Educational Tool for ILP and BIP Problems

We focus here on the program which is a support in learning of solving Integer Linear Programming (ILP) and Binary Integer Programming (BIP) problems. There are many programs solving optimization problems using the simplex algorithm and they also offer the option of solving tasks with the result as integer numbers but our program is specialized for such problems and shows the subsequent stages of solving the tasks with the use of the branch and bound method. In this article, the mentioned method is described. Then, we shortly characterize the environment in which the program was implemented and deliver some details about the implementation. Finally, there is a description and examples of program’s functionalities. This tool can generate arbitrary problem but also the user may introduce own tasks. Program uses standard Python libraries to solve the problem according to the branch and bound method – because this approach generates subproblems, as long as it will not find the integer result, the program gathers all intermediary solutions to be accessible for the user. At the end of program’s operating, the problem, its solution, and subsequent stages are saved to a file.