Handbook

Operations research - a topic conceived in the Second World War by the US military - is the science of understanding and analysing problems to come up with a recommended course of action. It mimics the Military Appreciation Process. This course carries on from the course entitled 'Operations Research' and trains students on the selection of appropriate techniques by describing the strengths and weaknesses of models and simulation, so that fit-for-purpose methods are applied to soluble problems. It will cover the algorithms used to solve hard OR problems including linear programming, transportation, assignment, integer programming, computational complexity including the theory of NP-completeness, combinatorial optimisation, nonlinear optimisation, dynamic programming, goal programming, multi-objective optimisation, and heuristics.