OPAL Research Center will focus its research on optimization and learning, which is one of the core components of artificial intelligence.  Optimization and learning are mutually complementary and solve synergistically the same kind of problems, although with different emphases. Both are essential for the study of artificial intelligence.  In some sense, optimization lays particular emphasis on the final outcome of its problem solving while learning concerns more with the process of problem solving. Optimization is used in all kinds of learning algorithms, while learning facilitates optimization. The research areas of the OPAL Lab include, but are not limited to, the following: