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OPERATIONAL
RESEARCH
How The OR Society can support
teachers of Decision Maths
Louise Orpin – Education Officer, The OR
Society
What is Operational Research?
O.R. aims to optimise
“The application of appropriate analytical methods to help
make better decisions”
O.R. sets up a problem mathematically with
– an objective
– some constraints
Using maths to make things work more efficiently.
and uses a mathematical method to solve it
– an algorithm that will run on a computer
– and will find the best (optimum) solution
– the user can try out different ‘what-if’ options
O.R. provides techniques for solving practical problems in
business and other fields - problems such as allocating
resources to maximise profit, or scheduling project
activities to minimise risk.
O.R. techniques such as network analysis, linear
programming, scheduling, Game theory and Decision
theory are studied in Decision Maths.
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Why Decision Mathematics?
• Decision mathematics has become popular in recent
decades because of its applications to computer
science.
SwedeBuild problem
• Many of the problems involve Optimisation –finding an
efficient solution –and hence methods are applicable to
many real world situations.
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Why study Decision Mathematics?
Travelling Salesperson Problem
It provides useful background for studying O.R., business,
computer sciences, electronics, statistics (and even some
maths courses).
An example network:
STEVENAGE
It helps develop problem solving and thinking skills.
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It is probably the most widely used branch of maths in the
“real world”.
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It is an area of Maths that many students will meet when
they go into work.
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Project Management
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BSc Discrete Mathematics
Scenario
analysis
Spreadsheets
Heuristic
methods
Cognitive and
cause mapping
Scheduling
algorithms
Statistics
Multicriteria
methods
Simulation
Genetic
algorithms
Data mining
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The importance of Discrete Mathematics today lies in its
numerous practical and relevant applications.
It is the study of mathematical structures that are "discrete"
(in contrast to "continuous"); these are graphs, trees,
networks, etc.
Discrete Mathematics is a rapidly growing area of
mathematics with many current and emerging applications.
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Forecasting
Mathematical
programming
Simulated
annealing
BSc Discrete Mathematics
Discrete Mathematics is a new degree course offered by
the University of Warwick.
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Some O.R. tools
Soft systems
modelling
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It is commonly used in cryptography, computer security,
electronic banking and auctions, coding theory, algorithms,
theory of computing, telecommunication, web search
engines, etc.
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Decision in the ‘real world’
Decision in the ‘real world’
Unipart Rail – Critical Path Analysis
Emirates video
Virgin Media – Integer Programming
Steer Davies Gleave & Emirates Stadium – Network Flows
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O.R. Projects
O.R. Projects
British Airways
• Simulating boarding of the ‘Super Jumbo’
Royal Bank of Scotland
• Evaluating fraud models to help us decide which of the
millions of transactions we should look into before they are
authorised
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• Optimising the flight schedule with partner airlines
• Using mathematical programming to work out more profitable
ways to set overdraft limits
• Increasing the likelihood of carbon offsetting
• Building scorecards to decide who presents a good risk when
it comes to opening new accounts
• Understanding how macro-economic effects can be used to
improve our predictions of bad debt
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How to get into O.R?
• Choose to study a numerate degree such as maths,
engineering, physics, computer science...
Questions?
• Some universities offer degrees in OR or degrees with
elements of OR.
Find out more at
www.LearnAboutOR.co.uk
• A masters in OR is desirable although not always
essential.
Follow on Twitter @ORinSchools
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