Fall 2015 - ISEN622 Project (Edition 1)

Due: Sunday, December 13 at 11:59pm

Make sure you read this document completely and follow its instructions carefully.

This project will be in teams of 3. Each team will do one submission.

IMPORTANT: One student in your team should send the TA

(harryhacker@tamu.edu) and cc me (kianfar@tamu.edu) an email containing the
names of all members of the team by Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 11:59pm. The
email addresses of all team members should be in the CC line of the email as well. If
this email is not received by this deadline, your project grade will be zero.

Policy on Cheating: You are absolutely not allowed to consult with anyone other than
your designated teammates and your submission must be the result of the intellectual
work of your own team. All violator parties (no matter they give or receive help) will
get an F grade in this course and their case will be filed with the Universitys honor
council.

Guidelines
Carefully read the description of the problem in the next section, which is based on a case study in
Winston, L.W., Venkataramanan, M., Introduction to Mathematical Programming, Wiley, 2003.
Then
1. Formulate the corresponding linear integer programming problem. Note: If you think
formulating or solving the problem needs additional assumptions, make those assumptions
and proceed but make sure you state those assumptions in the formulation section of your
report.
2. Create an AMPL code to solve this model and run it (we call this the basic model). As
before you need to turn in four files: a model file, a data file, a script file containing the
commands you issue in AMPL to solve the model and display the result, and an output file
containing the result of running your script file. These files should be named basic.mod,
basic.dat, basic.run, and basic.out, respectively.
You will lose points if you do not follow the items below:

Comments in the code are absolutely necessary. Comments should be such that one
could understand the whole problem and model just by reading your code. In particular
all sets, parameters, variables, objective function, and constraints should have
associated comments clearly defining/explaining them. The comments should be selfcontained and not refer to the problem description.

Use meaningful and short names for all elements of the model consistent with the
terminology used in the description.

Your model file should be completely independent of the data such that any problem
with any size can be solved using it just by changing the data in the data file. The data
file that you submit is just a particular instance of the problem and corresponds to the
example in the description.
1

Your script file should contain the necessary commands to display all the parameters
and optimal values of variables and objective function in a nice and clean format in the
output file along with appropriate labeling messages. In your output, labeling
messages should clarify what are the values you are displaying. Do not use the log file
option of AMPL to create your output file. Instead use the `>' or `>>' directives or the
`printf' command in your script file to write the output file (refer to AMPL tutorial
document on eCampus).

In addition to displaying the results in the output file you need to present the solution in
appropriately designed tables in a clean format and submit their printout in your report.

Your script file should run correctly and generate exactly the output file that you
submit.

Make your best effort to make your files and report neat, clear and readable. I will not
spend time deciphering disorderly files and incomprehensible reports.

3. Answer the questions posed at the end of the problem description. In each case, work
from the basic model. Do not combine questions.

Deliverables

By the due date submit soft copies of the four files of your basic model and a pdf of your
report. Pack the five files in a .ZIP file and mail the zip file to the TA
(harryhacker@tamu.edu) and cc me (kianfar@tamu.edu) - each team only one email. Cc
your teammates on this email. No form of compression other than ZIP is acceptable.

Your report should satisfy the following requirements:

The report should have a cover sheet containing the names of team members.
It should be typewritten.
You report should include your mathematical formulation for the problem including
definition of parameters, variables, objective function, and constraints.
Copies of your AMPL model, data, log, and script files of your basic model should be
included in your pdf report as well. Use a small font (but not too small).
The report should have the tables of solutions.
The report should contain answers to all questions posed at the end of the problem
description (in order). The answers should clearly argue the reasons. But be concise
and to the point. Everywhere you refer to your data/model/script/output files or modify
a part of them to answer the questions clearly bring a copy of ONLY the
referred/modified lines within your text. Overall, based on your report it should be
exactly clear how you came up with your answers.

Problem Description

Use Google Map to find the road distance between any two cities you need to prepare your data file. Prescribe the plan of
expansion of BestChip to the western US including all the decisions which must be made by formulating and solving a linear
Mixed Binary Programming (MBP) model. Your model should be linear and should only consists of continuous or binary (0-1),
variables. Also answer the following questions independently:
a)
b)
c)
d)

If gasoline gets more expensive increasing the trucking cost for shipping the demand, then how is your
recommendation affected?
If the rail freight cost for material shipping increases, then how is your recommendation affected?
How much time does CPLEX take to solve your linear MBP problem?
Solve the linear programming relaxation of your model. How much time does that take? How much difference
do you notice between the objective value of the LP relaxation and your original MBP? Does your LP
relaxation give a feasible solution to the MBP?