MT262  Mathematical Programming  (Term 2:  Dr Y Barnea)

Prerequisite:       MT182.   Students may not take both MT262 and CS349.

Teaching:            33hr lectures

Assessment:       Two hour written examination

Aims

·         To show how a wide range of problems may be formulated as linear programming (LP) problems;

·         To show how two-variable problems may be solved using graphical methods;

·         To show how the general LP problem can be solved using the simplex algorithm;

·         To show how duality in LP fits into a more general framework using Lagrange multipliers;

·         To show how the transportation and allocation problems may be solved using special algorithms;

·         To show how the integer constraint may be taken into account.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course the students should be able to:

·         formulate problems as LP problems;

·         solve two-variable problems by graphical means;

·         use the simplex algorithm to solve small LP and transportation problems;

·         use the Hungarian algorithm to solve assignment problems;

·         solve integer programming problems using the branch and bound method.

Content

Linear programmes:  Examples of formulation of problems as LPs.  Examples with solutions by diagram.  Unbounded and infeasible LPs.  General LPs: feasible and basic feasible solutions.

Simplex method:  How you solve with the simplex method, with the emphasis on elementary row operations.  The formula for the dj.  Getting started: the two-phase method, infeasibility.  Proof of termination, cycling.  Brief mention of complexity.  Illustration using a package.

Duality:  Its meaning; dual of the dual is the primal; the dual solution; the duality theorem; the simplex tableau displays the dual solution.  Complementary slackness and testing for optimality.  Dual simplex method.  Duality in a wider context:  graphical description of Lagrange multipliers in a constrained optimization; the dual variables as Lagrange multipliers.

Sensitivity analysis:  Examples of different types.

Transportation problem:  Loops and basic feasible solutions; setting out the algorithm; formulation of problems as transportation problems.

Assignment problems:  Why the transportation method is inefficient.  Hungarian algorithm, proof of convergence.

Integer programming:  Formulation of problems using binary variables; capital budget problems, fixed charge problems.  Solution methods: branch and bound, Gomory’s method.

Indicative Text

Elementary Linear Programming with Applications – B Kolman and R E Beck (Academic Press).  Library Ref. 519.41 KOL