Decision Support Methods
Keywords |
Classification |
Keyword |
OFICIAL |
Computer Science |
Instance: 2018/2019 - 2S
Cycles of Study/Courses
Teaching language
Suitable for English-speaking students
Objectives
Students should:
- get familiar with techniques of operations research and constraint programming and their application to modeling and solving deterministic and stochastic decision and optimization problems.
- develop skills for understanding computational complexity of concrete problems, and choosing algorithms, programming languages and libraries/APIs for solving them.
Learning outcomes and competences
Master the main techniques in optimization.
Working method
Presencial
Program
Formulation of formal models for decision problems.
Linear Programming: the Simplex method; transportation and assignment problems. Network problems: shortest and longest paths, spanning trees, max flow, project management (Critical Path Method).
Introduction to Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization.
Methods and techniques for reducing the search space: dynamic programming, constraint propagation, local consistency enforcement, branch-and-bound, cutting planes, symmetry breaking, model reformulation, approximation algorithms (greedy strategies) and local search.
Constraint Programming languages and systems.
Introduction Markov Chains and queueing theory.
Mandatory literature
Hillier Frederick S.;
Introduction to operations research. ISBN: 0-07-246121-7 (F. Hillier, G. Lieberman. Introduction to Operations Research. McGraw-Hill)
Complementary Bibliography
Winston Wayne L.;
Operations research. ISBN: 9780534423629 (Operations research : applications and algorithms / Wayne L. Winston ; with cases by Jeffrey B. Goldberg)
Cormen Thomas H. 070;
Introduction to algorithms. ISBN: 978-0-262-03293-3 (Introduction to algorithms / Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Stein)
Rossi Francesca 1962- 340;
Handbook of constraint programming. ISBN: 0-444-52726-5 (Handbook of constraint programming / edited by Francesca Rossi, Peter van Beek, Toby Walsh))
Comments from the literature
For software:
GLPK documentation (http://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/glpk.html)
AMPL documentation (http://www.ampl.com)
SCIP documentation (http://scip.zib.de)
Constraint programming, Bockmayr and Hooker (http://web.tepper.cmu.edu/jnh/cp-hb.pdf)
GECODE http://www.gecode.org/
ECLIPSE http://www.eclipseclp.org/
- Some chapters from
A. P. Tomás. Métodos de Apoio à Decisão. DCC-FCUP, 2003 (in Portuguese)
Teaching methods and learning activities
Lectures: presentation of the program topics and discussion of examples.
Labs: problem solving and case studies with experimental evaluation. Development of a practical project (team work).
Assignments: practical project; oral and written presentation.
Software
GLPK, AMPL, SCIP, GECODE, ECLIPSE (clp)
keywords
Physical sciences > Mathematics > Computational mathematics
Physical sciences > Computer science > Programming
Physical sciences > Mathematics > Applied mathematics > Operations research
Evaluation Type
Distributed evaluation with final exam
Assessment Components
designation |
Weight (%) |
Exame |
75,00 |
Trabalho laboratorial |
25,00 |
Total: |
100,00 |
Amount of time allocated to each course unit
designation |
Time (hours) |
Estudo autónomo |
|
Frequência das aulas |
|
Trabalho laboratorial |
|
Total: |
0,00 |
Eligibility for exams
Required:
* Not to exceed the absence limit (25% of total number of estimated lab classes)
Calculation formula of final grade
Written examination (75%). One Lab Assignment (25%) - team project (TP).
A minimum grade of 8 at 20 is required in the final exam (tests).
If it fits in the academic calendar for 2018/2019, there will be two optional tests during the semester (TE1, TE2). To attend TE2, it is required a minimum grade of 8.0/20.0 in TE1. The second test covers all topics. A minimum grade of 8.0/20.0 is required also.
The final grade is given by
max(0.4*TE1+0.6*TE2, TE2, FinalExam)*.75 + 0.25* TP
Students do not need to take the final exam if max(0.4*TE1+0.6*TE2, TE2)*0.75 + TP*0.25 >= 9.5.
Internship work/project
There will be a practical project to be developed by a team.
Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)
The same evaluation criteria for all students.
Classification improvement
Final exam. Lab Assignment grade cannot be improved.