TB3 - OPERATIONAL RESEARCH AND DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS

Companies operate in an environment which is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain. They are therefore regularly obliged to take numerous decisions the consequences of which can have significant impacts, including long term impacts. It is crucial in this context to have recourse to engineers capable of understanding these decision processes as effectively as possible.

    In the Operational research and decision support tools Toolbox students will:

• Acquire the principle concepts and scientific methods of decision support tools to deal with discrete problems
• Acquire a global vision and good understanding of techniques stemming from operational research (optimisation, simulation, multi-criteria analysis, …) and of available software programmes
• Put into practice the acquired skills through case study work relating to several fields of application.

The Operational research and decision support tools Toolbox consists of four units:

1. Mathematical modelling of decision problems (Markov chains), linear programming in whole numbers, Markovian decision processes
2. Computerised tools for decision support (flow simulation, discrete optimisation, meta-heuristics)
3. Decision theories (game theory, notions of criteria and preference relations, multi-criteria methods of aggregation, multi-criteria of up-grading)
4. Case studies

The first three units deal with concepts and methods associated with the three principle stages of a decision support process (i.e. modelling a system, exploitation of the model and analysis of the obtained results). The fourth unit provides the link between the other units through the application of several transversal case studies

The Operational research and decision support tools Toolbox is positioned as an extension of the Operational Research course of the core curriculum programme in mathematics

It can be combined with several programmes calling for a quantitative analysis of decisions and their consequences. The table below indicates some examples of possible orientations (non-exhaustive list):