Optimization for Decision Science

CBE/ACMS 40499 and 60499 at the University of Notre Dame

Prof. Alexander Dowling (dowlinglab.nd.edu)

https://ndcbe.github.io/optimization

Running the notebooks

Most students should use Google Colab — nothing needs to be installed. Every notebook page on the website has an “Open in Colab” button at the top; click it and the notebook opens in Colab ready to run. Its first cell detects Colab and installs Pyomo, the solvers and the course helper module for you.

The instructions below are for running the notebooks locally, or for contributing to this website.

1. Install conda

Miniforge (recommended) or Anaconda.

2. Create the environment

One environment covers both jobs: running the notebooks and building the website.

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate optimization_fall2026

3. Install the optimization solvers

IDAES distributes prebuilt binaries for Ipopt and friends:

idaes get-extensions

They install to ~/.idaes/bin. Add that directory to your PATH so Pyomo can find them: