Modelling for Combinatorial Optimisation (course 1DL451)
&
Combinatorial Optimisation and Constraint Programming (course 1DL442)

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Project

Organisation

The project is to be done in teams (team-building instructions) and is worth 2 higher-education credits (ECTS credits). The main objective of the project is to exercise further the theoretical knowledge gained in the lectures, but on a problem that you propose and that gets our approval.

We are not just interested in a sufficiently complete and efficient approach, but also in explanations and experimental evaluation, hence a report is also required for the project and the quality of the report determines the project score.

Seven help sessions are scheduled for the project.

PhD students do either the assignments (solo), or just the project (solo; possibly in connection with their PhD research; but they are highly encouraged to do the assignments nevertheless), or both: contact the head teacher.

Project Proposal

A project proposal of three problems, listed by decreasing preference, each answering two questions (what? which third-party instance data?) must be submitted at Studium (as a single file in .pdf format; all other formats will be rejected; state the team number and the names of the team members): the head teacher may interactively (via Studium) negotiate revisions with you during the subsequent seven days until our notification (if approved, then pass, else fail). The problems can be your own or drawn from the following websites (in the latter case, it suffices to name the problem when listing it):

Let us know if you think some problem ought to be taken off this list, for instance because an approach with MiniZinc or OPL can be found on the internet.

Project Rules and Grading Criteria

An approved project proposal entitles to continuation (deadlines and schedule in the table below):

Important Dates for Autumn 2024

Deliverable or Event Deadline or Date
Proposal Wed 18 Sep at 13:00
Approval (pass/fail) Wed 25 Sep at 13:00
Help a Fri 27 Sep
Help b (also for Assignment 3) Thu 03 Oct
Help c (also for Assignment 3) Mon 07 Oct
Help d (also for Assignment 3) Wed 09 Oct
Help e Wed 16 Oct
Help f Thu 17 Oct
Initial Report (pass/fail) Fri 18 Oct at 13:00
Help g tba
Final Report (score \(p \in 0..10\)) Fri 01 Nov at 13:00

Submission and Deadlines

The project proposal, initial report, and final report must be submitted electronically via Studium, whose clock may be different from yours. Submission deadlines are hard. Exceptions must be negotiated in due time during work hours with the head teacher, upon reporting a convincing case of force majeure. Grading will only start after a deadline, so you can submit multiple times until then.

Ethics

The considerations on ethics of the assignment reports also apply to the project report.

We reserve the right to give different project scores to the teammates of a team.

Expected Effort

Each higher-education credit (ECTS credit) translates under Swedish university law into an expected 26.67 hours of work for the average student. The project is worth 2 credits: discounting about half of the 21 hours spent in period 1 on the lectures (the other half being similarly discounted on the 3 assignment credits), the project should reflect 49.5 hours of work by the average student, for each teammate. This does not clash with other courses you are taking, as university studies are legally defined to take 400 hours of work per study period (normally 10 weeks), and the standard 15 credits targeted in a study period are calibrated to reach that total.

Project Grade

The project grade is determined by a published scale, depending on your project score \(p \in 0..10\).

Need Help?

See Contact, Help, and FAQ.

Overall Grade

The overall grade is determined by a published scale, depending on the modelling assignment scores and the project score \(p\).

Contract

These rules are effective as of Mon 3 Nov 2025. The head teacher reserves the right to modify them at any moment, should special circumstances call for this.


Last modified: Wed May 21 15:15:17 CEST 2025