First Course in Linear Optimization

This self-contained textbook provides the foundations of linear optimization, covering topics in both continuous and discrete linear optimization. It gradually builds the connection between theory, algorithms, and applications so that readers gain a theoretical and algorithmic foundation, familiarity with a variety of applications, and the ability to apply the theory and algorithms to actual problems. To deepen the reader's understanding, the authors provide many applications from diverse areas of applied sciences, such as resource allocation, line fitting, graph coloring, the traveling salesman problem, game theory, and network flows. The book also includes more than 180 exercises, most of them with partial answers and about 70 with complete solutions, as well as a continuous illustration of the theory through examples and exercises. A First Course in Linear Optimization is intended to be read cover to cover and requires only a first course in linear algebra as a prerequisite. Its 13 chapters can be used as lecture notes for a first course in linear optimization. Audience This book is for a first undergraduate course in linear optimization, such as linear programming, linear optimization, and operations research. It is appropriate for students in operations research, mathematics, economics, and industrial engineering, as well as those studying computer science and engineering disciplines.