OPTIMIZATION BASICS

Explore the world of optimization with this comprehensive course! Whether you're new to the field or have some existing knowledge, this course provides a solid foundation in numerical optimization techniques. We begin with fundamental concepts, building upon the assumption that students understand optimization problem formulations and have some familiarity with using programming to solve them.

This course covers a wide range of topics, including:

• Graphical Approaches for Optimization Problems: Visualize and understand optimization problems through graphical methods.
• Notations and Classification of Optimization: Learn the standard notation and different categories of optimization problems.
• Unconstrained Optimization: Master techniques for solving optimization problems without constraints.
• Constrained Optimization: Develop skills to solve optimization problems with limitations and restrictions.

You'll delve into practical optimization algorithms, gaining hands-on knowledge of:

• Golden Section Search: A simple yet effective method for finding the minimum or maximum of a unimodal function.
• Gradient Descent: A widely used iterative optimization algorithm.
• Newton's Methods: A powerful method for finding the roots of a function.
• Augmented Lagrangian: A technique for handling constrained optimization problems.
• Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP): An advanced method for solving nonlinear constrained optimization problems.

This course is ideal for students interested in learning the basics of optimization methods. It's particularly beneficial for operations research, engineering, and data science and machine learning students.

Taught by Professor Rahul Rai, a Dean’s Distinguished Professor at the Clemson University International Centre for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) since 2020, this course benefits from extensive experience. Professor Rai previously served on the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering faculty at the University at Buffalo-SUNY (2012-2020) and brings a wealth of knowledge from industrial research centers like United Technology Research Centre (UTRC) and Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC). Learn from an expert in the field!