Subject Home Page: Decision Making 620-262
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620-262
Decision Making
Semester 2
2007
Download Slides and Supplementary Materials Download Assignments

News

September 13, 2007: Slides for Lectures 28-35 are available.

August 13, 2007: Slides for Lectures 15-27 are available.

August 3, 2007: Supplementary Example Sheets 1-2 are available.

August 2, 2007: Slides for Lectures 1-14 are available. Assignment 2 is available as well.

July 21, 2007: This course will start on Monday 23 July 2007.

Introduction

In this course you will meet some very interesting ideas in game theory, multicriteria decision making and Markovian decision processes, including some work of Nobel Prize winners.
Classes
620-262 is a one-semester subject and runs in semester two only.
The subject consists of three one-hour lectures (commencing on Monday 23 July 2006) 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 can be purchased from the University Bookroom.
  • 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 appropriate assignment boxes. 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, this subject 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.

    Lecturer

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

    Tutors

    Dr Mark Fackrell
    Room G47, Richard Berry Building
    Tel: 8344 5546, E-mail: M.Fackrell@ms.unimelb.edu.au

    Dr Sanming Zhou
    Room 146, Richard Berry Building
    Tel: 8344 3453, E-mail: smzhou@ms.unimelb.edu.au

    Time and Venue

    In each teaching week of the second semester there are three one-hour lectures:
    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 

    Also each student should attend one one-hour tutorial class per week commencing in the second week. These will be run by David Bannister and Chris Fricke. You should have been allocated to one of the following four tutorial times.
     
    Wednesday 2.15-3.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bld)
    Wednesday 3.15-4.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bld)
    Friday 2.15-3.15pm (Room D, Richard Berry Bld)

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

    Consultation Hours

    Lecturer  

    12.00-2.00 pm, Monday, Room 146
    1.00-2.00 pm, Friday, Room 146
    or by appointment

    Student Representative

    TBA
    E-mail: TBA

    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.

    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!



    © The University of Melbourne 1994-2007
    Disclaimer and Copyright Information 

    Created: June 17, 2004
Last modified: July 21, 2007
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