Spring 2000

ME/IE 8773-8774

The Political Districting Problem
by

Professor Gilbert Laporte
Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales
Center for Research on Transportation
Pavillon Andre-Aisenstadt, Suite 3520
2920 Chemin des services
Campus de l'Universite de Montreal
Montreal, Canada H3T 1J4

Wednesday, May 3, 2000
3:35 - 4:25 p.m.
Room 108 ME
Broadcast on UNITE Channel A
Coffee will be available in 152 ME following the seminar

In political districting, the aim is to partition a territory into electoral constituencies subject to some side constraints. The most common side constraints include contiguity, population equality, socio-economic homogeneity, similarity with previous districts, etc. It is generally agreed that there should be no political interference in the districting process and automated methods provide a safeguard against gerrymandering practices. Over the past few years, I have developed with two other researchers a new algorithm for political districting. It employs a multi criteria function and a tabu search mechanism capable of exploring within a short time a large number of good quality solutions. Solutions produced by the method can be visualized and assessed with respect to various criteria. The method was applied successfully to the cities of Edmonton and Montreal.

Gilbert Laporte obtained his Ph.D. in Operations Research at the London School of Economics in 1975. He is Professor of Operations Research at the ƒcole des Hautes ƒtudes Commerciales de Montreal, and adjuct Professor at the University of Alberta. He is also a member of the Centre for Research on Transportation (serving as director from 1987 to 1991) and Fellow of the Center for Management of Operations and Logistics, University of Texas at Austin. He has authored or coauthored several books, as well as more than 180 scientific articles in combinatatorial optimization, mostly in the aerras of vehicle routing, location and timetabling. He has also made more than 500 scientific presentations. He is the Editor of Transportation Science, and associate editor or editorial board member of several other operations research journals. He has received many sicientific awards including the PergamonPrize (United Kingdom) in 1987, the 1994 Merit Award of the Canadian Operational Research Society, the CORS Practice Prize on two occasions. In 1999, he was awarded the ACFAS Jacques-Rousseau Prize for Interdisciplinarity, and the President's Medal (Operational Research Society, United Kingdom). In 1998 he became a member of the Roayl Society of Canada.