About me

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Business Informatics and Operations Management at Ghent University, Belgium. My main research interests are in the design and analysis of operations management tools for optimization problems, with a special focus on fairness issues, algorithm benchmarking, and the integration of machine learning within operations management.

Publications

2024
Which algorithm to select in sports timetabling?
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D., Clarner, J., Dimitsas, A., Fonseca, G. H., Lamas-Fernandez, C., Lester, M. M., Pedersen, J., Phillips, A. E., Rosati, R. M.
European Journal of Operational Research, 2024.
Minimal and fair waiting times for single-day sports tournaments with multiple fields
Garcia Tercero, L., Goossens, D., Van Bulck, D.
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, 2024.
The invigilator assignment problem
Verplancke, H., Van Bulck, D., Limère, V., Schmid, N. A.
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, 2024.
Sports timetabling: towards generic algorithms and performance insights
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, 2024.
2023
First-break-heuristically-schedule: Constructing highly-constrained sports timetables
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
Operations Research Letters, 2023.
A traditional Benders’ approach to sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
European Journal of Operational Research, 2023.
The International Timetabling Competition on sports timetabling (ITC2021)
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
European Journal of Operational Research, 2023.
Result-based talent identification in road cycling: discovering the next Eddy Merckx
Van Bulck, D., Vande Weghe, A., Goossens, D.
Annals of Operations Research, 2023.
2022
Optimizing rest times and differences in games played: an iterative two-phase approach
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
Journal of Scheduling, 2022.
Multi-neighbourhood Simulated Annealing for the Capacitated University Examination Timetabling Problem (ITC-2007)
Van Bulck, D., Schaerf, A., Goossens, D.
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling: Volume III, 2022.
Using Benders’ cuts to backtrack in sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
Proceedings of the 15th Workshop on Models and Algorithms for Planning and Scheduling Problems, MAPSP 2022, 2022.
International Timetabling Competition 2021: Sports Timetabling
Goossens, D., Beliën, J., Davari, M., Van Bulck, D.
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling: Volume III, 2022.
2021
Relax-fix-optimize heuristics for time-relaxed sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research, 2021.
Sports timetabling: theoretical results and new insights in algorithm performance
Van Bulck, D.
4OR - A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research, 2021.
The fifth International Timetabling Competition (ITC 2021): sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D., Beliën, J., Davari, M.
Mathsport International 2021 Proceedings, 2021.
2020
RobinX: a three-field classification and unified data format for round-robin sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D., Schönberger, J., Guajardo, M.
European Journal of Operational Research, 2020.
On the complexity of pattern feasibility problems in time-relaxed sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
Operations Research Letters, 2020.
An instance data repository for the round-robin sports timetabling problem
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D., Schönberger, J., Guajardo, M.
Management and Labour Studies, 2020.
Generalizing first-break-then-schedule to time-relaxed sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling - PATAT 2021: Volume I, 2020.
2019
Handling fairness issues in time-relaxed tournaments with availability constraints
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D.
Computers & Operations Research, 2019.
Scheduling a non-professional indoor football league: a tabu search based approach
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D., Spieksma, F. C. R.
Annals of Operations Research, 2019.
Fairness Trade-offs in Sports Timetabling
Goossens, D., Van Bulck, D., Xiajie, Y.
In Ley, C. and Dominicy, Y. (Ed.), Science meets Sports: when statistics are more than numbers, 2019.
2018
RobinX: an XML driven classification for round-robin sports timetabling
Van Bulck, D., Goossens, D., Schönberger, J., Guajardo, M.
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, 2018.

Teaching

2024-2021 Lecturer
Quality Management , Master of Business Engineering@ Ghent University.
Co-lecturer/co-titular for approximately 3 out of 6 ECTS points.
2022 Visiting Lecturer (10% employment rate)
Operations Research , Bachelor of Business Engineering@ KU Leuven, Brussels.
3 out of 6 ECTS points, 26 teaching hours.
2021 Visiting Lecturer (15% employment rate)
Production and Logistics Management , Bachelor of Business Engineering@ KU Leuven, Brussels.
3 out of 6 ECTS points, 26 teaching hours.
2020-2016 Teaching Assistant
Quality Management , Master of Business Engineering@ Ghent University.
Exercise sessions + discussion forum.

Invited Talks

2023 Instance Space Analysis
David Van Bulck
Invited Lecture @ NHH Bergen, Norway, May, 24th, 2023.
Sports Timetabling
David Van Bulck
Invited Lecture @ Dalarna University, Sweden, May, 30th, 2023.
2022 Benders' Decomposition
David Van Bulck
Invited Lecture @ University of Udine, Italy, June, 21st, 2022.

Awards and Grants

2023 FWO Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship (3 years)
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), 2023.
2022 Innovation Grant
Innovative education project worth €8,000 to implement an educational game for the course Quality Management,
Ghent University, 2022.
Case Competition Finalist
Finalist for the 'Freestyle O.R. Supreme 2022 edition',
INFORMS, 2022.
2021 Best Teacher Recognition
For the course 'Production and Logistics management' at KU Leuven campus Brussels,
KU Leuven, 2021.
2020 FWO Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship (3 years)
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), 2020.
Nominated for PhD Awards
Dissertation nominated by my doctoral jury,
EOS Pipet Price and EURO EDDA award, 2020.
2016 Finalist for Master thesis award P&L
Finalist for the Master thesis award P&L,
Research Centre for Operations Research and Business Statistics (ORSTAT, KU Leuven), 2016.

Academic Service

  • Conference Organizer: 3th Fairness in Sports Workshop (2024).
  • Conference Program Committee: International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT) (2024, 2022, 2020).
  • Invited Journal Reviews: 4OR, Annals of Operations Research, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Computers & Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Scheduling, Operational Research, Operations Research Letters, Sports Engineering, TOP.
  • Membership at Scientific Organizations: Member of the Flanders Make Core Lab CVAMO, Belgian OR society (ORBEL), Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), EURO working group OR in Sports, EURO working group on Automated Timetabling (PATAT), EURO working group on Data Science Meets Optimization, COnfiguration and SElection of ALgorithms group (COSEAL), and INFORMS group SpORts.
  • Institutional Responsibilities: Member of the Department Council at the Department of Business Informatics and Operations Management of Ghent University.

Selected Community Projects

Open Source Capacitated Examination Timetabling (CET): Solver Source Code for ITC-2007
Founder, maintainer, and core developer.
Data set RobinX: an XML-driven classification for round-robin sports timetabling
Founder, maintainer, and core developer.
Competition PATAT 2021 International Timetabling Competition
Main organizer.