1. Basic information:

2. Course description:

3. Grades and expectations:

4. Academic Integrity/Students with Disabilities:

1. Basic information:

Lecture times and locations:

Tutorials and office hours:

You can attend either of the instructor's office hours.

Students are strongly encouraged to attend office hours.

We are here to help, but we can only help you if you take advantage of the resources available to you.

Contact information:

Important: make sure to indicate in the subject line the course number and the section number (example CO250-001), failure to do this may result in delayed answers.

For questions pertaining to the current assignment please use the piazza forum which is setup on D2L.

https://learn.uwaterloo.ca/

We will be using D2L as our course website. Log on using your username and password (same as your UW email account).
The solutions will be posted there. Various announcements such as the dates of exams or corrections to assignments will be posted there.

It is the responsibility of the students to check the web page regularly.

Discussion board:

• We will use Piazza for our discussion board.
• Please check Piazza regularly, we will post erratas and hints for assignments there.
• Piazza will be monitored between 9am and 9pm from January 14th to April 5th (no monitoring during the study break).
• 5% of your mark will be based on your participation on Piazza.
  

• The text book "A gentle introduction to optimization" is available from the book store (we will expect that you have a copy of the textbook).
  
• The exercises and exams will be based on the material presented in class. 
• If you fail to come to a class it will be your responsibility to find out what was covered on that day and you should not necessarily expect to find the material you missed in the text book.

2. Course description:

Overview:

In the first two weeks of the course, we will illustrate these various models with examples that arise from real problems. In the remainder of the course we address the problem of how to solve the aforementioned problems. The Simplex algorithm to solve Linear Programs will be discussed in some detail and general-purpose Integer Programming techniques such as Branch-and-Bound and Cutting Planes will also be described. These algorithms while guaranteed to terminate, may in the worst case (and often do in practice) take a prohibitively long time. No fast general algorithm is known for integer programs (and none is believed to exist), however, there are efficient algorithms for many important special cases such as the Shortest Path problem. An indispensable tool for the design of such fast algorithms is the Theory of Duality, which will be a main focus of this course. The other important idea is the notion of relaxations. All of these ideas come together at the conclusion of the course when we discuss non-linear convex optimization problems

Schedule:

This is a tentative schedule,

3. Grades and expectations:

Objectives:

Students will be expected to master the following tasks and concepts:

• formulate simple real life problems as linear, integer, or continuous (non-linear) optimization problem,
• carry out  the computations by hand of various algorithms such as the simplex,
• formulate the dual of various linear programs,
• explain how duality theory is used to develop the shortest path algorithm,
• ability to reproduce the main proofs in the course as well as proving simple related concepts independently,
• being able to explain the geometric interpretation of the various algorithms covered.

Note, regarding algorithms, while it is necessary to know how to carry simple computations by hand, it is not sufficient.
We will expect students to have a good understanding of why algorithms return correct answers and how they are derived.

Class attendance:

It has been the instructors’ experience that students missing class regularly tend to get grades much below average. 

• Therefore, we expect students to attend class regularly. 
• In case there are special circumstances (such as an ongoing medical condition) that makes it difficult for you to be present at every class, please let me know as soon as possible. 
  

There will be 10 assignments. 

No credit will be given for assignments but all assignments will be graded (we will use  Crowdmark).

The decision not to assign credit is based the following factors:

1. It has been the experience of this (and other instructors) that many students use unauthorized sources for finding solutions to assignments (such as course-hero, or copying solutions of fellow classmates). Under these circumstances giving credit for assignments raises fundamental issues of fairness and undermines our goal of upholding the highest possible standards of academic integrity.
2. A huge amount of resources ends up being devoted to grading solutions that students copied. These resources can be better used to provide additional feedback on assignments and extra office hours.
   
3. Students focus on trying to get the "right answer" rather than learning from assignments. Understanding why some idea is wrong is an important part of the learning process.
4. There is often no single right answer to a solution and we want to encourage students to be creative.
   

There will be two in-class midterms on the following dates:

• The week of February 4th (TBA) and
  
• The week of March 18th (TBA).
  

In case you have a conflict with that date and time, please contact your instructor as soon as possible.

If you have any complaints about the marking of the midterm, then you should first check your solutions against the posted solutions.
After that if you see any marking error, then you should return the exam paper to your instructor within two weeks.

Computing your final grade:

INC grade:

A grade of INC (incomplete) will be only awarded to students who cannot write the final exam for reasons acceptable to the instructor, such as a medical certificate by a recognized medical professional. In addition such students need to be in good standing prior to the final exam. To be in good standing a student must have written and passed both midterm exams.

4. Academic Integrity/Accessibility services:

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. 

Read Policy #70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offenses, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offense, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. 

For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy #71, Student Discipline, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm

Appeals: Concerning a decision made under Policy #70 (Student Petitions and Grievances) (other than petitions) or Policy #71 (Student Discipline) a student may appeal the finding, the penalty, or both. 

A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy #72 (Student Appeals) http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm

Note for students with disabilities: AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.