E-mail: markn@uidaho.edu
Office Phone: (208) 885-6269 or toll-free (800) 824-2889 (ext 6269)
Fax: (208) 885-5843
Text: Instructor's notes.
Catalog description: Optimization on graphs, network flows, and related topics.
Prerequisite: Two semesters of calculus.
Grades:
Schedule: The course is divided into five sections, each ending with a 50 point exam, and each having a homework assignment due. (See the schedule and homework list.) The homework will be collected on campus prior to each exam, and video students should submit the homework far enough in advance of taking the exam that they can view the posted solutions to the homework before taking the exam.
Homework: I will grade each homework assignment on a scale of 0 to 10. I will not read every problem, but rather will sample several of your solutions and base a grade on a combination of correctness on those problems sampled as well as completeness for the entire assignment. The homework is merely to get you working problems and to help you prepare for the exams. I will post solutions to the homework, which will be made available to you by password after you submit your work. You should be certain to review these posted solutions before taking the exam on that material.
Exams: Before each exam you should look at the list of review topics for that exam. These lists give the topics which will appear on the exam and provide a framework for your preparations. You may use a calculator on exams, though one is not needed. I will also post exam solutions which will be made available by password after you take the exam.
Content: Discrete optimization is the study of problems where the goal is to find an optimal arrangement from among a finite set of possible arrangements. Many applications in business, industry, and computer science lead to such problems, and we will touch on these applications often.
The mathematical prerequisites for this course are minimal. You do not need to have seen a lot of theoretical mathematics beforehand, though we will develop quite a bit of theory ourselves during the course of our study. We will also discuss computer algorithms as solutions to some of the problems we encounter, though you will not need any specific programming experience.
What is needed for this course is a willingness and ability to use mathematical reasoning. This is a course about the application of mathematical ideas to the solution of real-world problems. Understanding how these ideas are used and developing the ability to use them ourselves on problems we may encounter in our own experiences will be our principal goal.