Chevron Left
Back to Basic Modeling for Discrete Optimization

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Basic Modeling for Discrete Optimization by The University of Melbourne

4.8
stars
447 ratings

About the Course

Optimization is a common form of decision making, and is ubiquitous in our society. Its applications range from solving Sudoku puzzles to arranging seating in a wedding banquet. The same technology can schedule planes and their crews, coordinate the production of steel, and organize the transportation of iron ore from the mines to the ports. Good decisions in manpower and material resources management also allow corporations to improve profit by millions of dollars. Similar problems also underpin much of our daily lives and are part of determining daily delivery routes for packages, making school timetables, and delivering power to our homes. Despite their fundamental importance, all of these problems are a nightmare to solve using traditional undergraduate computer science methods. This course is intended for students interested in tackling all facets of optimization applications. You will learn an entirely new way to think about solving these challenging problems by stating the problem in a state-of-the-art high level modeling language, and letting library constraint solving software do the rest. This will allow you to unlock the power of industrial solving technologies, which have been perfected over decades by hundreds of PhD researchers. With access to this advanced technology, problems that are considered inconceivable to solve before will suddenly become easy. Watch the course promotional video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc3cBvtrem0&t=8s...

Top reviews

KG

Nov 7, 2020

Excellent course! I learned a lot. Although the assignments were sometimes hard to fathom, and its online nature mean getting hints was difficult, there's enough there to help get through.

BO

Jul 26, 2019

Thank you so much for the course. I had to fight my coding habits, programming CP models is quite different from the traditional programming I'm, and it could even be more fun!

Filter by:

26 - 50 of 107 Reviews for Basic Modeling for Discrete Optimization

By Jan W L

•

Jul 10, 2020

This course leads you through optimization challenges of increasing difficulty. It is very well thought out and the workshops and presentations are very good. Assistance via the forum is prompt and of high quality.

By Tomas R L

•

Oct 19, 2021

Really nice course, last assignments are really challenging and they can even be a little frustrating. I think there are some holes and some information missing, but overall it was really fun and interesting

By Gabriel D d A

•

Feb 24, 2019

Ótimo curso para introdução a otimização discreta, tive dificuldades nas tarefas, mas boa parte devido a minha falta de atenção. Diferente de outros corretores, o Feedback do MinZinc funcionou muita bem!

By Juan C G V

•

Jan 6, 2018

Enjoyable and challenging. Great professors and TAs. Excellent introduction to modeling and declarative programming. If you want to learn programming with constraints definitely I recommend this course.

By Tiago S

•

Jun 28, 2020

It is a very practical way to start the learning in discrete optimization. I think this strategy more effective than the pure theoretical approach. I am so glad for having concluded this course!

By Karl G

•

Nov 7, 2020

Excellent course! I learned a lot. Although the assignments were sometimes hard to fathom, and its online nature mean getting hints was difficult, there's enough there to help get through.

By Alexandre P

•

Jul 30, 2017

Very interesting and neatly prepared course. It was very easy to dive in the course and to stay motivated. I would highly recommend their course for its amazing quality.

By Михаил С

•

Sep 22, 2018

Great course, but huge gap in difficulty between weeks two and three, as it seemed to me. Knowledge given by course is applicable both for a work and a hobby for me.

By Adel F

•

Dec 22, 2020

Excellent course, gives you a whole different contextualization of 'for loop' and formulation and solving a descrete optimization problem. Fun and challenging

By David T

•

Jul 11, 2021

Compact introduction to the basics of specifying models in MiniZinc. Excellent starter kit, but you will fight a bit with the syntax of MiniZinc.

By Hala A

•

Sep 2, 2019

I recommend this course for any one starts constraint programming. It is easy to understand but I think it is required logic background.

By Jaydeep M

•

Jul 29, 2020

Great course for introduction to discrete optimization. Video lectures were engaging and the assignments were challenging but fun.

By Philippe C

•

Jan 14, 2018

Great course to learn modeling discrete optimization problems. Excellent pedagogy and amusing problems to model using MiniZinc.

By Clot J

•

May 30, 2019

Good teachers. They go gradually from very easy to challenging concepts. Also a good intro to the main optimization problems.

By Nikolaj V C

•

May 18, 2020

This course is really great. You get to model a lot of different problems, which are both fun and challenging.

By David B

•

Jun 11, 2020

Very good assignements, it is a good introduction to CP, so i hope to continue to the next level soon.

By mako y

•

Mar 15, 2024

A very engaging course. By the end of it, I'm able to do most anything I can imagine with minizinc.

By Olivier C

•

Oct 13, 2020

Interesting course, constraint solving systems are way different from usual programming languages.

By Charles E T

•

Jun 8, 2019

Certainly more effort went into this course than I was expecting; well worth the $0 cost of entry.

By Filip S

•

Oct 15, 2020

Teaches the basics of modelling really well. I'm looking forward to the follow-up course.

By Keane M

•

Jan 10, 2021

Great introduction to modeling for discrete optimization. Very engaging and challenging.

By Tino W

•

Nov 26, 2017

It's a fun course and can be applied on many optimization problems in the real world.

By Cyprien P

•

Jun 10, 2020

Awesome content and teachers, Minizinc is great to design contraints-based problems.

By Cristian R A

•

Oct 9, 2019

This course is very useful for learning basic CSP Modelling with Minizinc

By Ferry d B

•

Mar 3, 2020

Great course, quality of the lectures and exercises was outstanding!