Liger - An Open Source Integrated Optimization Environment

Although there exists a number of optimization frameworks only commercial and closed source software address, to an extent, real-world optimization problems and arguably these software packages are not very easy to use. In this work we introduce an open source integrated optimization environment which is designed to be extensible and have a smooth learning curve so that it can be used by the non-expert in industry. We call this environment, Liger. Liger is an application that is built about a visual programming language, by which optimization work-flows can be created. Additionally, Liger provides a communication layer with external tools, whose functionality can be directly integrated and used with native components. This fosters code reuse and further reduces the required effort on behalf of the practitioner in order to obtain a solution to the optimization problem. Furthermore, there exists a number of available algorithms which are fully configurable, however should the need arise new algorithms can also be created just as easily by reusing what we call operator nodes. Operator nodes perform specific tasks on a set, or a single solution. Lastly as visual exploration of the obtained solutions is essential for decision makers, we also provide state-of-the art visualization capabilities.