Using AMPL for Teaching the TSP

In this paper, we discuss the use of AMPL in teaching students about the traveling salesman problem (TSP). The paper gives suggestions for pedagogical devices, homework assignments and exams, PowerPoint presentations, and a convenient package of AMPL models and scripts. The AMPL files include different formulations for the TSP, its relaxations, scripts for its solution, and - particularly useful in class - scripts for visualization of those solutions using SVG. We have a special focus on visualization, to provide convenient ways for students to view and report their solutions. We observe that the TSP is such a classical O.R. problem, that it can play a central role in an undergraduate course about integer programming.