Problem #4

Arianna and Danny here to deliver today's blog post with maximum efficiency. For the first time in five days, nobody set their alarms for seven o'clock sharp, as the main focus of today, the learning module, was not scheduled until later in the afternoon. This gave us some much needed free time to catch up on laundry and sleep.

The Module Special

Students hard at work in today's modeling workshop.

Drs. Hutson and Harris directed the lesson for today, which consisted of a workshop to practice the linear program modeling introduced by Dr. Hutson earlier this week. Each example dealt with rephrasing a real-world problem into terms that could be entered into a computer program, similar to the form of the Traveling Salesman Problem. This is one of the types of problems that we will be discussing tomorrow in the Magic Kingdom. We split into two groups to tackle these problems. The first three examples in the workshop werefairly simple, a good confidence boost. Then came problem four.  The hobbled-together solution that some of the more experienced group members delivered involved a table of entries with nearly fifty values examining four cars traveling between twelve locations (squared), resulting in a three-dimensional graph of ones and zeros and quite a few piles of eraser shavings. Problem four asked students to model a common situation for Meals on Wheels: delivering meals to multiple homes with the goal of minimizing the total time required. As an added challenge for today's participants, Dr. Hutson has offered an ice cream reward to the first person to exhibit a more readable solution to the elusive problem four that does not take up two sheets of paper or utilize the third dimension. We wish every aspiring competitor the best of luck!

...And for Dessert

After a thorough mental workout, we were ready to have some fun. Some of us opted for a physical workout and relaxation at the hotel. A few students decided to venture out to the Magic Kingdom park, while Dr. Hutson led an equally exciting expedition toward the Tower of Terror in Disney's Hollywood Studios for the evening.

We are excited for our adventure in the Magic Kingdom park tomorrow where we will be meeting special guest Len Testa and learning more about the solutions to the problems we modeled today.