Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia Civil 598G, Section 00G, Catalouge #74381 (2-4) Modeling and Optimization of Large-scale Civil Engineering Systems
Audience: This course is intended for Civil Engineers who would like to apply simulation and optimization techniques in practice. Practicing professionals may wish to enrol in the course as unclassified students. Who should attend: Graduate engineers in any filed of engineering. Some prior exposure to optimization theory and techniques is recommended. Description: Many companies and research programs are integrating optimization technology into their day-to-day operations. Applying simulation and optimization software systems and applying general operations research methodology in various contexts is becoming an increasingly sought after skill. This course is designed to teach students about "optimization in practice." The course involves learning about simulation and optimization techniques, artificial intelligence, and intelligent user interface systems and how they could be integrated and used to solve complex, real-life operational decision problems. Special emphasis will be on the management of large-scale civil engineering systems. Modeling examples will be mainly drawn for the fields of reservoir and hydroelectric generating system operations in the deregulated power market, transportation and construction engineering. The student will learn key aspects of optimization theory, modeling technologies, problem formulation and how to design, validate and implement good simulation and optimization models for realistic applications. Students will work individually or in groups of 2-3 to develop a practical application of optimization technology. Registrants will be encouraged to interact with real life system operators to build prototype systems using one or a combination of software packages (e.g. Expert System Shells, Excel Solver, CPLEX/AMPL, STELLA, etc.). Note: The course is meant to take place over two terms for a total of 4 credits. However, the option exists to take just the first term of the course for a total of 2 credits. Registration: CIVL 598G, Section 00G, Catalogue #74381
Course Instructor: Dr. Ziad Shawwash Office: CEME 2032 Tel: 604 822 2674 (UBC) 604 528 1872 (BC Hydro) Email: shawwash@civil.ubc.ca Office hours: Course Marking: Homework assignments: Quiz: Project and presentation:
40% 20% 40%
Prerequisite: Civil 555, or approval of instructor Class schedule: TBA, CEME 1212 Course delivery: The course will be taught through a series of lectures, case studies, and industry speakers and a field trip. A hands-on approach will be adopted. Students will apply the knowledge gained from the course to build a prototype decision support system for a particular application of their choice. Guest lecturers may be brought in to address specific topics of interest from professional practice and research underway in the province. Course reference materials: Fourer R., D. M. Gay, B. W. Kernighan, “AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming,” The Scientific Series Press, 1993. De Neufville, R., 1990. “Applied System Analysis,” McGraw Hill, Inc. Introduction to Linear Optimization, Dimitris Bertsimas and John Tsitsiklis, Athena Scientific, 1997 Journal Articles Handouts Other material to be specified. Civil 598G: Modeling and Optimization of Large-scale Civil Engineering Systems Term I, Sept.-Dec.
Tentative lecture Schedule Date Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Topic Introduction to course and to modeling, simulation, optimization and to largescale systems Overview and refresher on simulation and optimization techniques, HW1 Overview on optimization techniques and intelligent systems Structure and components of decision support systems Model formulation and modeling languages I, HW2 Modeling languages II: optimization routines, Modeling languages III: model building, data acquisition, and validation of models, project selection, HW 3 Industry speaker Examples of large-scale optimization models, Quiz, Solution methods for large-scale optimization models, Field trip to BC Hydro/PowerEx Integration and implementation of intelligent systems, simulation and optimization models to solve real-life industrial problems Implementation of large-scale decision support systems, Presentation of group projects
Civil 598G: Modeling and Optimization of Large-scale Civil Engineering Systems Term II, Jan.-April Tentative lecture Schedule Date Week 1 Week 2 Topic Course outline, schedule and introduction Modelling and optimization of large-scale systems (Large LPs, Integer and binary problems, Network formulation, expert systems); examples discussion on potential projects Large-scale linear models (e.g., SLP): examples and formulation as LP in AMPL, HW 1 Decomposition methods I, examples, group project selection Decomposition methods II, examples, HW2 Decomposition methods III, examples, HW3 Mid-term break Industry speaker Introduction to Stochastic Dynamic Programs (SDP), progress report on projects (short presentations), Quiz Solving simple SDP problems using Excel, AMPL and LP formulations, Field trip to Stave Falls project Simulation based approach to large-scale problems and other methods for solving large-scale problems (e.g., Response Surface Method, Constraint Programming, … etc) Presentation of group projects
Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12
Week 13