Mathieu Besançon

postdoctoral researcher at ZIB since January 2021

📬 Contact

office Room 3105 at ZIB
e-mail besancon (at) zib.de
homepage matbesancon.xyz
languages German, English, and French

🎓 Academic Background

Dec 2020 Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at Poly Montréal and EC Lille
Sep 2016 M.Sc. in Process Engineering at UTC

🔬 Research

My research interests span the theory, methods, and algorithms for several flavours of mathematical optimization. More specifically, I have been interested in exact solution methods for constrained optimization with constraint structures we can exploit. These include solution methods, computational models, and software in mixed-integer and convex optimization and in particular around the SCIP framework and Frank-Wolfe related approaches. Recently, I have been exploring applications for these classes of problems in quantum information, systems biology, networks and infrastructure, and data science.

Preprints

  1. Hendrych, D., Troppens, H., Besançon, M., and Pokutta, S. (2022). Convex Integer Optimization with Frank-Wolfe Methods. [arXiv] [slides] [code]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{htbp_cio_22,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2208.11010},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  year = {2022},
  author = {Hendrych, Deborah and Troppens, Hannah and Besançon, Mathieu and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {Convex Integer Optimization with Frank-Wolfe Methods},
  code = {https://github.com/ZIB-IOL/Boscia.jl},
  slides = {https://pokutta.com/slides/20220915_boscia.pdf}
}
  2. Bestuzheva, K., Besançon, M., Chen, W.-K., Chmiela, A., Donkiewicz, T., van Doornmalen, J., Eifler, L., Gaul, O., Gamrath, G., Gleixner, A., Gottwald, L., Graczyk, C., Halbig, K., Hoen, A., Hojny, C., van der Hulst, R., Koch, T., Lübbecke, M., Maher, S. J., … Witzig, J. The SCIP Optimization Suite 8.0. [URL] [code]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{BestuzhevaBesanconEtal2021,
  url = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-85309},
  author = {Bestuzheva, Ksenia and Besançon, Mathieu and Chen, Wei-Kun and Chmiela, Antonia and Donkiewicz, Tim and van Doornmalen, Jasper and Eifler, Leon and Gaul, Oliver and Gamrath, Gerald and Gleixner, Ambros and Gottwald, Leona and Graczyk, Christoph and Halbig, Katrin and Hoen, Alexander and Hojny, Christopher and van der Hulst, Rolf and Koch, Thorsten and Lübbecke, Marco and Maher, Stephen J. and Matter, Frederic and Mühmer, Erik and Müller, Benjamin and Pfetsch, Marc and Rehfeldt, Daniel and Schlein, Steffan and Schlösser, Franziska and Serrano, Felipe and Shinano, Yuji and Sofranac, Boro and Turner, Mark and Vigerske, Stefan and Wegscheider, Fabian and Wellner, Philipp and Weninger, Dieter and Witzig, Jakob},
  title = {The SCIP Optimization Suite 8.0},
  code = {https://scipopt.org}
}
  3. Turner, M., Berthold, T., Besançon, M., and Koch, T. Branching Via Cutting Plane Selection: Improving Hybrid Branching. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{branching_cutsel_23,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2306.06050},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  author = {Turner, Mark and Berthold, Timo and Besançon, Mathieu and Koch, Thorsten},
  title = {Branching Via Cutting Plane Selection: Improving Hybrid Branching}
}
  4. Tjusila, G., Besançon, M., Turner, M., and Koch, T. How Many Clues To Give? A Bilevel Formulation For The Minimum Sudoku Clue Problem. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{sudoku_clues_23,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2305.01697},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  author = {Tjusila, Gennesaret and Besançon, Mathieu and Turner, Mark and Koch, Thorsten},
  title = {How Many Clues To Give? A Bilevel Formulation For The Minimum Sudoku Clue Problem.}
}

Conference proceedings

  1. Turner, M., Berthold, T., and Besançon, M. (2023). A Context-Aware Cutting Plane Selection Algorithm for Mixed-Integer Programming. Proceedings of Conference of the Society for Operations Research in Germany. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @inproceedings{context_cutsel_23,
  year = {2023},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of Conference of the Society for Operations Research in Germany},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2307.07322},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  author = {Turner, Mark and Berthold, Timo and Besançon, Mathieu},
  title = {A Context-Aware Cutting Plane Selection Algorithm for Mixed-Integer Programming}
}
  2. Turner, M., Berthold, T., Besançon, M., and Koch, T. (2023). Cutting Plane Selection with Analytic Centers and Multiregression. Proceedings of International Conference on the Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research.
    [BibTeX]
    @inproceedings{cutsel_acenter_22,
  year = {2023},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of International Conference on the Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research},
  author = {Turner, Mark and Berthold, Timo and Besançon, Mathieu and Koch, Thorsten},
  title = {Cutting Plane Selection with Analytic Centers and Multiregression}
}
  3. Mexi, G., Besançon, M., Bolusani, S., Chmiela, A., Hoen, A., and Gleixner, A. (2023). Scylla: a Matrix-free Fix-propagate-and-project Heuristic for Mixed-integer Optimization. Proceedings of Conference of the Society for Operations Research in Germany. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @inproceedings{scyllaheuristic,
  year = {2023},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of Conference of the Society for Operations Research in Germany},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2307.03466},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  author = {Mexi, Gioni and Besançon, Mathieu and Bolusani, Suresh and Chmiela, Antonia and Hoen, Alexander and Gleixner, Ambros},
  title = {Scylla: a Matrix-free Fix-propagate-and-project Heuristic for Mixed-integer Optimization}
}
  4. Macdonald, J., Besançon, M., and Pokutta, S. (2022). Interpretable Neural Networks with Frank-Wolfe: Sparse Relevance Maps and Relevance Orderings. Proceedings of International Conference on Machine Learning. [arXiv] [poster] [video]
    [BibTeX]
    @inproceedings{mbp_interpretfw_22,
  year = {2022},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of International Conference on Machine Learning},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2110.08105},
  primaryclass = {cs.lG},
  author = {Macdonald, Jan and Besançon, Mathieu and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {Interpretable Neural Networks with Frank-Wolfe: Sparse Relevance Maps and Relevance Orderings},
  poster = {https://pokutta.com/slides/20220712_icml_poster_interpretable_rde.pdf},
  video = {https://slideslive.com/38983588}
}

Full articles

  1. Designolle, S., Iommazzo, G., Besançon, M., Knebel, S., Gelß, P., and Pokutta, S. (2023). Improved Local Models and New Bell Inequalities Via Frank-Wolfe Algorithms. Physical Review Research, 5(4). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.043059 [arXiv] [slides] [code]
    [BibTeX]
    @article{dibkgp_bell_23,
  year = {2023},
  journal = {Physical Review Research},
  month = oct,
  volume = {5},
  number = {4},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.043059},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2302.04721},
  primaryclass = {quant-ph},
  author = {Designolle, Sébastien and Iommazzo, Gabriele and Besançon, Mathieu and Knebel, Sebastian and Gelß, Patrick and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {Improved Local Models and New Bell Inequalities Via Frank-Wolfe Algorithms},
  code = {https://github.com/ZIB-IOL/BellPolytopes.jl},
  slides = {https://www.pokutta.com/slides/20230808-tokyo-bell.pdf}
}
  2. Besançon, M., Garcia, J. D., Legat, B., and Sharma, A. (2023). Flexible Differentiable Optimization Via Model Transformations. INFORMS Journal on Computing. DOI: 10.1287/ijoc.2022.0283 [URL] [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @article{diffopt_23,
  year = {2023},
  journal = {INFORMS Journal on Computing},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1287/ijoc.2022.0283},
  url = {https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/epdf/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0283},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2206.06135},
  primaryclass = {cs.LG},
  author = {Besançon, Mathieu and Garcia, Joaquim Dias and Legat, Benoît and Sharma, Akshay},
  title = {Flexible Differentiable Optimization Via Model Transformations}
}
  3. Bestuzheva, K., Besançon, M., Chen, W.-K., Chmiela, A., Donkiewicz, T., van Doornmalen, J., Eifler, L., Gaul, O., Gamrath, G., Gleixner, A., Gottwald, L., Graczyk, C., Halbig, K., Hoen, A., Hojny, C., van der Hulst, R., Koch, T., Lübbecke, M., Maher, S. J., … Witzig, J. (2023). Enabling Research Through the SCIP Optimization Suite 8.0. ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software. DOI: 10.1145/3585516 [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @article{BestuzhevaBesanconEtal2023,
  year = {2023},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software},
  doi = {10.1145/3585516},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2303.07101},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  author = {Bestuzheva, Ksenia and Besançon, Mathieu and Chen, Wei-Kun and Chmiela, Antonia and Donkiewicz, Tim and van Doornmalen, Jasper and Eifler, Leon and Gaul, Oliver and Gamrath, Gerald and Gleixner, Ambros and Gottwald, Leona and Graczyk, Christoph and Halbig, Katrin and Hoen, Alexander and Hojny, Christopher and van der Hulst, Rolf and Koch, Thorsten and Lübbecke, Marco and Maher, Stephen J. and Matter, Frederic and Mühmer, Erik and Müller, Benjamin and Pfetsch, Marc and Rehfeldt, Daniel and Schlein, Steffan and Schlösser, Franziska and Serrano, Felipe and Shinano, Yuji and Sofranac, Boro and Turner, Mark and Vigerske, Stefan and Wegscheider, Fabian and Wellner, Philipp and Weninger, Dieter and Witzig, Jakob},
  title = {Enabling Research Through the SCIP Optimization Suite 8.0}
}
  4. Wilken, S. E., Besançon, M., Kratochvíl, M., Kuate, C. A. F., Trefois, C., Gu, W., and Ebenhöh, O. (2022). Interrogating the Effect of Enzyme Kinetics on Metabolism Using Differentiable Constraint-based Models. Metabolic Engineering.
    [BibTeX]
    @article{enzymekinetics22,
  year = {2022},
  journal = {Metabolic Engineering},
  month = nov,
  author = {Wilken, St. Elmo and Besançon, Mathieu and Kratochvíl, Miroslav and Kuate, Chilperic Armel Foko and Trefois, Christophe and Gu, Wei and Ebenhöh, Oliver},
  title = {Interrogating the Effect of Enzyme Kinetics on Metabolism Using Differentiable Constraint-based Models}
}
  5. Besançon, M., Carderera, A., and Pokutta, S. (2022). FrankWolfe.jl: A High-Performance and Flexible Toolbox for Frank-Wolfe Algorithms and Conditional Gradients. INFORMS Journal on Computing. [arXiv] [summary] [slides] [code]
    [BibTeX]
    @article{besanccon2022frankwolfe,
  year = {2022},
  journal = {INFORMS Journal on Computing},
  month = feb,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2104.06675},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  author = {Besançon, Mathieu and Carderera, Alejandro and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {FrankWolfe.jl: A High-Performance and Flexible Toolbox for Frank-Wolfe Algorithms and Conditional Gradients},
  code = {https://github.com/ZIB-IOL/FrankWolfe.jl},
  slides = {https://pokutta.com/slides/20210710_FW-simpleSteps-SelfConcordance.pdf},
  summary = {https://pokutta.com/blog/research/2021/04/20/FrankWolfejl.html}
}