Operations Research

Enrico Malucelli

6 October 2015

Introduction

What is Operations Research?

Is a method of taking decisions using math

Typically we solve optimization problems daily withoud being conscious

    Confucius

    I hear and forget,
    I see and remember,
    I do and understand.

####Interesting sites:

What kind of decisions?

Strategic Level: design a railroad
Tactical level: how many trains to use
Operational level: schedule the trains

How OR approaches the problems

Decisions
Rules Mathematical constraints
Objective Maximize the income

Solution to phone building example:
plot the constraints in a 2D graph
select the region below all the constraints
Find the optimal solution analyzing the vertexes of the polygon.

(In this case the vertex were integers but they may be real numbers and the solution is required to be integer.)

Challenges

http://challenge.roadef.org/2016/en/index.php