Lunch Talk: Emergency Response Optimization in Developing Urban Centres

Who: Justin Boutilier, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Toronto

When: Wednesday, October 11th @ 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Where: RS207

Abstract: Time sensitive medical emergencies are a major health concern comprising one third of all deaths in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Despite evidence that emergency transport services can save lives, poor access and availability of emergency medical care in LMICs continues to be a widespread problem. In this paper, we develop a two-stage robust optimization model that optimizes both the location and routing of emergency response vehicles, incorporating both uncertain travel times and uncertain spatial demand, which are derived from real LMIC data.