Introduction to Operations Research

An introduction to the field of operations research, where mathematical models are used to aid in decision making. Learn the basis of linear and integer programming for optimal decision making.

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

• Formulate LP models
• Solve LP models with Simplex
• Apply the fundamental insight and know simplex in the matrix form
• Relate primal and dual problems, and perform sensitivity analysis
• Formulate and solve transportation and assignment problems
• Formulate integer programming models
• Know total unimodular matrices and know their their connection to linear programming

Course/programme description:

Operations research (OR) is about applying mathematical models to help decision makers. The course aims to give a general orientation about OR methods, enabling students to evaluate the possibility of using OR in a given problem setting, and to lay a firm foundation for further studies. Also, the course aims to enable students to use some OR methods on decision problems; optimization of linear models (Linear Programming and integer linear programming) is emphasized. The course yields a useful background for working with mathematical models in most areas of engineering science.

The course ends with a written exam to be held physically at DTU.