Books, Seminars, and Web Resources

Formulating your model may be the most challenging aspect of using the Solver. But there are resources available to help you. There is a vast literature on problems of various types, and for specific industries and business situations, which have have solved successfully with the methods available in the Solver. Don't reinvent the wheel -- find out how others have solved problems similar to yours!

Books

There's a lot you can learn from textbooks in the fields of operations research and management science, where the optimization methods used by the Solver were first developed and applied. You can also benefit from advanced books in Excel which include coverage of the Solver, as well as other Excel analytical tools.

VISIT OUR ONLINE BOOKSTORE to read brief descriptions of our most recommended books. Since some of these books can be hard to find outside of a few college bookstores, we've arranged an easy way for you to order them through the Amazon.com Associates Program.

On-Line Tutorials

For a basic introduction to the Solver's capabilities, methods and applications, see our Tutorial on Optimization.

For an alternative, introductory tutorial that takes you step by step through the process of solving a sample model with the Microsoft Excel Solver, try the University of British Columbia's MBA program online tutorial for the Solver.

Public Seminars

Several public seminars on quantitative methods using Excel, with many applications of the Solver, are being offered in major cities by highly qualified instructors. Attending one of these seminars may be one of the best investments you can make. In a day or two, you can make real progress in understanding how to formulate your model and apply these analytical tools, under the guidance of world-class experts.

Sam L. Savage received a Ph.D. from Yale University, and taught at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business from 1974 to 1990. In 1985 he led the development of What'sBest!, the first spreadsheet optimizer, for Lotus 1-2-3. Through his "Beyond What If" seminar series and his new firm AnalyCorp, Sam has taught more than 2000 business managers to make effective use of the analytical power of spreadsheets.

Wayne L. Winston received a Ph.D. from Yale University, and teaches Decision Support Systems in the MBA Core at the University of Indiana Kelly School of Business, where he has received some of the highest teaching ratings in the school. He is the author of several prominent textbooks including the best-selling Practical Management Science: Spreadsheet Modeling and Applications, published by Duxbury Press.

Tom R. Mincer is Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Mechanical Engineering, California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and Director of the University Consortium on Continuing Education. He initiated the use of Excel spreadsheets in the under-graduate and graduate curriculum at CSUN. For the past 6 years he has worked extensively in the areas of systems design, simulation and optimization using Excel.

Simon Benninga received a Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University, and teaches at the Recanati School of Management, Tel-Aviv University. He is the author of Numerical Methods in Finance (MIT Press, 1989), coauthor of Corporate Finance: A Valuation Approach (McGraw-Hill, 1996), and author of Financial Modeling (MIT Press, 1997).

Web Resources

A wealth of educational opportunities are available through INFORMS: The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. With almost 15,000 members, from business and industry as well as academia, INFORMS is the professional society for the field of OR/MS.

INFORMED - The INFORMS Forum on Education: Designed for instructors, INFORMED encourages discussion and interaction among individuals interested in the teaching of operations research and management sciences at institutions of higher education, and its relationship to the OR/MS profession.

SIAM - The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics works to advance the application of mathematics to science and industry, promote mathematical research that could lead to effective new methods and techniques, and provide media for the exchange of information and ideas among mathematicians, engineers, and scientists.

LinkExchange Member

Copyright © 2000 Frontline Systems Inc.
Last modified: June 24, 2004.