Advanced large scale GAMS modeling with an emphasis on agriculture, forestry and the environment
A workshop designed for those interested in applying GAMS modeling to large scale modeling with case studies drawn from agricultural and forestry sectoral analysis largely in the climate change arena. Students are expected to have a working knowledge of GAMS ahead of time The whole class will deal withthe topics of how to formulate GAMS based models working up through
advanced formulation (dealing with price responsive demand, investments and risk) GAMS model debugging, model speedups and improved output presentation topics.
Course Timing, Fees
and Registration
- Timing:
Vienna (IIASA Laxemburg), Austria
-- May 5 (8 am) - May 8 (noon), 2008
(3 1/2 days)
- Fees:
- Regular participants: 1200 Euros
- University students : 800 Euros
- Registration:
- By phone, fax, or e-mail, contact:
,GAMS Software GmbH, phone: +49-221-9499170,
fax: +49-221-9499170,
e-mail: info@gams.de
- By
mail, send name,
address, phone, fax, and email address (with payment or purchase order)
to:
GAMS Software GmbH,
Eupener Str. 135-137, 50933 Cologne, Germany
Instructor
Background
Bruce A. McCarl is a Regents Professor at Texas
A&M
University
in College
Station, Texas
specializing in Mathematical
Programming applications. He has wide teaching, research, consulting
and
applied analysis experience in the application of mathematical
programming to
industry, and government. (
Read about some projects he has done). He has been on the
Texas A&M
faculty since 1985 and previously taught at Oregon
State
University,
Purdue
University
and Pennsylvania
State University.
Dr. McCarl is a winner of awards from USDA, and USEPA for his
optimization applications plus
is part of the IPCC team sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He is
Associate
Editor of Climatic Change and has served as Editor of Choices and
associate
editor of Water
Resources Research, and American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Dr.
McCarl earned a B.A. in Business Statistics from the University
of Colorado
and a Ph.D. in Management
Science from the Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. McCarl taught his
first GAMS short course in 1986 and has been a GAMS user since 1985. He
has written the GAMSCHKmodeling
assistance
product which is being freely distributed with releases of GAMS plus
the Expanded
GAMS Users Guide. He has consulted on optimization and GAMS use with
employees
of UNFCCC, First National Bank of Maryland, Tasmanian Hydropower, Neodyme, USCOE, American
Express, USAID, Government of Egypt, International Harvester, World
Bank, Department of Energy,
Bonneville Power, Electric Power Research Institute, USDA, and USEPA
among others.
What will the course
help you learn?
You
will learn techniques for
doing firm impact modeling analysis including treatment of risk and
investment
modeling using the professional's choice in modeling software -- GAMS.
The
3-day course will provide you with learning experiences regarding
questions
such as:
- Do you find it
desirable to do a model on how the firm might act given changes in
prices, programs, policies, regulations or environmental forces? Learn
how to entities and reflect the influence of such forces on production
processes and markets.
- When modeling does
it take you a long time to construct ,
verify , use the model for comparative studies and convert output into
meaningful reports? Learn techniques which increase the efficiency with
which you use GAMS.
- Have you ever had
a model which was infeasible, unbounded or worse yet optimal but
nonsensical? Learn approaches that reveal where problems are in models
so you can fix them.
- Does it take you a
long time to construct ,
verify, use for comparative studies and convert output into meaningful
reports? Learn techniques which increase the efficiency with which you
use GAMS.
- Do you find
yourself modeling large problems? Learn techniques to facilitate your
and others understanding, documentation, ease of use and level of
comfort with such models.
- Do you have a GAMS
implementation that takes a long time to compute, generate or solve?
Learn ways to find out the cause of extensive solution time and ways
that have, in cases, reduced execution times by an order of magnitude
or more.
- Have you ever
talked to an experienced modeler and found out there are powerful
things GAMS can do that you don't know about because of hidden features
or a lack of treatment in the documentation? Learn a number of such
features.
- Have you heard
about GAMSIDE, GAMSCHK and wonder how they work? Learn about them from
the developer of GAMSCHK who has used and taught the IDE since early
1998.
- Do you want to
link GAMS to a spreadsheet either
just using and returning data? Or do you even want to run
GAMS in the background in a manner transparent to the user? Learn
techniques to allow this.
- Are you modeling
agriculture or forestry and aspects of climate change? See techniques for modeling
such.
Brief Course
Description
Topics
covered
- Intermixed
treatment on GAMS usage including
- How to do
efficiently verify model structure and debug flaws
- The latest
features in new GAMS releases
- Fixing models
which misbehave
- Using GAMSCHK
- Using GAMSIDE
- Increasing the
efficiency with which you use GAMS
- Reducing computer
time and memory requirements
- Enhancing the
usefulness of GAMS output
- Links with other
programs
- Things you may not
know GAMS can do - tips
- Using an advanced
basis
- Including demand
considerations
- Modeling climate
change effects, adaptation, mitigation
See
a draft
of a more detailed outline
Assumed Background and Motivation of Participants
The course will be instructed assuming those present have already built GAMS models. Participants should wish to receive practical instruction on topics that will increase the efficiency and accuracy with which they use GAMS in existing and future modeling settings.
Course Objectives
- To teach workshop participants techniques allowing them to
- Develop sector models
- Examine climate change
- Better diagnose causes of improperly solving models
- Enhance computer and human efficiency when using GAMS particularly when dealing with large models
- Enhance the usefulness of GAMS output.
- Use undocumented and or new GAMS features.
- Teach users how to use GAMSCHK, GAMSBAS , GAMSIDE and the GAMS library builder
- To carry out this instruction in a practical GAMS application setting exposing students to a variety of modeling issues and techniques
Course Presentation Method
The class will mix hands on computing sessions with computer based lectures. The hands on sessions will involve participants working in groups of 2-3 throughout the workshop. The groups will be provided with PCs loaded with the latest available GAMS versions and all class examples. Participants must bring their own laptops capable of having 100 or so megabytes of software loaded on them from a CD-ROM also access to either a floppy or capability to take files from a USB 2.0 removable pen drive). During the hands on sessions the instructor will interact with the groups on class topics, questions and general GAMS usage.
By taking this course you will
- Receive training on the topics above
- Be exposed to others attending the class learning about their impact analysis usage
- Interact with the instructor who is a very experienced impact analysis modeler
- Be trained in the use of software and receive copies for your use of
|
GAMSCHK
|
analyzes GAMS models and assists in their use
|
|
GAMS-IDE
|
PC editing, execution and debugging environment
|
- Receive manuals on GAMS usage, and class notes including
|
A Guide to Algebraic Modeling Using GAMS by McCarl and Spreen -- a book on agricultural modeling using GAMS
|
|
McCarl's GAMSCHK writeup
|
|
McCarl's GAMS User Guide
|
|
The latest Solver Manuals from GAMS
|
|
Documentation on ASM and running comparative runs with ASM
|
The class will be conducted using laptops, Students will have available an Editor developed by GAMS which resides in the GAMS-IDE integrated development environment. Students wishing to use other editors should feel free to bring such. Note course software will be distributed on CD-ROM. Students wishing to do reading before the class can download (using the Adobe pdf Reader)
Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
This course has been previously since 1998 at least twice a year. In addition courses with much of the material herein has been taught by Dr. McCarl at Texas A&M, Oregon
State and Purdue for over 25 years. Prior participants in this training who have used concepts in their jobs include individuals employed in the insurance, banking, agricultural, telecommunications, government and energy arenas.
Additional course and related material is available in the web pages linked to this one giving the
Related material is on
Other questions may be addressed by email to
brucemccarl@suddenlink.net
or info@gams.de
or
to
Bruce
McCarl
2100 Fawn Court
College
Station,
TX, 77845
979-693-5694(phone) 979-696-2263(fax)