Math 354 - Linear Optimization
Description
Math 354 is a course that serves as an introduction to linear optimization, a subject concerned with optimizing functions subject to linear constraints.
Topics covered
Topics covered in Math 354 usually include:
- Introduction to linear programming
- Simplex method
- Further topics in linear programming
- Integer programming
- Special types of linear programming problems
Note that the exact list of topics vary by instructor and semester.
Miscellaneous information
Despite the relative simplicity of the topics covered in this course, many students who have taken this course describe this course to be unnecessarily tedious in some iterations, with a lot of row-reduction and other by-hand computation per problem. Exams usually test on multiple types of these problems, and the nature of these computations are such that if one makes one mistake, the resulting answers are wrong, possibly leading to the loss of a majority of the points on the problem (depending on grading policy).
Resources
Textbook
The usual textbook for the class is Elementary Linear Programming with Applications by Bernard Kolman and Robert E. Beck.
Additional materials
Some past course webpages are available online.
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Spring 2026, taught by Chi Li: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~cl1412/courses/354f/MA354.html.
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Spring 2025, taught by Kristen Hendricks: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~kh754/Math354.html
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Spring 2022, taught by Kristen Hendricks: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~kh754/Math354_22.html.