The general objective of the course is to provide in-depth knowledge regarding advanced optimization methods for public transport planning, vehicle routing and distribution planning, and maritime logistics. Participants will be able to identify problems in these different application fields, formulate mathematical programming models for these, and solve them using advance operations research methods, both exact and heuristics. En studerende, der fuldt ud har opfyldt kursets mål, vil kunne:

• Recall the most important models in transport optimization
• Describe the most important solution methods in transport planning
• List similarities and differences for transport planning models in the fields of public transport, vehicle routing, and maritime logistics
• Describe the most important solution methods in transport planning
• Model and analyze transport planning problems
• Outline the basic principles of column generation and robust optimization
• Explain differences between deterministic and stochastic transport planning problems
• Solve transport optimization models using a mathematical programming language
• Implement simple solution methods for deterministic and stochastic transport planning problems
• Survey the state-of-the-art mathematical models of transport planning
• Write clear and well-structured reports documenting the modeling and findings of an implemented solution approach

This is an advanced course focused on analyzing, formulating and implementing mathematical optimization models for resource planning and scheduling in the area of transportation. It covers applications in the area of public transport planning, maritime logistics, and vehicle routing. Exact topics may change per year, but could include: Timetabling, Crew planning, Network design, Revenue Management, Aircraft Rotation, Pick-up and Delivery Problems, Dial-a-Ride Problems, Container terminal planning and Berth allocation. The course will combine basic domain knowledge in these three fields, with the application of OR methods to solve problems within these fields.

Important prerequisites are an understanding of, and experience with, integer linear programming models. The course is best suited as a second-semester or third-semester course. The course will offer real life examples from public transport, vehicle routing, and maritime logistics. The course assignments will give the participants the opportunity to develop models for different transportation problems and to solve them using modelling and optimization tools (e.g. CPLEX and Julia). The course requires a good knowledge of operations research i.e. the prerequisites, or similar, are to be taken seriously. Knowledge of CPLEX and JULIA (or similar) is not necessary. These will be introduced at the beginning of the course. The course is a merger of the courses 42881/13251 Optimisation in Public Transport, 42887/13442 Vehicle Routing and Distribution Planning, and 42885/13432 Maritime Logistics, and thereby covers a wide spectrum within the field of operations research as a planning tool in the transportation sector. 20. august, 2019