Dick Forrester

Professor of Mathematics and Data Analytics

B.A., Alfred University, 1995
M.S., Clemson University, 1997
Ph.D., 2002

Contact Information

Phone: 717-245-1668
Email: forrestr@dickinson.edu
Office: Tome 235

Personal Information

I am a Professor of Mathematics and Data Analytics and serve as the co-chair of the new Department of Data Analytics. I graduated from Alfred University in 1995 with a BA in mathematics and a minor in computer science. I completed my Ph.D. at Clemson University in Mathematical Sciences and joined the Dickinson faculty in 2002. I served as chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science from 2013-2017.

I'm originally from a small town in Western NY called Almond, which is an hour south of Rochester. I've been training in the martial arts for almost 40 years and was recently promoted to Rokudan (6th degree black belt) with the title Renshi.

Course and Advising Information

Spring 2024:
MATH/COMP 241 (Computational Mathematics)
DATA/COMP 200 (Data Systems for Data Analytics)

Office Hours: Monday's 8:00-9:00 am, Wednesday's 1:00-2:00 pm, Thursday's 10:30-11:30 am

I have partnered with DataCamp to help my students to learn to program in R and Python.

Research Interests

My scholarship is at the interface of operations research, computer science, and data analytics. Operations research is a scientific approach to analyzing problems and making decisions, usually under conditions requiring the allocation of scare resources. The majority of my research has centered around the development of techniques for solving problems that can be modeled as nonlinear 0-1 programs. I am also interested in modeling and analyzing real world problems. Some recent projects include optimal crop rotation modeling, assigning students to schools to minimize both transportation costs and socioeconomic variation between schools, and balancing faculty and student preferences in the assignment of students to first-year seminars.

Curriculum Vitae [pdf file]

Teaching Interests

As an applied mathematician, my teaching interests primarily center around statistics, operations research, computational mathematics, and algorithms. I also regularly teach discrete mathematics and linear algebra.

Selected Publications and Book Chapters

Forrester, R., and L. Waddell "Modeling Using Logical Constraints," In: Encyclopedia of Optimization, Pardalos, P.M., Prokopyev, O.A. (eds), Springer, 2023.
Forrester, R., and L. Waddell "Linearization Strategies for Binary Quadratic and Higher-Order Polynomial Programs," In: Encyclopedia of Optimization, Pardalos, P.M., Prokopyev, O.A. (eds), Springer, 2023.
Forrester, R., "Crop Rotation Modeling," In: Encyclopedia of Optimization, Pardalos, P.M., Prokopyev, O.A. (eds), Springer, 2023.
Forrester, R., and L. Waddell, "Strengthening a Linear Reformulation of the 0-1 Cubic Knapsack Problem via Variable Reordering," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Vol. 44, 498-517, 2022.
Forrester, R., and E. Marshall, "Beyond Technical Skills: The Case for a Liberal Arts Approach to Data Analytics," Education Reimagined, July 2021.
Forrester, R.,and N. Hunt-Isaak, "Computational Comparison of Exact Solution Methods for 0-1 Quadratic Programs: Recommendations for Practitioners," Journal of Applied Mathematics, Vol. 2020, Article ID 5974820, 21 pages, 2020.
Bouzarth, E., R. Forrester, K. Hutson, R. Reddoch, “Assigning Students to Schools to Minimize Both Transportation Costs and Socioeconomic Variation Between Schools,” Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Vol. 64, pp 1-8, 2018.
Bouzarth, E., R. Forrester, K. Hutson, R. Isaac, J. Midkiff, D. Rivers, L. Testa, “A Comparison of Algorithms for Finding an Efficient Theme Park Tour,” Journal of Applied Mathematics, Vol. 2018, Article ID 2453185, 14 pages, 2018.
Forrester, R., and M. Rodriguez, “An Integer Programming Approach to Crop Rotation Planning at an Organic Farm,” UMAP Journal, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp 5-25, 2018.
R. Forrester, “Tightening Concise Linear Reformulations of 0-1 Cubic Programs," Optimization, Vol. 65, No. 4, pp 877-903, 2016.
Hutson, K., S. Hedetniemi, and R. Forrester, “Constructing Gamma-Sets of Grids,” Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing,Vol. 95, pp 3-26, 2015.
Forrester, R., and K. Hutson, “Balancing Faculty and Student Preferences in the Assignment of Students to Groups, ”Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp 131-147, 2014.
Forrester, R., K. Hutson, and T. To. “Improving the Quality of the Assignment of Students to First-Year Seminars,” OR Insight, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp 120-139, 2013.
Forrester, R., W. Adams, and P. Hadavas. “Concise RLT Forms of Binary Programs: A Computational Study of the Quadratic Knapsack Problem,” Naval Research Logistics, Vol. 57, No. 1, pp 1-12, 2010.
Forrester, R., and H. Greenberg. “Quadratic Binary Programming Models in Computational Biology,” Algorithmic Operations Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp 110-129, 2008.
Adams, W., and R. Forrester. “Linear Forms of Nonlinear Expressions: New Insights on Old Ideas,” Operations Research Letters, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp 510-518, 2007.
Adams, W., and R. Forrester. “A Simple Recipe for Concise Mixed 0-1 Linearizations,” Operations Research Letters, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp 55-61, 2005.
Adams, W., R. Forrester, and F. Glover. “Comparisons and Enhancement Strategies for Linearizing Mixed 0-1 Quadratic Programs,”Discrete Optimization, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp 99-120, 2004.

Selected Student Research Projects

Advanced Greedy Algorithms for 0-1 Cubic Knapsack Problems, William Cheng (2023-2024)
Course Time-Slot Scheduling, Dung Ha (fall 2023)
First-Year Seminar Assignment Problem, John Chu (fall 2022 - fall 2023)
Supervised Machine Learning Based Heuristics for the Quadratic Multidimensional Knapsack Problem, Dzung Dinh (spring 2023)
Heuristics for 0-1 Cubic Knapsack Problems, Noah Hunt-Isaac (2019-2020)
A Computational Study of Solution Techniques for 0-1 Quadratic Programs, Noah Hunt-Isaac (summer 2018)
Heuristic Approaches to Nonlinear 0-1 Knapsack Problems, James Midkiff (2016-2017)
Construction of Test Problems for the 0-1 Quadratic Knapsack Problem, Peixin Sun (2016-2017)
The Time Dependent Traveling Salesman Problem: Efficient Algorithms to Tour Hersheypark, James Midkiff (summer 2016)
Linearization Strategies for 0-1 Nonlinear Fractional Programs, Tyler Ralston (2014-2015)
Dickinson College Vehicle Fleet Analysis, Tyler Ralston (2014-2015)
Optimal Crop Rotation at the Dickinson College Farm, Miguel Rodriquez (2011-2012)
Mathematical Techniques for Assigning First-Year Seminars, Thanh To (2010-2011)
Coefficient Shifting to Improve Glover's Linearization of the Heavist k-Subgraph Problem, Jared Lease (2007-2008)

Media

Web Links

Operations Research