The course will, through presentation of actual working cases, methodological lectures, and project work, provide the student with the ability of effectively using the main software tools for implementing decision support systems based on mathematical optimization techniques. The course is therefore focused on practical aspects of these tools and has a strong project aspect in order to familiarize the students in particular with the modeling issues more prevalent in Managament Engineering applications. However, since these tools are based on complex algorithmic schemes and rigorously defined mathematical properties, the course also provides the students with knowledge of these foundational aspects, only insofar as this is useful to better understand their use or design more efficient and effective approaches.