Bachelor seminar: Applications of Operations Research in Global Logistics
Contents of the seminar:
After learning different topics of operations research (OR) in previous courses, the students should practice their knowledge to solve real-world problems. The ultimate goal of this seminar is for the students to understand operations problems in the field of Global Logistics (GL), to generalize the problem into a related OR topic, and to use techniques they have learned in the past to solve the OR question.
As a bachelor seminar, instead of writing a paper on their own, the students will be required to read a scientific paper, write a short summary, and present the paper to the class. In their presentation, they should introduce the study to the professor and the other students in a way that the audience with no previous knowledge of the paper could fully understand it. The ultimate goal of this seminar is that the students will learn how to critically review scientific literatures and how to conduct an analytical research and organize a scientific paper in the area of GL by reading and understanding published papers.
They will practice analytical and argumentative skills through reviewing scientific papers, attending in-class discussions, writing reports and conducting oral presentations. They will also gain some basic knowledge in related topics in GL, such as network design, multimodal transportation route choices, port congestion, horizontal collaboration/vertical integration, etc.
The attendance for the students is mandatory. The course will be held in English. All parts of the exam have to be written in English. Grades will be a weighted average of the exams. Weightings will be announced in the course.
General topics:
Students should choose from the articles given by the professor, or could also find a paper that he/she is particularly interested, with the permission and agreement of the professor before end of February 2017. Some examples of the general topics include:
- Optimal container shipment flow design
- Supply chain network analysis
- Horizontal collaboration for transportation scheduling
A few articles are listed at the bottom of this page, but the whole list of papers will only be provided on Stine on the first day of class. The students are encouraged to review related literature. But the focus of the process is to get a full understanding of the given paper and being able to present it to the class and in the seminar paper.
Exam scheme:
- Production of a short review based on the assigned paper
- Presentation for the seminar about the review of the paper
- Discussion of the presentation and own presentation
Time schedule of the seminars:
Date |
Event |
Time (s.t.) |
Room |
17.02.2017 |
Kick-off & one or two sample papers |
10:00 – 12:00 |
Mo 18, 0005.1 |
17.02.2017 |
Introduction to Global Logistics |
12:00 – 14:00 |
Mo 18, 0005.1 |
24.02.2017 |
Introduction to scientific work |
10:00 – 12:30 |
Mo 18, 0025 |
24.02.2017 |
Discussion of the sample paper |
12:30 – 15:00 |
Mo 18, 0025 |
14.04.2017 |
Handing in of the review summary |
until 12:00 |
|
21.04.2017 |
Presentations I |
12:00 – 16:00 |
Mo 18, 0025 |
28.04.2017 |
Presentations II |
12:00 – 16:00 |
Mo 18, 0025 |
05.05.2017 |
Presentations III |
12:00 – 16:00 |
Mo 18, 0025 |
The rooms are added to the table above.
Literature examples
- Barbot, C., Tiziana D’Alfonso, Paolo Malighetti, and Renato Redondi. 2013. “Vertical collusion between airports and airlines: An empirical test for the European case.” Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 57:3–15. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2013.01.002.
- Fan, L., William W. Wilson, and Denver Tolliver. 2010. “Optimal network flows for containerized imports to the United States.” Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 46 (5): 735–49. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2010.01.001.
- Huang, Y., George Q. Huang, and Stephen T. Newman. 2011. “Coordinating pricing and inventory decisions in a multi-level supply chain: A game-theoretic approach.” Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 47 (2): 115–29. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2010.09.011.
- Jones, D. A., Julie L. Farkas, Orr Bernstein, Chad E. Davis, Adam Turk, Mark A. Turnquist, Linda K. Nozick et al. 2011. “U.S. import/export container flow modeling and disruption analysis.” Research in Transportation Economics 32 (1): 3–14. doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2011.06.003.
- Jula, P., and Robert C. Leachman. 2011. “A supply-chain optimization model of the allocation of containerized imports from Asia to the United States.” Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 47 (5): 609–22. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2011.02.007.
- Leachman, R. C. 2008. “Port and modal allocation of waterborne containerized imports from Asia to the United States.” Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 44 (2): 313–31. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2007.07.008.