General information
Course aim and contents
The course's aim and contents are described at Chalmers student portal
Staff
Course literature
The course (i) and exercise (ii) books are available in both Swedish and English and sold by Cremona.
Complementary material (iii) (mainly from the book Optimization in Operations Research by R. L. Rardin, published by Prentice-Hall, 1998) will be handed out during the course.
Course plan

The course plan below is preliminary and may be adjusted!!
Lecture notes will be published prior to the respective lectures in the Activity column below.
The exercises indicated for the problem solving sessions 1-7 are preliminary.

Week 12 (March 17-21)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Tuesday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 1
Chapters in (i): 1, 2.1-5, 3
Introduction; course map; modelling optimization applications; graphic solution
Tuesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-15
Computer exercise on linear programming
Thursday 10.00-11.45
Problem solving session 1
Exercises in (ii): 3.4, 3.6, 3.10
Exercises on linear optimization modelling
Friday 10.00-10.45
Lecture 2a

AMPL and CPLEX, Computer exercise on linear programming Zuzana Šabartová
Friday 11.00-11.45
Lecture 2b

Supply chain (Assignment 1) Zuzana Šabartová
Friday 13.15-17.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-16.30
Computer exercise on linear programming
Week 13 (March 24-28)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Tuesday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 3
Chapters in (i): 2.4, 4.1-7, (7.1), 4.8-10
Convexity; basic feasible solution; the simplex method; (self study: degeneracy; unbounded solution; infeasibility; starting solutions)
Tuesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-15.00
Computer exercise on linear programming
Wednesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on linear programming
Thursday 10.00-11.45
Problem solving session 2
Exercises in (ii): 4.5, 4.6, 4.13
Exercises on linear optimization theory and algorithms
Friday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 4
Revised version
Chapters in (i): 6, (7.2-5), 5.1-5, (5.6)
Linear programming duality; economic interpretation; post-optimal and sensitivity analysis
Week 14 (March 31-April 4)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Tuesday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 5
Chapters in (i): 13, 2.6
Discrete optimization models and applications; complexity
Tuesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on linear programming
Wednesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on linear programming
Thursday 10.00-11.45
Problem solving session 3
Exercises in (ii): 5.5, 6.8, 6.10
Exercises on linear optimization duality and sensitivity analysis
Friday 10.00-10.45
Lecture 6a
Chapters in (i): 14.1-3, 15.1-3
Theory and algorithms for discrete optimization models
Friday 11.00-11.45
Lecture 6b

Maintenance scheduling optimization (Assignment 2)
Week 15 (April 7-11)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Monday 23.59
Deadline

Hand in report of Assignment 1
Tuesday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 7
Chapters in (i): 14.4-5, (14.6), 16.1-2, 17.1-2, (17.3-4) 13.10-11, 15.4, (15.5)
Discrete optimization: theory and algorithms
Tuesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on integer programming
Wednesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on integer programming
Thursday 10.00-11.45
Problem solving session 4
Exercises in (ii): 13.5, 13.6, 15.6
Exercises on integer linear optimization modelling and algorithms
Friday 9.00-9.45
Course evaluation meeting 2
Friday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 8
Chapters in (i): 16, 8.3
Combinatorial optimization theory and algorithms

Easter break

Week 18 (April 28-May 2)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Tuesday 10.00-10.45
Lecture 9a
Revised version
(iii): Hand-outs
Multi-objective optimization
Tuesday 11.00-11.45
Lecture 9b

The traveling salesperson problem (Assignment 3a) Emil Gustavsson
Tuesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-15.00
Computer exercise on integer programming
Friday 10.00-10.45
Lecture 10a

Wind power investment and generation (Assignment 3b) Ola Carlson
Friday 11.00-11.45
Lecture 10b
Revised version
(iii): Hand-outs
Multi-objective optimization
Friday 23.59
Deadline

Hand in report of Assignment 2
Week 19 (May 5-9)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Tuesday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 11
Chapters in (i):, 8.1-2, 8.4, (8.5), 18.1-5, (18.6-7), 13.5
Network optimization: Shortest paths, dynamic programming, linear programming formulations of flows
Tuesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on integer and linear programming
Wednesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on integer and linear programming
Wednesday 23.59
Deadline

Hand in opposition report of Assignment 2
Thursday 10.00-11.45
Problem solving session 5
Exercises in (ii): 14.4, 14.8, 17.9
Exercises on integer linear optimization theory and algorithms
Friday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 12
Chapters in (i): 8.6-7
Linear programming formulations and algorithms for minimum cost network flows
Week 20 (May 12-16)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Tuesday 10.00-11.45
Lecture 13
Chapters in (i): 2.5.1, 9-12
Overview of non-linear optimization
Tuesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on integer and linear programming
Wednesday 13.15-15.00
Computers reserved
Teachers present 13.30-14.30
Computer exercise on integer and linear programming
Thursday 10.00-11.45
Problem solving session 6
Exercises in (ii): 8.10, 8.12, 8.17a
Exercises on network flows
Friday 10.00-11.45
Problem solving session 7
Exercises in (ii): 9.8, 9.10, 11.4
Exercises on non-linear optimization
Friday 23.59
Deadline

Hand in report of Assignment 3
Week 21 (May 19-23)
Day
Activity
Literature
Contents
Tuesday 10.00-11.45
Seminar 1

Students' presentations of Assignment 3
Thursday 10.00-11.45
Seminar 2

Students' presentations of Assignment 3
Friday 10.00-11.45
Seminar 3

Students' presentations of Assignment 3
Weeks 22 (May 26-28) and 23 (June 2-3)
Hours
Activity
Description
9.00-15.00
Oral examination for higher grades
Students having accomplished reports and presentations of high enough quality may book a time slot for the oral examination.
Computer exercises and software
The following exercise numbers refer to the course book (ii) above.
Assignments
Assignment descriptions
Course requirements
The course content is defined by the literature references (i), (ii), and (iii) in the course plan. The importance of each moment of the course is defined by the respective emphasis given by the lectures, exercises, and assignment tasks.
Examination
Course evaluation
The randomly selected course representatives are: Jessica Fredby (TKTEM, fredbyj -AT- student.chalmers.se), Jonas Jagers (TKTEM, jagersj -AT- student.chalmers.se), Johan Karlsson (MPENM, jokarls -AT- student.chalmers.se), Joacim Linder (TKTEM, ljoacim -AT- student.chalmers.se), and Alexander Lyckell (MPSYS, lyckell-AT- student.chalmers.se).

Being a student representative means that you are responsible for evaluating the course together with the examiner/course responsible and the program board of the program that gives the course. The evaluation process consists of three parts:
  1. The student representatives and the teacher are expected to have two informal meetings during the course. The first one should be in the first study week, the second one after approximately half the course. The first meeting is mostly for you to get acquainted, the second one are for the student representatives to give feedback to the teacher on the progress of the course.
  2. After the course an evaluation questionnaire is sent out. The examiner will get a chance to add extra questions to the standard questionnaire.
  3. After the course, there will be an evaluation meeting where the student representatives and the examiner/course responsible for the course have a meeting together with the program board of the program who gives the course, discussing the courses' advantages and potential for improvement. This meeting will be held in study week 3-6 in the study period after the examination. The examiner invites the participants to this meeting.
The second meeting with the course representatives will be held on Friday the 11th of April at 9.00 in room MV:L11.