Alexander Lipovetsky

After graduating from Ural State University in 1976, I have been employed by Uralchimmash Plant (Yekaterinburg, Russia). While working for Uralchimmash, I founded the CAD/CAM department, where I initiated and managed the development of CAD/CAM systems for various manufacturing technologies. As a part of these activities I began the research of cutting, packing and nesting (C&P) in 1976. The first automatic nesting system was deployed in 1981. The last Sheet Metal CAM system for PC was complete in 1991, before my repatriation to Israel. In 1985, following the completion of my PhD in Applied Math. in 1983, I continued my work in the field of C&P - now in the Soviet Ac. of Sci. (Ural Branch). As the head supervisor of a research group and lab, I collaborated with different customer-enterprises in Russia. Additionally, I have been an appointed member of several regional scientific consulting organizations. Also, I have written reviews, and done editorial work for academic and industrial publishers. In 1985 I have published The Method of Zones - an optimal solution to non-guillotine rectangle packing problem. In 1988 The Method of Zones was awarded first prize as the Best Research of the year, by Soviet Ac. of Sci. (Ural Branch). See: Lipovetskii A.I. A Geometrical Approach to Computation of the Optimal Solution to the Rectangle Packing Problem, pp 93-110 (2008). Amer. Math. Soc. Transl 222 (2). (A list of reinterpretations of the method can be found here). Since 1990, the publication of new results had been suspended. Since my repatriation to Israel in 1992, I have been employed by various hi-tech companies as an algorithm manager, algorithm expert, algorithm & software engineer - yet I persisted in my research activities in C&P problems as a personal effort. A co-founder of Algomate, I am the chief algorithm engineer and the architect of the Nesting Factory system.