CPLR has an individual critical weight value associated with each vertex. A cycle partition, i.e., a vertex disjoint cycle cover, is regarded as a feasible solution if the length of each cycle, which is the sum of the weights of its edges, is not greater than the critical weight of each of its vertices. The goal is to find a feasible partition, which minimizes the number of cycles. In this article, a heuristic algorithm is presented together with a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) formulation of CPLR. We furthermore introduce a conflict graph, whose cliques yield valid constraints for the MIP model. Finally, we report on computational experiments conducted on TSPLIB-based test instances.