Subject Home Page: Decision Making 620-262

620-262
Decision Making
Semester 2
2004

Download Supplementary Notes

Download Assignments and Solutions

Announcements

The first lecture will be given on Monday 26 July in Russell Love Theatre, Richard Berry Building, 4:15-5:15pm.

Basic Information

We do hope that you enjoy this subject. You will meet some very interesting ideas and the associated mathematics, including some work of Nobel Prize winners.
Classes
620-262 is a one semester subject and runs in second semester only.
The subject consists of three one-hour lectures (commencing on Monday, the 26th of July, 2004) and one one-hour tutorial per week (commencing in the second week of the semester). See details below.
Prerequisite
A pass in 620-261, Introduction to Operations Research, or its equivalent is an ESSENTIAL prerequisite for 620-262.

Lecture Notes

Printed Lecture Notes will be available for sale in the first week of Semester 2. As well as detailed notes, they will include some past exam papers.

Any lecture material not appearing in the printed Lecture Notes will be available via this web site -- click here.

Other references are given in lectures and the printed Lecture Notes.

Assignments

These will be specified in lectures and available here. Hand them in to assignment box 134. You need to hand in one Plagiarism Declaration Form with your signature for the whole semester. The form can be downloaded here.

Generic Skills
In addition to the technical skills described elsewhere in the material on this subject, it provides an opportunity to develop the following generic skills:

Problem-solving skills: (mainly through tutorial exercises) to identify relevant strategies for unfamiliar problems.

Modelling skills: to develop the ability to use the theoretical classification of decision-type situations in practical situations

Team work skills: through tutorials and other interactions with fellow students, you will develop the ability to work in a team. The department distinguishes between ethical collaboration, which is strongly encouraged, and plagiarism, which is prohibited.

Time management skills: meeting the regular deadlines for submission of assignments while managing requirements of other subjects.

Lecture Timetables and Other Details

Your lecturer in 620-262 is

Dr Sanming Zhou
Room 146, Richard Berry Building
Phone: 8344 3453
E-mail: smzhou@ms.unimelb.edu.au
Web site: Sanming's Home Page

Your tutor in 620-262 is

Mr Chris Fricke
e-mail fricke@ms.unimelb.edu.au

Timetable
There are three one-hour lectures per week in second semester as follows:
Monday 4.15-5.15pm
Wednesday 4.15 -5.15pm
Friday 4.15-5.15pm
All lectures are in Russell Love Theatre (formerly Theatre B), Richard Berry Building

As well, each student should attend one one-hour tutorial class per week commencing in the second week of semester. These will be taken by Chris Fricke. You should have been allocated to one of the following four tutorial times:
Monday 2.15-3.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bldg)
Monday 3.15-4.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bldg)
Wednesday 2.15-3.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bldg)
Wednesday 3.15-4.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bldg)
Friday 2.15-3.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bldg)
Friday 3.15-4.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bldg)

In case you are wondering where these lecture theatres are, check out the Lecture Theatre Location List

Lecturer Office Hours
Monday 2.15-3.15 pm
Wednesday 2.15-3.15 pm
Friday 2.15-3.15 pm

Tutor Consultation Hour
TBA

Student Representative

It will be greatly appreciated if you could communicate to us your comments on these pages as well as any other aspect of the subject. Needless to say, constructive critical suggestions are particularly welcome. You can communicate these either by talking directly to me or e-mailing me: smzhou@ms.unimelb.edu.au . Alternatively, you may wish to submit your suggestions via the Student Representative whoes contact details are as follows.

TBA

Useful Links

Links to solvers

LINDO - download free trial versions of LINDO solver for linear and integer programming or LINGO for nonlinear programming.

AMPL - follow "Try AMPL" links or go direct to AMPL start-up page . If you want to enter your problem on-line instead of uploading a file you have already prepared, just hit the "Submit" button half-way down this page.

tutOR - follow links to Simplex solvers, or go direct to the Simplex Place and select "Simplex Engine" in the left-hand frame.

OPL is another ILOG produce, like AMPL plus but with a Constraint Programming solver included.

Links to interesting places

Jobs and careers page from the Australian Mathematical Society.

Have a look at some ideas on team management and team roles at the Belbin site.

A great web site, with interactive case studies in linear programming, quadratic programming, stochastic programming and integer programming is the NEOS Guide: Case Studies site. (Note you may find the material here on the Quadratic Assignment Problem relevant to your project!) The parent site Optimization Technology Center also has lots of interesting stuff, with background notes and references on many areas of operations research (see, in particular, the "Optimization Tree" link).

ASOR has a monthly seminar series, with slides and summaries of past lectures available at this website. Students are WELCOME to attend seminars, and also to join ASOR.

Price-Waterhouse-Coopers Decision Advisory Centre is using Operations Research to help companies in various ways. There is an on-line case study for a production-distribution "value chain", or "supply chain".

Opcom Pty Ltd is a fantastic Australian company exporting operations research consulting, algorithms and software to the world. Based in Brisbane and employing about 50 people, the company specializes in logistics and transportation applications.

Berkeley has an interactive OR site.

CSIRO Operations Research Group has lots of interesting stuff happening - they also have vacation scholarships on occassion.

INFORMS - the International Society for Operations Research and Management Sciences - see student services!

Panorama - recreational OR - have fun!

Created: 17 June, 2004
Last modified: 17 June, 2004
Authorised by: Head of Department, Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Maintained by: Sanming Zhou, Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Email: smzhou@ms.unimelb.edu.au