Introduction

Objectives of the Course:

• to provide a formal quantitative approach to problem solving;
• to give an intuition for managerial situations where a quantitative approach is appropriate;
• to introduce some widely used quantitative models;
• to introduce software for solving such models.

To accomplish these objectives we provide:

• background in linear algebra and nonlinear optimization;
• description of the linear programming model, decision theory, etc.;
• explanation of the mathematical ideas behind these widely used models;
• hands-on experience with software such as SOLVER;
• examples of business applications;
• a case study that shows how models are used in practice.

Instructors

Gérard Cornuéjols, GSIA 232A, phone 268-2284, fax 268-7357
email: gc0v@andrew.cmu.edu
secretary: Barbara Carlson 268-1342, GSIA 232.

Michael Trick, GSIA 257C, phone 268-3697, fax 268-7057
email: trick@andrew.cmu.edu

Required Material for the Course

The course notes are self contained. The software for this course is installed in your notebooks. Instruction on using it will be provided in class.