Our teaching is focused on quantitative topics, on the development of suitable models for decision situations in business and management, and on the related methods and algorithms. Hence, we put our emphasis on the theoretical background as well as on the application of the methods, in order to enable students to understand the mechanisms the methods are based on, and also to enable them to apply their knowledge in practical situations.

This leads to the major learning objectives we pursue in our teaching, which can be formulated as follows. After doing our modules, the students should be able to

• carry out a structured analysis of relevant planning and decision situations (e.g. in production planning or transportation planning) in a business context,
• formulate appropriate quantitative models for such planning situations,
• apply quantitative methods and algorithms in order to solve such planning situations,
• apply selected optimization software and/or spreadsheets for solving the respective problems,
• interpret and present the model results in a way that can be understood also by “non-experts” and
• critically discuss and judge the applicability and the limitations of the respective approaches.

These learning objectives lead to a teaching approach which combines lecture-style presentation and exercises, as it is important for students not only to hear about the models and methods, but also to apply them. Therefore, many opportunities for studying and solving (nearly) “real-life” decision situations are offered in all our modules, to help the students to build up active knowledge in the field.

In our seminars, this approach is taken further and students are required to gather knowledge on new, “state-of-the-art” models and methods, to apply this knowledge to relevant decision situations and to finally present their results to the group. Of course, we also supervise Bachelor and Master theses on topics from the area of quantitative modeling and planning.

Our modules are part of different study programmes, as e.g. the “International Engineering Management” Master programme (IWI), the “Logistics, Infrastructure and Mobility” Master programme (LIM), and the Bachelor programme “Logistics and Mobility” (LuM). Selected modules are “Operations Research and Decision Analysis”, “Quantitative Methods” and “Statistics and Mathematics in Business and Economics”.