Draft:OptTek

OptTek Systems, Inc. also known as "OptTek," is a small American business that specializes in optimization software and analytical services for modeling and simulation. Its CEO is James Kelly and it is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.

History
In the early 1990s through the 2000s, three University of Colorado professors—James Kelly, Manuel Laguna and Fred Glover —worked together to develop new methods for complex optimization models. These included metaheuristic methodologies and search strategies such as Tabu Search and Scatter Search. In 1992 they created OptTek Systems, Inc. and the OptQuest optimization system, the company’s first core proprietary software technology. OptTek provides software and services in both the commercial and U.S. government sectors. Much of OptTek’s commercial sales are through channel partnerships with providers of discrete event and Monte Carlo simulation frameworks. OptTek has won many Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer awards from the US government.

Work and Software
With NSF grant funding, the OptTek team developed OptForce, a workforce planning solution. OptForce began in 2005 and uses a combination of simulation, optimization modeling, and predictive analytics to create practical workforce intelligence.

In 2010, OptTek won an SBIR Phase II award to create OptDef, a simulation optimization government use rights tool. It utilizes OptQuest as its base engine and is currently in use across multiple Department of Defense agencies and commands such as the Missile Defense Agency.

SimWrapper provides a full user interface to set up and manage simulation optimization and analysis projects. SimWrapper interacts with OptQuest to perform optimization, design of experiments, sampling, and batch runs. SimWrapper has a library of analytical and plotting tools to analyze completed model runs and explore model sensitivities.

Partners and Software Tools that Utilize OptQuest

 * Arena
 * AnyLogic
 * FlexSim
 * Palisade
 * Simio
 * Simul8

Past Partners

 * CACI
 * VOSE