An Exercise for Improving the Modeling Abilities of Students in an Operations Research Course

Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia; Nebojsa I. Jaksic

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Improving IE Course Content
Tagged Divisions: Engineering Management, Engineering Economy, and Industrial Engineering
Page Count: 15
Page Numbers: 25.159.1 - 25.159.15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20919
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/20919
Download Count: 520

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Paper Authors

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Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia Colorado State University, Pueblo

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Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering at Colorado State University, Pueblo. He received his M.Sc. in system engineering and his Ph.D. in engineering management from the National University of Colombia and Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va, respectively. His research interests include scheduling, operations research, and modeling and simulation in health care and energy planning. He has participated in several funded projects through various sources such as NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Colombian Research Institute. He also have several years of experience working as a consultant for pharmaceutical and energy companies in the U.S. and Latin America.

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Nebojsa I. Jaksic Colorado State University, Pueblo orcid.org/0000-0003-1695-790X

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Nebojsa I. Jaksic received a Dipl.Ing. degree in electrical engineering from Belgrade University in 1984, a M.S. in electrical engineering, a M.S. in industrial engineering, and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the Ohio State University in 1988, 1992, and 2000, respectively. From 1992 to 2000, he was with DeVry University in Columbus, Ohio. In 2000, he joined Colorado State University, Pueblo, where he is currently a professor and the mechatronics programs Director. Jaksic's interests include manufacturing processes, automation, robotics, and nanotechnology education and research. He is a member of ASEE, IEEE, SME, and MRS.

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Abstract

Improving the Modeling Capabilities of Students in an Operations Research CourseAbstractA pilot experiment for improving skills of operations research (OR) students in formulatingoptimization problems is developed and implemented. The pilot experiment, as described byChelst and Edwards (2005), is called the Lego® furniture. In this experiment, a furniturecompany has two types of resources available (eight small and six large pieces) and producestwo types of products (tables, made of one large and two small pieces, and chairs, made of onelarge and two small pieces). Profit for a table is $16 and for a chair is $10. The students are thenpresented with two sets of questions: The first set asks them to define the product mix thecompany has to manufacture, the relationships with its level of resources, and the economicalgoal of the company. The second set of questions asks students to comment on the nature of theinformation (deterministic versus stochastic and static versus dynamic) and the datarequirements.Industrial Engineering students at the bachelor and master level were given the Lego® furnitureproblem to formulate as an optimization problem defined by the decision variables, the objectivefunction, and a set of constraints (See picture below). This exercise serves as an introduction tothe OR course. It complements lectures, seminars and case studies frequently used in this type ofcourses.Students at the bachelor level are considered to come from a homogeneous population while thestudents at master level come from different backgrounds (business, natural sciences,mathematics, and engineering). In this pilot study, we observed that master students in theexperimental group (Fall 2010) statistically improved their modeling capabilities, measuredduring their midterm by using three standard formulation problems: a minimum-cost dietproblem, a multiproduct inventory control problem, and a staff scheduling problem. Theextension of the pilot study continues in two directions. First, we are adding anotherexperimental group (Fall 2011) and second, we will analyze backgrounds of the master studentsin the two experimental groups to see if they explain the improvement of modeling capabilities.After presenting the results of our pilot study, a discussion about the general state of teachingmodeling capabilities in Operations Research courses validated the importance that this topic hasfor engineering departments. Engineering faculty agreed on the need for improvement in thedevelopment of a formulation-of-the-problem attitude among students.In general, the results of our study showed an improvement in student modeling abilities as wellas high student satisfaction with the described experiment. Master level students, alreadyexposed to the concepts of modeling and optimization, are slightly less satisfied than bachelorlevel students that have never been exposed to the same concepts. Both, master and bachelorlevel students show an improvement in their modeling abilities.

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Bedoya-Valencia, L., & Jaksic, N. I. (2012, June), An Exercise for Improving the Modeling Abilities of Students in an Operations Research Course Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--20919

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -  Improving the Modeling Capabilities of Students in an Operations Research                                 CourseAbstractA pilot experiment for improving skills of operations research (OR) students in formulatingoptimization problems is developed and implemented. The pilot experiment, as described byChelst and Edwards (2005), is called the Lego® furniture. In this experiment, a furniturecompany has two types of resources available (eight small and six large pieces) and producestwo types of products (tables, made of one large and two small pieces, and chairs, made of onelarge and two small pieces). Profit for a table is $16 and for a chair is $10. The students are thenpresented with two sets of questions: The first set asks them to define the product mix thecompany has to manufacture, the relationships with its level of resources, and the economicalgoal of the company. The second set of questions asks students to comment on the nature of theinformation (deterministic versus stochastic and static versus dynamic) and the datarequirements.Industrial Engineering students at the bachelor and master level were given the Lego® furnitureproblem to formulate as an optimization problem defined by the decision variables, the objectivefunction, and a set of constraints (See picture below). This exercise serves as an introduction tothe OR course. It complements lectures, seminars and case studies frequently used in this type ofcourses.Students at the bachelor level are considered to come from a homogeneous population while thestudents at master level come from different backgrounds (business, natural sciences,mathematics, and engineering). In this pilot study, we observed that master students in theexperimental group (Fall 2010) statistically improved their modeling capabilities, measuredduring their midterm by using three standard formulation problems: a minimum-cost dietproblem, a multiproduct inventory control problem, and a staff scheduling problem. Theextension of the pilot study continues in two directions. First, we are adding anotherexperimental group (Fall 2011) and second, we will analyze backgrounds of the master studentsin the two experimental groups to see if they explain the improvement of modeling capabilities.After presenting the results of our pilot study, a discussion about the general state of teachingmodeling capabilities in Operations Research courses validated the importance that this topic hasfor engineering departments. Engineering faculty agreed on the need for improvement in thedevelopment of a formulation-of-the-problem attitude among students.In general, the results of our study showed an improvement in student modeling abilities as wellas high student satisfaction with the described experiment. Master level students, alreadyexposed to the concepts of modeling and optimization, are slightly less satisfied than bachelorlevel students that have never been exposed to the same concepts. Both, master and bachelorlevel students show an improvement in their modeling abilities.
AU  - Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia
AU  - Nebojsa I. Jaksic
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - An Exercise for Improving the Modeling Abilities of Students in an Operations Research Course
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/20919
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20919
ER  -