The COIN-OR initiative (the Computational Infrastructure for
Operations Research) supports the creation and dissemination of open-source
software for operations research. In this presentation, I will discuss the
concept of open source software and the benefits of open source for the
computational O.R. community. I will also describe the COIN-OR project
itself, the role of the COIN-OR Foundation, the various components
currently distributed by COIN-OR, and how users and developers can make use
of and contribute to the initiative.

Prof. Saltzman earned his A.B. in mathematics and computer science from
Cornell and his M.S. and Ph.D. in operations research from Carnegie
Mellon. He is currently on the faculty of Clemson University's
Mathematical Sciences Dept. His research interest is computational
discrete optimization. He joined the COIN-OR project shortly after its
inception in 2000 and is the founding president of the COIN-OR Foundation.