Operations Research (4): Capstone Project

Overview

Operations Research (OR) is a field in which people use mathematical and engineering methods to study optimization problems in Business and Management, Economics, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, etc. The series of courses consists of four parts, we focus on deterministic optimization techniques, which is a major part of the field of OR. As the fourth part of the series, we invite students to do a capstone project by utilizing everything she/he learned in the first three parts to conduct an OR study. We will give examples about good and bad OR studies and talk more about the what and why of OR studies.

Syllabus

Introduction to the project and suggestions on topic selection

In this week, we introduce the contents and objectives of this course. We outline the typical structure of apply OR techniques in solving real-world optimization problems. We also briefly go through two projects done by former students in National Taiwan University as examples.

Examples for model formulation

In this week, we give the first example of OR project done by former students in the department of Information Management, National Taiwan University. This gives students a chance to know our expectations on the final project of this course. Moreover, we use this example to demonstrate a very typical strategy of solving real-world problems, i.e., hierarchical optimization.

Examples for algorithm development

In this week, we give the second example of OR project done by former students in the department of Information Management, National Taiwan University. In particular, we use this example to illustrate the idea of designing one’s own heuristic algorithm and evaluate its performance.

Examples for result interpretations and Concluding remarks

In this week, we give suggestions on how to write a good OR report. We introduce the concept of importance and difficulty, correct way to write mathematical notations, and visualizing the results. We conclude this course by sharing why we believe OR is useful and helpful.