<p>It seems to me that programs like Georgia Tech’s and CMU’s Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization programs are very similar to Operations Research, but have an emphasis on pure mathematics. Is this an accurate observation? Or are these completely separate fields?</p>
<p>ACO and OR are very different in two ways. First, as you have already noted, ACO feels very much like pure mathematics while OR is all about the applications. But the sort of mathematics that’s taught in these programs is different too. ACO deals almost exclusively with discrete mathematics, while OR programs also care about problems in a continuous setting.</p>