International Conference of Continuous Optimizatio; August 2-4, 2004; RPI, Troy, NY

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

This grant requests funds to support the inaugural International Conference on Continuous Optimization, to be held on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from Monday August 2, 2004 through Wednesday August 4, 2004. The Conference will be preceded by a two-day Summer School, in which several distinguished scholars will offer tutorials on contemporary topics in continuous optimization. The School will be attended by advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows on the recommendation of their supervisors. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity is that it will provide a stimulus for sustained research in continuous optimization, which is a fertile scientific/engineering discipline with immense practical applications. Among its broader impacts, the proposed activity will have a significant affect on cyber infrastructure. Continuous optimization has played, and continues to play, a major role in advancing and impacting the contemporary developments of many scientific and engineering disciplines, and provides a fundamental set of mathematical and computational tools that are key for many real-world decision support systems and modeling applications, which in turn are vital for the sustained growth of the economy and for the well being of society. The goal of the Conference is threefold: (a) to provide a focused forum for US and international researchers and practitioners to meet in order to facilitate the rapid exchange of state-of-the-art results and promising ideas to ensure the healthy advancement of continuous optimization, (b) to offer educational opportunities to graduate students and junior researchers to learn about the latest developments in continuous optimization, and (c) to encourage women and minority researchers to work in this important area of Operations Research and Computational Science. The Conference will facilitate the discussion and dissimilation of the latest results in continuous optimization, will inspire new ideas and sharpen existing ones, will advance scientific knowledge and increase the general population's awareness of optimization, and will attract new talents to work in the discipline. The end benefits to society are that complex scientific, engineering, financial, and economic problems can be better modeled and solved, and human resources can be gainfully utilized.