Saving all material from last year in the archive.

archive/2122/other/ideas.md

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+# Ideas for next year
+
+- Using Kaggle for the competition and making it individual. This would
+  definetely make the logistics easier, and the individual part of it would
+  probably be much more stimulating. It would also help me better spot who is
+  really interested in the course.
+- I am thinking about switching from the 3-part approach to the course (
+  Simulation-Optimization-ML) to a two part (Optimization and ML). The contents
+  would be roughly the same, but the simulation part would be more geared
+  towards the serious metaheuristics and we would spend a bit less time in the
+  mathematical programming bit. I just realized that, in my mind, I had
+  packaged simulation as something completely different from optimization. But
+  that is quite silly. Optimization is optimization, no matter if you are doing
+  it through Linear Programming or through metaheuristics. The role of
+  simulation is to compute the value of a target function in a heuristic
+  environment. That's it. Hence, the simulation case then would not be so
+  naive, but rather require students to build a genetic algorithm solution to
+  tackle a more complex case of optimization, such as a multiechelon inventory
+  optimization situation.
+- I have also changed my mind on the course grading. I really don't like to do
+  the exam. The cases have so much more value when compared to the exam. Some
+  of the students let me know that they thought that grading was not balanced
+  with the exam having so much weight, and I can't help but agree. I will
+  probably try to change the weight, but I still need to find a way to prevent
+  free-loaders from going through the course unharmed. I have thought that
+  maybe I could make the students work in groups of 2. The chance of having
+  free-loaders lowers by a lot. And then I could pull the cases grade up to 75%
+  and the exam would only by 25%.
+- For the part that is strictly related to mathematical programming, I would
+  like to do something with Gurobi materials. That way I can learn about it,
+  students learn about Gurobi and Helena will be happy.
+- For next year, I want to include a few additional ideas in the first welcome
+  class:
+    - Publish the grades from Avaldo and show them to the new students.
+    - Remind the guys that I am at their service and that feedback at the end
+      of the course, although very necessary, won't help improve their
+      experience during this year. So, no hard feelings, just let me know
+      mid-way through if you believe we could change things for the better.
+    - Give a lessons learnt from last year to students (what did successful
+      students do, what did students that failed do)
+    - Show places where students from last year are today (Iker, Ivan, Marc,
+      etc)
+    - Perhaps also invite one of them to talk a bit during the first session?
+- Having feedback from the student surveys was great, but I can't do anything
+  with that if I receive it once I'm done with course. In order to be able to
+  act upon the feedback of the students, I'll show a little QR code at the end
+  of each lecture that will link to a form where students can drop feedback,
+  anonymously or not.
+