Optimization research in IEMS derives new models and methods for minimization or maximization of functions of large numbers of decision variables, subject to restrictions on the space of acceptable decisions.
Optimization problems are found throughout operations research -- in production, scheduling, packing, location, and design, for instance -- and more broadly in civil, mechanical, electrical, biomedical and other fields of engineering, in computational economics, and in varied aspects of management including portfolios, hedging, and auctions.
Course Work
The study of optimization
- begins with fundamentals in analysis and linear algebra,
- proceeds through the investigation of many algorithms and the diverse formulations to which they apply,
- takes in services and languages for communicating between formulations and algorithms, and
- eventually involves specializations to particular application domains.
Faculty in this group include Irina Dolinskaya, Robert Fourer, Diego Klabjan, Sanjay Mehrotra, Jorge Nocedal, and Karen Smilowitz.
