Archived-Announcements-2015

Previous announcements for 4G3 (in reverse time order):

• 15 Apr: there is a minor error in the exam on 16 April which I hope to draw your attention to:

Question 1, part 8 starts: "What is the new overall cost transportation ...";

it should be: "What is the new overall cost of transportation ..."

• 12 Apr: looking ahead at my schedule for this week, I'm not likely to get around to grading the project reports until at least 14 April. Feel free to submit your project by 14 April, 16:00, at http://yint.org/4G3-project.
• 10 Apr: please submit your project reports at this link: http://yint.org/4G3-project.
• 03 Apr: some practice questions for the final exam are being added to the document below. Treat this as a final (ungraded) assignment, since it contains questions on the materials recently covered in class.
• 02 Apr: course evaluations are ready to go. Please submit one - these are crucial for keeping the course quality high, and determining how to make improvements to the course.
• 02 Apr: you should be aware that the project due date has been extended to 13 April at 16:00. This should fit in with the lighter exam load that most of you have.
• 30 Mar: solutions to assignment 6 are posted now.
• 25 Mar: if anyone is hitting into the upper constraint of the free GAMS version, you can solve your larger problem, for free, on the NEOS server (click on the link "Submit a job to NEOS").
• 24 Mar: solutions to assignment 5 are posted, and the grades are uploaded into Avenue now.
• 20 Mar: someone left a pair of sunglasses in the lab during their meeting on Friday. Please contact me to have it returned to you.
• 18 Mar: there will be no tutorials this Friday and Monday. However, the meetings will take place in the tutorial room. You a strongly encouraged to be at tutorial though, and use that time to set up your problem, constraints, and search variables in GAMS.
• 17 Mar: we are scheduling small group meetings with myself in the tutorial location on Friday and Monday and then some slots are available on Wednesday (in my office). Please select your slot here (first-come, first served): http://doodle.com/p7qeeq9kgxebpgrz

Details about what will be discussed in the 10 minute meeting will be described in class on Wednesday.

Please note, as mention in the project outline, the project meeting is graded (and therefore not optional).

• 16 Mar: the midterms were returned in class on Monday. The solution is also posted. The grade is out of 94 marks. I forgot to mention in class that the following is now on Avenue:

• the grade breakdown for each question
• your individual percentage (add up the 5 marks and divide by 94 to get a percentage)
• the collaborative percentage
• the overall percentage = max(your grade, or 85% your grade + 15% collaborative grade). So the collaboration will never decrease your individual grade.
• Question 5 has been updated now with the non-zero grade

• 15 Mar: Please also bring your printed copy of handout 09A to class; we will continue with those notes from last week.
• 11 Mar: as mentioned in a prior class, we have a guest speaker today. Here are the notes for her lecture: guest lecture slides. Feel free to print a copy for yourself to take notes on.
• 06 Mar: the next assignment is posted. As requested in the class evaluations, the assignments are shorter, focus more on hand-calculations, and formulating problems. It is due on 12 March.

Please note that question 1 was modified slightly on Sunday, 08 March.

• 04 Mar: the date for the final exam is posted now, Thursday, 16 Apr at 19:00.
• 04 Mar: course grades for the assignments have been available since 13 February. Apparently grades are not visible to some students. If that is your case, please email the Avenue Support at support.avenue@cll.mcmaster.ca with attention to Lavinia Oltean, and mention CHEM ENG 4G03 in the subject.
• 03 Mar: an interesting article on how the human body has optimized a simple feature: the length of the eyelash. The part on fluid dynamics and optimal boundary layer thickness is interesting.
• 27 Feb: the next assignment is now posted below.
• 25 Feb: there will be a tutorial and assignment out this Friday and Monday. We go right back into our usual cycle, so we can stay on top of the materials. See you at tutorial.
• 25 Feb: Thanks to everyone that came to the collaborative midterm - from what I could here, it was an incredible learning experience. Glad you enjoyed it.
• 24 Feb: the collaborative test in class on Wednesday will review important concepts from the written midterm, and extend your knowledge. It won't be a regular repeat of the midterm - there are some important extensions. Don't miss this one. Please come early/on time, since you only have the class time to write and finish it.
• 23 Feb: the finalized cheat sheet is now available on Google Drive, and will be provided to you in the test.
• 23 Feb: a reminder regarding the midterm today: there is no formal lecture, but I will be in class to answer any questions; there are no tutorials from last Friday and today.
• 20 Feb: the solutions to all assignments are posted now for you to review.
• 13 Feb: the grades for assignments 1, 2 and 3 are uploaded into Avenue.
• 13 Feb: there are no tutorials on Friday, 13 February and Monday, 23 February. Please use the time to start preparing for the midterm.
• 11 Feb: the class handout for Wednesday, 06B, had some errors when I presented. I've fixed that up in this revised handout, and made some small changes in red to better explain the search step \(\alpha\).
• 11 Feb: solutions to assignments 1, 2 and 3 are posted, and have been graded.
• 11 Feb: details about the midterm are posted. Please especially read the part about closed notes, and the cheat sheet.
• 08 Feb: the due date for assignment 4 has been extended for you to be one week later. As a result, however, we will not accept any late assignments and we will post the solutions at the due time. This is because the solutions will be useful for studying for the midterm that comes just afterwards.
• 22 Jan: we were speaking in class yesterday about outsourcing, and the costs associated with it. Here's an article about outsourcing and all the costs and decisions associated with it.
• 19 Jan: all the handouts from class have been posted now.
• 17 Jan: for those of you that would like another tutorial guide for GAMS, please take a look here.
• 16 Jan: the 2nd tutorial is posted. It also forms the first assignment. The course is structured so that you can maximize your time spent in the tutorial to confirm your learning, and also get the assignment questions answered. See you in BSB labs.
• 12 Jan: we are moving fully ahead with the LP section of the course, with me mostly providing handouts and board notes, to slow the pace of the class. There are some great resources though for you posted under the linear optimization section, among them.
• 09 Jan: the first tutorial is posted. See you in BSB lab 249 on Friday and Monday.
• 05 Jan: the midterm for this course has been moved to Monday, 23 February, as it has the least conflict with your other evening courses.
• 02 Jan: See the Twitter link above? Follow the @opt4eng Twitter account for instant course notifications (saves you from visiting this website everyday).
• 22 Dec: Please note the first day of class is Monday, 05 January 2015, in JHE 326H. See you there at 11:30. There are some slides you can print and bring to class.