308-566A   Autumn 2002       Course Announcements


Please check this page once a week.          New items at the top of the page.  last update: 2002.9.17

course home page           assignment solutions       lecture summaries         project/presentation information



My office hours will be Tues and Thurs, 11:30-12:30, until the end of term.

All classes after Nov. 7 are compulsory!


Course software

In the course we make use of the packages maple, lp_solve, cplex and lrs. All are installed on lab
machines, eg: lab103n-1,2,3 ... . See below for how to get an account. If you do not find the software,
try typing: %source /usr/socs/Cshrc

cplex     (path: /usr/local/pkgs/cplex/ )
Instructions for cplex can be found here.

maple        (path: /usr/local/pkgs/maple/bin/)
A maple session that shows how to solve systems of equations is here.
This can be useful to check your arithmetic for Assignment 1

lp_solve          (path: /usr/local/pkgs/lp_solve/)
This program can be used to solve linear or integer linear programs.
Usage: lp_solve < input_file
Some examples input and output files are here.
The man page is here.

The full package is available for download from the lp_solve  home page.

A nice help page with DOS executable is available at:
http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~rrw1/opt/lp_solve/

lrs          (path: /usr/local/pkgs/lrslib-041/ )
This program computes all of the extreme points (and extreme rays if any) of the
feasible region of an LP. Home page is: http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~avis/C/lrs.html

  How to get a computer account:The prerequisites are
        1) Must be taking a CS course
        2) Must have paid tuition

From any unix lab workstation (103N, 105N)
        1) Log-in username "newuser" password "newuser"
        2) Follow the steps
         - An account will be created.
        Alternative is to use any webbrowser and connect to
"newuser.cs.mcgill.ca"

Machines are available in McConnell 103n, and have names
lab103n-k.cs.mcgill.ca   where k=1,2,3,....
To connect from home you will need to use ssh (telnet will not work)

High performance workstations available for this course are in MC110, and
have names: lab110-5...lab110-18

The SOCS Inside-Out Website is a dynamic student initiative which aims to
reduce frustration and raise the level of computing competency at McGill.
It can be found on the web at http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~guide



 

Some pointers for those looking for projects:

The Optimization Technology Center
http://www.ece.nwu.edu/OTC/
 

Informs Search of Annual Comprehensive Index Bibliographic Database
http://www.worms.ms.unimelb.edu.au/
 

ORMS today
http://www.lionhrtpub.com/ORMS.shtml

Prof. Goffin's home page

Journals to check:
Mathematical Programming, Operations Research, Networks,
INFORS, Interfaces, Management Science