15.059 Description (Spring 1996)

Faculty and Staff Members
Reading Packet
Course Objectives and Descriptions
Organization

The Teaching Staff of Spring 1996

Instructor:

Thomas L. Magnanti
E40-147, (617) 253-6604
email: magnanti@mit.edu

Teaching Assistants:

Rafael Epstein
E40-194, (617) 523-0985
email: repstein@mit.edu

Yi Wang
E40-130, (617) 253-6185
email: yiwang@mit.edu

Administrative Assistant:

Chris Papadopoulos
E40-152, (617) 253-8067
email: papadop@mit.edu

Class Meeting Times & Places:


Monday	Wednesday  Friday     1-2:30 pm          E56-270

Home Page:

http://web.mit.edu/15.059/www

Office Hours:

By appointment: please contact Chris Papadopoulos

Reading Packet:

Thare are two packets of course material for the course. The first packet will be available from Graphic Arts, E52-045, by the end of March. The second packet will come out in April. There is also a package of additional readings on linear programming, mainly for the distance learning students.

Course Objectives and Description

Managers and engineers are constantly attempting to optimize, particularly in the design and operation of complex systems. This course is an application-oriented introduction to (systems) optimization. It seeks to:

motivate the use of optimization models to support managers and engineers in a wide variety of decision making situations;
show how several application domains (industries) use optimization;
introduce optimization modeling and solution techniques (including linear, integer, and network programming, and heuristic methods);
provide tools for interpreting and analyzing model-based solutions (sensitivity and postoptimality analysis, bounding techniques); and
introduce some "newer" optimization approaches such as genetic algorithms.

The course will be organized around four major themes:

Process Planning and Activity Analysis
Sequencing and Scheduling
Supply Chain Coordination
System Synthesis and Engineering Design.

It will consider optimization models for supporting the following issues:

production planning and scheduling
inventory planning
portfolio selection and financial planning
distribution systems planning
project scheduling
facility sizing and capacity expansion
network design, and
product development.

It will draw upon applications from several industries including airline, automotive, electronics, metal forming, and telecommunications.

Organization:

The course uses a combination of lectures, case discussions, and selected readings. It uses some generic and tailored software packages, particularly the EXCEL spreadsheet package with its optimization provisions (its solver module). (On campus students will have access to software in the Sloan Microcomputer Lab (E52 basement). Grading will be based on class participation [30%], homework assignments (4-6, some computer-based) [35%], and a team-based written project and oral presentation [35%].

Students are encouraged to work in teams and to participate actively in class discussions so we can share learnings and draw upon everyone's backgrounds and expertise.

The course does not have a required textbook, but will instead use cases and a collection of readings.

If you have any questions, please contact Prof. Magnanti for more information.

Thank you.

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