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

4.8
stars
749 ratings

About the Course

Tired of solving Sudokus by hand? This class teaches you how to solve complex search problems with discrete optimization concepts and algorithms, including constraint programming, local search, and mixed-integer programming. Optimization technology is ubiquitous in our society. It schedules planes and their crews, coordinates the production of steel, and organizes the transportation of iron ore from the mines to the ports. Optimization clears the day-ahead and real-time markets to deliver electricity to millions of people. It organizes kidney exchanges and cancer treatments and helps scientists understand the fundamental fabric of life, control complex chemical reactions, and design drugs that may benefit billions of individuals. This class is an introduction to discrete optimization and exposes students to some of the most fundamental concepts and algorithms in the field. It covers constraint programming, local search, and mixed-integer programming from their foundations to their applications for complex practical problems in areas such as scheduling, vehicle routing, supply-chain optimization, and resource allocation....

Top reviews

SK

May 29, 2019

Exceptional coverage of optimization fundamentals. Learning of practical applied methods. Real university level course, no water down "data science". Absolutely love it! Thank you professor Pascal.

HG

Jul 21, 2017

Great course, the teacher is very clear and often goes into sufficient depth for the student to understand concepts.

Assignments are challenging and help understanding course content.

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151 - 170 of 170 Reviews for Discrete Optimization

By Urumi N

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Oct 22, 2021

Thank you!

By Yury G

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Apr 30, 2017

Wonderful!

By Leonardo G A

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Aug 25, 2023

The Best.

By Bjarki Þ H

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May 19, 2020

Very good

By lane_courera

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May 31, 2022

great!

By KALLURU B T R

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Apr 11, 2021

good

By Krystian Z

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Jan 5, 2023

Description of branch and bound in week 1 and also interesting, open ended assignments are plus - (but lectures alone are not enough to complete them IMO). Other than that: not very deep on theory, does not teach much of technical skills (uses pseudo-code almost all time), not beginner-friendly - and I would expect to see at least one of these to consider it a better course. IMHO "Operation Research" MOOCs from University of Taiwan teach similar things somewhat better.

By Edvin S

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Aug 24, 2021

Very good course overall, good material and lectures, challenging assignments. I think the assignments require more time than estimated in the course. What I'm perhaps missing is more discussion on what problem characteristics are important in choosing solver techniques (LP, LS, CP): I still don't feel I have a strong intuition for which algorithm/solver is appropriate for a given problem.

By Jabez T W

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Aug 31, 2020

The content was very useful and very well presented, but I thought I needed more help with the assignments. An indication of how long each program should run should also be made clear. My MIP programs took a few hours for each problem to solve.

By Cheyenne P

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Apr 13, 2021

Really interesting course, it took a while to understand what I was doing as I'm new to coding. I'm glad I was able to solve the assignments. Really happy with outcome. Will be useful for personal projects I'm working on

By Yury K

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Nov 12, 2019

Pascal is highly engaging lecturer. The course is superb, but is indeed advanced. Not very suitable as an intro to a topic (the way I tried to use it). Scraped through though, and rather proud of it :-)

By Ella P

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Jun 5, 2021

Good but a very demanding course. Knowledge of some Programming language should be greater than infromed in the intro

By Baltasar B R

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Jan 25, 2017

I've enjoyed a lot this challenging course. To get a 10 in all the assignments is very hard. But 7 is achievable.

By YIHONG J

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Jun 23, 2020

The content is exciting and the homework is equally challenging! Don't start if you are not ready.

By Oleg L

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Jun 14, 2022

Very cool practice course, but small amount of theory about duality and e.t.c.

By Juan L R A

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Aug 21, 2017

Challenging. I have missed some more explanation about algorithms....

By athanasio v

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May 23, 2020

great lesson should be a little bit more programming friendly

By Ian B

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Mar 11, 2020

Great course, but a heavy workload.

By Sreepathy R N

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Mar 13, 2020

excellent assignments

By Adrian R

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Apr 24, 2022

As much as I would like to learn this material, this presenter is exhausting to watch. A lot of important information is swamped by noise. Too much hand waiving and trying to make a show out of the course. A pity.