AMPL
is a mathematical programming and optimization modeling language
which is to be used to solve the project.
You can input your model into AMPL in a reasonably intuitive
way and it will use a solver (such as MINOS or CPLEX) for solving
the problem.
It is capable of solving linear, nonlinear, and integer programs.
There is a writeup for
using AMPL on the RCS system.
AMPL
sample files are available.
If you buy the AMPL textbook, it comes with an IBM PC-compatible
disk which you can use to run AMPL;
the disk includes versions of MINOS and CPLEX.
AMPL has WWW pages at
Northwestern and at
Bell Labs.
There is information available about
other optimization packages on RCS.