618-362 Applied Operations Research

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Objectives:

On completion of this subject, students should:

Comprehend:

• the issues involved in applying operations research principles, methods, and algorithms in the solution of real-world problems;

• the technical issues involved in using and developing operations research software for practical problems;

• the practical aspects of group projects in operations research.

Have developed:

• skills to apply various operations research methods and algorithms in the solution of practical problems;

• skills to participate successfully in group projects in operations research, including preparing reports and giving presentations;

• skills to use commercial operations research software in the solution of practical problems.

Appreciate:

• the scope and limitation of operations research methods and algorithms as far as solving practical problems is concerned;

• the scope and limitations of commercial operations research software as far as solving practical operations research problems is concerned.

• the practical issues and difficulties involved in group projects in operations research.

Content:

Operations Research Methods and Techniques: Practical aspects of various operations research methods for linear programming, integer programming and combinatorial optimisation, including selected topics from complexity, interior point methods, cutting planes, branch-and-bound, meta-heuristics, special heuristics and constraint logic programming. Issues involved in their application, including: selection of method, pricing rules, singularities, degeneracy, formulation, branching rules, variable priorities and primal heuristics. Applications: vehicle routing, facility location, cutting stock, manpower planning, and machine scheduling problems. Principles of computerised mathematical modelling: selected topics from mathematical modelling languages, matr ix generators, array oriented languages, and constraint logic programming. Software: familiarisation with operations research software in the solution of practical problems covering a selection from: linear, integer, and nonlinear programming; network optimisation, logistics and constraint logic programming

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