COMP 566   Autumn 2007       Course Announcements

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

course home page              lecture summaries         project/presentation information

As usual we wrap up with a feedback session at Thomson House, after the last class on Tues Dec 4.
We'll leave from McConnell ground floor lobby at about 4pm, or you can just join us there.
(Undergrads and other non-members can be signed in.)
Beer and chips are on the house.

Second test will be Thurs November 22 in class, covering material up to and including Nov 8 lecture and all assignments.
Assignment 4 is posted, due tuesday Nov 20 in class.
Typo correction: In 1(a) ...dual variables y give a cutting plane if y^T A is an integer vector.

Assignment 3 is posted, due thursday Nov 1 in class.

Assignment 2 is posted. Solutions will be posted here.
Assignment 1 is posted (typo in Fukudas example corrected Sept 14).

Teaching Assistant: Conor Meagher
http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~cmeagh1/
Office: MC232
email: cmeagh1 at cs.mcgill.ca
By appointment

Course software

Getting a computer account: go to one of the Gentoo/linux machines in the Trottier building 3rd floor:  http://socsinfo.cs.mcgill.ca/wiki/Labs

Use login name: newuser    password: newuser

In the course we make use of the packages maple, lp_solve, cplex and lrs. All are installed on Gentoo/linux
machines in Trottier:     labi-j.cs.mcgill.ca,         i=2,6,7 and 1<=j<=20     
You can connect remotely by ssh:   eg:    ssh lab6-4.cs.mcgill.ca

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-10 



 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/bin/lp_solve

This program can be used to solve linear or integer linear programs.

Usage: lp_solve -S4 <
input_file       (-S4 option gives dual
variables)

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/bin/glrs    (glrs uses a faster arithmetic package
than lrs, otherwise the same)

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





Zimpl    free
modelling tool for LPs and ILPs (constraint

generator to lp or mps formats).

http://www.zib.de/koch/zimpl/

It is easy to learn and use. On page 16 of the documentation

(http://www.zib.de/koch/zimpl/download/zimpl.pdf)
you will find Chvatal's

diet problem as an example.



Coin-Or   Computational
Infrastructure for Operations Research

http://www.coin-or.org/

-->"an open-source community for operations research software in
order

to speed development and deployment of models, algorithms, and
cutting-edge

computational research." It has some neat cut generators for solving
ILPs.





Symphony    Open
source Mixed ILP solver that implements branch and cut

http://www.branchandcut.org/SYMPHONY/

-->it s very customizable and is part of COIN-OR. If you tweak things

right, you will solve tough ILPs faster than CPLEX can. You can even

implement your own cuts.








  SOCS computer labs wiki is at http://socsinfo.cs.mcgill.ca/wiki/Main_Page









 

 Some pointers for those looking for projects:

http://www.optimization-online.org/






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