Thomas Sharkey, an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at RPI, has launched a YouTube channel containing video tutorials to assist in the delivery of an Operations Research (OR) course. At RPI, these videos are specifically geared towards ISYE 4600: OR Methods, a required course for all Industrial and Management Engineering (IME) undergraduate students. The video tutorials serve as “virtual office hours” in the sense that they take students through the steps necessary to capture an application as an OR model or to apply an OR model to solve a problem. The current set of video tutorials were created both by Professor Sharkey and Sarah Nurre, PhD ’13, and focus on solving “day-to-day” problems with OR tools. This set of videos, which will be rolled out in Fall 2014, include examining OR models related to toys (LEGO building), sports (Fantasy Football), board games (Chutes and Ladders), and game shows (Supermarket Sweep and Double Dare). In the long run, Professor Sharkey plans to create videos geared towards applying OR tools to the many different career paths available for IME students. These video tutorials were created with support from the Class of 1951 Outstanding Teaching Development Grant, which Professor Sharkey received from RPI in 2012.
Click here for YouTube Channel
Click here for Video Tutorials Website