Gurobi Optimization, a maker of decision intelligence technology, launched of Gurobean: The Coffee Optimization Game. It’s a new educational game that brings nonlinearity, simulation, and decision-making under uncertainty to life.
Following the success of the Burrito Optimization Game—which has been played over 85,000 times by learners across the world since its launch in 2022—Gurobean places players behind the counter of a virtual coffee shop, where they must make critical decisions around pricing, staffing, queue management, inventory levels, and more.
The free, interactive game furthers Gurobi’s ongoing commitment to open education,
teaching players:
The value of mathematical optimization
How quickly real-world decision problems become too complex to solve by trial
and error
How nonlinearity and uncertainty make outcomes harder to predict
Why solvers like Gurobi and other optimization algorithms are essential for
finding decisions that perform well across many possible scenarios
Origins
Gurobean was co-developed by Larry Snyder, deputy provost for faculty affairs and professor at Lehigh University, who also served as lead story developer and game producer for the Burrito Optimization Game.
“We built Gurobean for any student who wants to learn about nonlinear optimization, but
you could even take the word ‘nonlinear’ out. We think this is a great game for any
student who wants to learn about problem solving from an optimization perspective,” Snyder said in a statement.
For educators looking to teach the game in their classrooms, a library of free resources is available, including a teaching guide, sample lesson plan, and a quick-start guide to running a championship game.
In addition, a virtual in-game expert named “Alinea” (a reference to nonlinearity) offers
players helpful tips and explanations around graphs, nonlinearity, and solution feasibility.
“The Burrito Optimization Game proved there’s a real appetite for learning optimization
in an accessible, hands-on way. Gurobean takes that further, as the decisions players
face mirror the complexity businesses navigate every day,” said Duke Perrucci, CEO of
Gurobi, in a statement. “Our hope is that this will not only be a powerful resource in classrooms, but also for business users looking to understand the value of mathematical optimization in industry.”
Those with an existing Gurobi account can access Gurobean here; new users can
register to create a User Portal account.
Gurobi has created an optimization solver, built to help organizations determine the optimal course of action when faced with complex, real-world decision problems. As an integral AI technology, Gurobi applies mathematical optimization to transform data into reliable, defensible decisions.
Organizations across industries use Gurobi to optimize supply chains, allocate resources, price products and manage risk—allowing them to act quickly, model complex systems without compromise, and make decisions they can stand behind.
Founded in 2008, Gurobi has operations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It serves
customers in over 40 industries, including leading organizations like SAP, Air France,
and the National Football League.