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MTH 503 and MTH 603 are courses on operations research.
Operations research is a
collection of mathematical techniques that are used to solve problems that
arise in industry (including business and engineering). It is also referred to as
decision science. However, the methods of operations research have uses in many
areas other than business (in signal processing, for example). See the links listed below and
read the introductions of some of the standard texts on the subject (also listed below).
MTH503 is primarly about linear optimization and will cover linear
programming and the simplex algorithm, interior point methods, transportation,
assignment and network problems, and integer programming. Other topics will be covered as time permits;
game theory, interior point methods, nonlinear programing (quadratic programming), for example.
The mathematical
background for MTH503 is linear algebra (MTH108). MTH603 will cover more advanced
topics in linear programming (such as dynamic programming), probabilistic
models (such as Markov chains), queuing and inventory theory.
What is optimization? Here is a summary.
The current text for this course is Operations Research, third edition by Wayne L. Winston (a copy of this book is on reserve in the library). MTH503 will cover mainly chapers 1 - 10, and MTH603 will cover topics in the remaining chapters. This text comes with the LINDO and LINGO software packages which will be used throughout the courses.A reference book that will useful in MTH 503 is Linear Programming and Network Flows, second edition by M.S. Bazaraa, J.J. Jarvis, and H.D. Sherali. There is a copy of this book on reserve in the library. Other books that you may find useful are listed here (www.scs.ryerson.ca/~mth503/orbooks.html).
For more information on what operations research is and what are its applications, see the Careers Booklet published by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), and check out INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, and INTERFACES; a journal of Operations Research. For information on computational mathematics, see the Mathematical Modelling Resources webpage.