COMP 566A   Autumn 2003       Course Announcements

Please check this page once a week.          New items at the top of the page.  

course home page           assignment solutions       lecture summaries         project/presentation information


2003.11.14       Grades are posted - please check: see course home page for link

2003.10.30       Assignment 4 posted and due in class Nov. 6
                            Second test will be on Tuesday November 11  1:05-2:25.

2003.10.22          Assignment 3 is posted.
2003.10.2            Assignment 2 is posted and due on October 9 (Thurs)
                               First class test will be Tuesday October 14 1:05-2:25

2003.9.17  Course software has been installed (except cplex license problems).  See below for info.

Assignment 1 is posted,  see course home page.

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 in Trottier:     labi-j.cs.mcgill.ca,         1<=i<=9 and 1<=j<=30      (Try i=4 or 6 first).

You can connect remotely by ssh:   eg:    ssh lab6-4.cs.mcgill.ca
A full list of machine names in labs is here: http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/socsinfo/labs/

If you do not find the software,  try typing: %source /usr/socs/Cshrc
You will need to set the path for some of the software.

cplex     path: /usr/local/bin/cplex 


                                     

Instructions for cplex can be found here.

maple        path: /usr/local/bin/maple
A maple session that shows how to solve systems of equations is here.

lp_solve         path: /usr/local/pkgs/lp_solve_4.0/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/lrs
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

  

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