Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory

Businesswire reports that Wharton Learning Lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School has released three new simulations. One of them was developed by Professor Steven Kimbrough and is intended for students in Operations and Information Management 101:

The third new simulation is for students in Operations and Information Management 101 and was developed under the faculty leadership of Professor Steven Kimbrough. It is comprised of a two-population genetic algorithm developed as an add-in to Microsoft Excel. Students using this tool learn evolutionary programming techniques for constrained optimization problems, such as those occurring within marketing, manufacturing or logistics.

GAs are a great way to learn about business and competition more generally, and I wonder if those lessons will be conveyed as part of the exercise. Regardless, mainstreaming GAs in the education of future business leaders at a top B-school should be viewed as an important event.