Operations Research (1): Models and Applications
National Taiwan University
This is an amazing beginner-level course about Operations Research (abbr. OR). Simply put, it is all about optimization and decision-making. It is deep-rooted in math, but its emphasis on practical applications makes OR even more beautiful.
Firstly, the course introduces basic concepts, then 3 fundamental models are elaborated one after the other: linear programming, integer programming, and non-linear programming. All of these models and their applications are taught in the settings of concrete examples – very clear and easy to comprehend.
I truly like the case study: a real project of personnel scheduling optimization. It depicts the big picture of the progress: from conceptual model, to math model, to computational model. It also introduces detailed useful techniques to formulate objective functions and constraints. Very inspiring.
The final touch is even more thought-provoking: clopen (in service, a closing shift followed by an early opening shift). It is legal, but also a society issue, common in many industries, and unfortunately carrying many negative side effects for employees and their companies.
I can not agree more that OR is only the tool – very powerful. Good or bad depends on people who use it, and how to use it.
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