Hendrik Snyman, a fourth-year industrial engineering student at the North-West University (NWU), emerged as the victor in the recent Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA*) optimisation modeling competition.

The competition, which took place during the tutorial session of this year's 52nd annual ORSSA conference, presented an exciting opportunity for attendees to showcase their optimisation modeling skills. Prof Fanie Terblanche from Elytica presented the competition, and also sponsored the first-place cash prize of R3 500.

Participants were tasked with a complex problem: they had to optimise the connection of a fibre network at the lowest possible cost. To tackle this, contestants had to develop a mathematical model using the flow conservation modeling approach.

Hendrik says this competition was an invaluable opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills he had gained during his academic journey. He used the Elytica platform to create his mathematical model and used Python for the coding. The model's output was a cost analysis associated with connecting a network of houses to a distribution centre within the network.

*The Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA) serves as the national professional body dedicated to advancing the interests of those involved in operations research activities.

Prof Fanie Terblanche from Elytica congratulates NWU student Hendrik Snyman on winning the ORSSA optimisation modeling competition.