ME 575 - Optimization

Course Objectives

• Define and use optimization terminology and concepts, including concepts of analysis space and design space.
• Apply optimization methods to engineering problems, including developing a model, defining an optimization problem, applying optimization methods, exploring the solution and interpreting results.
• Understand and apply unconstrained optimization theory for continuous problems, including the necessary and sufficient conditions and steepest descent, Newton’s method, conjugate gradient and quasi-Newton methods. Understand basic theorems of quasi-Newton methods.
• Understand and apply discrete algorithms, including branch and bound, exhaustive search and simulated annealing.
• Develop and apply Genetic algorithms.
• Understand and apply constrained optimization theory for continuous problems, including the Kuhn-Tucker conditions and generalized reduced gradient and sequential quadratic programming methods.
• Apply optimization techniques to determine a robust design.
• Have some familiarity with optimization software.