OPTIMIZATION


Ph.D. programs in Mathematical Engineering and Business Administration and Quantitative Methods

 

FINAL PROJECT

Each student must realize a project that includes the modeling and the solution of a real problem based on optimization under uncertainty. Other student (and the professors) will evaluate each project. The evaluator must consider: originality of contributions (they can or cannot be research contributions), capacity of modeling and solving, and presented documentation.

The model of the project can be solved with any software (Matlab with the Optimization toolbox, Matlab with CVX, GAMS, AMPL, EXCEL, XPRESS, etc.).

If a license is not available, the NEOS server can be used: http://www-neos.mcs.anl.gov/ Through the Internet, this server allows the solution of almost any optimization problem with the best optimization solvers. Moreover, you can use the open-source solvers in COIN-OR, a repository of source code, models, data and examples.

The project report will consist of a maximum of 15 pages (preferably generated with LaTeX or Scientific Workplace).
Moreover, the student must provide the necessary files used in the project (codes, data, etc.).

Content:

Introduction and motivation: problem description, objectives to obtain, how the problem is solved nowadays, etc.

Formulation: description of an optimization model (details about variables, constraints, objective, etc.).

Solution: used software and algorithm, is the obtained solution a reasonable solution? Can it be compared with other existing solutions? , etc.

Conclusions: including criticism and future research lines.

References.

The report must be provided 5 days before the presentation: one copy to the evaluator (one student) and another one to the professor and the teaching assistant.

 
After that, each project will be presented to all the students. The speaker will have a maximum of 15 minutes for the presentation.
The evaluator (one student) will have a maximum of 5 minutes for discussions/questions.

Two days after the presentation, the evaluators must provide a report (maximum one page) indicating and justifying the final grade (over 10 points):

Originality (motivation, contributions, conclusions, etc.): up to 4 points;

Capacity for modeling and solving the problem (complexity and precision of the model, clarity, solution viability, etc.): up to 4 points;

Documentation and presentation (style, clarity, graphs, etc.): up to 2 points.