Introduction to Modeling and Optimization

IE 202 is where you learn to translate messy real-world decisions — how to allocate resources, route flows, schedule production — into mathematical models a computer can actually solve. You'll spend the semester formulating linear and integer programs, working through the simplex method by hand before turning to Excel and Xpress, and tackling labs, quizzes, and a team project that push you from toy examples to network flow problems. As the gateway to operations research at Bilkent, it sets up everything downstream in the IE curriculum, from stochastic models to large-scale optimization, and gives you the modeling instinct that defines the discipline.