Course Schedule

This page contains a schedule of the topics, content, and assignments for the semester. Note that this schedule will be updated as necessary the semester progresses, with all changes documented here. Readings requiring institutional subscriptions can be accessed through the Cornell Library.

Week	Date	Topic	Lab	HW	MP	Quiz	Reading
1	Aug 24	Course Overview
	Aug 26	Intro to Systems
2	Aug 31	Feedbacks & Equilibria
	Sep 2	Stability & Examples
3	Sep 7	No Class: Labor Day
	Sep 9	Bifurcations and Hysteresis				Quiz 1	Carpenter et al. (1999)
4	Sep 14	Simulation and Discretization
	Sep 16	Dissolved Oxygen and Streeter-Phelps
5	Sep 21	Discretization & Convergence Lab
	Sep 23	Monte Carlo Foundations
6	Sep 28	Monte Carlo Error and Risk
	Sep 30	Gaussian Plume Derivation
7	Oct 5	Gaussian Plume Simulation				Quiz 2
	Oct 7	Model Calibration and Validation					Oreskes et al. (1994)
8	Oct 12	No Class: Fall Break
	Oct 14	Decision Models and Linear Programming		HW5
9	Oct 19	The Simplex Method and Shadow Prices
	Oct 21	Project Proposal Peer Review		HW6		Quiz 3
10	Oct 26	Linear Programming with JuMP Lab	Lab 2
	Oct 28	Economic Dispatch			MP2
11	Nov 2	Capacity Expansion
	Nov 4	Discrete Variables and Mixed Integer Programming		HW7		Quiz 4
12	Nov 9	Solid Waste and Network Models		HW8
	Nov 11	Fixed Costs and Facility Siting Lab	Lab 3
13	Nov 16	Stochastic Optimization and Scenario Trees				Quiz 5
	Nov 18	Sequential Decisions and Dynamic Programming
14	Nov 23	Scenario Trees and Sequential Decisions Lab	Lab 4
	Nov 25	No Class: Thanksgiving Break
15	Nov 30	Multiple Objectives, Robustness, and Sensitivity					Reed et al. (2022); Saltelli et al. (2019)
	Dec 2	Limits of Optimization and Course Synthesis					Ackoff (1979)
16	Dec 7	Quiz 6 and Project Session				Quiz 6
	Dec 8	Project Presentations (final exam period)
	Dec 20	Project Report and Team Evaluations Due

Due dates. Homework is due Thursdays at 9pm: HW5 Oct 22, HW6 Oct 29, HW7 Nov 12, and HW8 Nov 19. Mini-Project 1 is due Oct 22 and Mini-Project 2 Nov 19. Lab worksheets are due at 9pm the day after the lab. For the project: proposal Oct 16, proposal peer review Oct 26, project update Nov 13, presentations Dec 8, and the report and team evaluations Dec 20.

Slides, labs, and assignments are linked here as they are released.

References

Ackoff, R. L. (1979). Resurrecting the Future of Operational Research. J. Oper. Res. Soc., 30, 189–199. https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.1979.41

Carpenter, S. R., Ludwig, D., & Brock, W. A. (1999). Management of eutrophication for lakes subject to potentially irreversible change. Ecol. Appl., 9(3), 751–771. https://doi.org/10.2307/2641327

Oreskes, N., Shrader-Frechette, K., & Belitz, K. (1994). Verification, validation, and confirmation of numerical models in the Earth sciences. Science, 263, 641–646. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.263.5147.641

Reed, P. M., Hadjimichael, A., Malek, K., Karimi, T., Vernon, C. R., Srikrishnan, V., et al. (2022). Addressing uncertainty in multisector dynamics research. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6110623

Saltelli, A., Aleksankina, K., Becker, W., Fennell, P., Ferretti, F., Holst, N., et al. (2019). Why so many published sensitivity analyses are false: A systematic review of sensitivity analysis practices. Environmental Modelling & Software, 114, 29–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.01.012