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Lecture

Introduction to Optimization

In course

MATH-329: Continuous optimization

This course introduces students to continuous, nonlinear optimization. We study the theory of optimization with continuous variables (with full proofs), and we analyze and implement important algorithms to solve constrained and unconstrained problems. ...

Description

This lecture covers the basics of linear algebra and calculus in Euclidean spaces, along with the first-order necessary optimality conditions for unconstrained optimization. The instructor provides details on the course logistics, including the use of Moodle for resources and assignments, live sessions on Discord, and the schedule for lectures and exercise sessions. The lecture delves into the two main types of optimization - discrete and continuous, highlighting their applications in various fields such as machine learning, control, and imaging. The importance of optimization as a powerful modeling tool is emphasized, with a focus on finding global and local minima in optimization problems.

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Instructor

Nicolas Boumal

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Related concepts (32)

Mathematical optimization

Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled optimisation) or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfields: discrete optimization and continuous optimization. Optimization problems arise in all quantitative disciplines from computer science and engineering to operations research and economics, and the development of solution methods has been of interest in mathematics for centuries.

Euclidean space

Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's Elements, it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidean spaces of any positive integer dimension n, which are called Euclidean n-spaces when one wants to specify their dimension. For n equal to one or two, they are commonly called respectively Euclidean lines and Euclidean planes.

Euclidean distance

In mathematics, the Euclidean distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of a line segment between the two points. It can be calculated from the Cartesian coordinates of the points using the Pythagorean theorem, therefore occasionally being called the Pythagorean distance. These names come from the ancient Greek mathematicians Euclid and Pythagoras, although Euclid did not represent distances as numbers, and the connection from the Pythagorean theorem to distance calculation was not made until the 18th century.

Optimization problem

In mathematics, computer science and economics, an optimization problem is the problem of finding the best solution from all feasible solutions. Optimization problems can be divided into two categories, depending on whether the variables are continuous or discrete: An optimization problem with discrete variables is known as a discrete optimization, in which an object such as an integer, permutation or graph must be found from a countable set.

Convex optimization

Convex optimization is a subfield of mathematical optimization that studies the problem of minimizing convex functions over convex sets (or, equivalently, maximizing concave functions over convex sets). Many classes of convex optimization problems admit polynomial-time algorithms, whereas mathematical optimization is in general NP-hard.

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