Easier to use educational models for the network design book- now in Google Colab
The book Supply Chain Network Design has always had companion models. These are meant to teach key concepts and are closer to industrial-sized models than toy models.
We moved the models from a commercial software package to Python with an open-source solver about six years ago. We wanted to make them easy to access for anyone. Even though they were in Python, we built them so students could run them without knowing how Python worked.
The downside of this approach was the friction of installing Python.
I’ve recently started a project to remove the friction, add more models, and create more educational material around network design.
We just completed the first of, hopefully, many steps in this project. We have all the models in Google Colab. Colab allows students (and instructors) to access and run the models through the browser.
While the models are still in Python, the new approach with Colab reduces the friction of installing Python, making it more convenient to access and run them.
Here is the link to the models. Please try them out and give us feedback. I’m sure there are issues that need to be worked out.
We have many ideas for making it easier to use and more flexible. We’d love to hear your ideas and additional models we should include.
This work was led by Shreya Khanna, a recent NU graduate. Another NU graduate, Thrinath Ikkurthi, and Bauti Coronado, an entrepreneur and industrial engineer, supported her.
