Exam 8: Evolutionary Solver: An Alternative Optimization Procedure

Evolutionary Solver works best when constraints are applied as:

Exhibit 8-2A television station has commercials of the following lengths (in seconds): 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 45, 50, and 60. The commercials must be assigned to 90-second breaks. If a commercial break exceeds 90 seconds, a penalty cost is incurred. Station managers have established a penalty of $100 (per second) if the maximum limit is exceeded. Moreover, station owners want commercial breaks that are at least 65 seconds in duration. If any break fails to achieve this minimum duration, then a $1000 penalty (per occurrence) is charged. -Refer to Exhibit 8-2. Explain why this problem typically requires Evolutionary Solver to obtain a solution.

In cluster analysis, the number of clusters is usually assigned ahead of time.

Exhibit 8-4Steve the salesman must travel along a route from his home in Denver that visits all of the cities shown below exactly once before returning home. The mileage between each city on the route is also listed below: -Refer to Exhibit 8-4. Suppose Steve moves to Los Angeles. What is the shortest distance in this case?

Crossovers are rare as a genetic algorithm is generating chromosomes for the next generations.

Exhibit 8-2A television station has commercials of the following lengths (in seconds): 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 45, 50, and 60. The commercials must be assigned to 90-second breaks. If a commercial break exceeds 90 seconds, a penalty cost is incurred. Station managers have established a penalty of $100 (per second) if the maximum limit is exceeded. Moreover, station owners want commercial breaks that are at least 65 seconds in duration. If any break fails to achieve this minimum duration, then a $1000 penalty (per occurrence) is charged. -Refer to Exhibit 8-2. What is the fewest number of breaks that are needed to air all eight of the commercials?

Exhibit 8-3A standardized testing agency would like to understand the role of tests in admission decisions at top business schools. It is particularly interested in the relative roles played by the GRE and the undergraduate GPA in the admissions process. It has gathered the following data for 50 randomly sampled applicants (which has been sorted by Admitted): -Refer to Exhibit 8-3. Write out your model and interpret your results. Do the results make sense?

In Evolutionary Solver, the initial population is chosen randomly, so the starting solution you enter in the changing cells is irrelevant.

Exhibit 8-1Six storage bins on a railroad train are available for shipment of grain from Kansas City to Dallas. Three of the bins can hold 1500 bushels of grain each, while the other three can hold 750 bushels each. There are four types of grain that can be shipped, and the amount demanded, unit shortage cost and maximum allowable shortage for each are:If the maximum allowable shortage is exceeded for any grain, a $100/bushel penalty is incurred. Grain Demand (Bushels) Shortage Cost/Bushel MaxShortage (Bushels) Com 1500 \ 2.50 500 Wheat 2500 \ 2.00 750 Oats 1250 \ 1.50 750 Barley 1500 \ 1.75 500 -Refer to Exhibit 8-1. How should the train be loaded to minimize shortage and penalty costs?

A discriminant score is a weighted combination of the data for each member of a population, which is used to classify the members into groups.

Evolutionary Solver is primarily used to solve models where:

Exhibit 8-3A standardized testing agency would like to understand the role of tests in admission decisions at top business schools. It is particularly interested in the relative roles played by the GRE and the undergraduate GPA in the admissions process. It has gathered the following data for 50 randomly sampled applicants (which has been sorted by Admitted): -Refer to Exhibit 8-3. Test your model against another randomly drawn sample of 50 students (data shown below). Does your model work as well for this sample? Can you explain your findings?

Which of the following is not a step in a genetic algorithm?

Exhibit 8-1Six storage bins on a railroad train are available for shipment of grain from Kansas City to Dallas. Three of the bins can hold 1500 bushels of grain each, while the other three can hold 750 bushels each. There are four types of grain that can be shipped, and the amount demanded, unit shortage cost and maximum allowable shortage for each are:If the maximum allowable shortage is exceeded for any grain, a $100/bushel penalty is incurred. Grain Demand (Bushels) Shortage Cost/Bushel MaxShortage (Bushels) Com 1500 \ 2.50 500 Wheat 2500 \ 2.00 750 Oats 1250 \ 1.50 750 Barley 1500 \ 1.75 500 -Refer to Exhibit 8-1. This is an example of what type of optimization problem?

The number of possible paths in a shortest path problem with n locations is:

The objective function in a genetic algorithm is called a:

A traveling salesman problem with a starting city and 10 other cities that must be visited has 1,826,800 possible solutions.

If you let a genetic algorithm run long enough, it is guaranteed to find the solution to any optimization problem.

Combinatorial problems have only a finite number of feasible solutions.

Exhibit 8-4Steve the salesman must travel along a route from his home in Denver that visits all of the cities shown below exactly once before returning home. The mileage between each city on the route is also listed below: -Refer to Exhibit 8-4. Suppose Steve's company decides to locate a second salesperson in the region. Steve will now cover only Denver, Albuquerque, El Paso, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. The second salesperson will cover Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Las Vegas. Formulate and solve shortest-path models for both salespersons. Is the total mileage for both salespersons more or less than in the case where Steve is the only salesperson?