Frontiers in PDE-constrained Optimization

The problem of finding an optimal solution to questions that are naturally constrained to obey physical laws arises in a wide variety of disciplines. Very often, the governing conservation laws are expressed as partial-differential equations (PDE). As a result, PDE-constrained optimization is scattered in a variety of disciplines, ranging from geophysics, earth sciences, material engineering, mechanical engineering, medical imaging, chemical engineering, physics, and obviously mathematics, and each discipline often using their own jargon. The goal of this workshop is to bring together practitioners of PDE-constrained optimization from different disciplines, and provide a broad and uniform introduction of the topic to young researchers and students. It is hoped that by sharing solution strategies developed in each field of application, synergies can naturally emerge across these disciplines.

Program Outline

The five-day program will begin with two days of tutorials on June 6 and 7, followed by the workshop from June 8 to 10 that includes three days of invited talks, a poster session, and formal discussion sessions. The tutorials are targeted towards graduate students, postdocs, and individuals interested in getting into the field. The intended audience of the workshop are researchers from academia, industry, and national labs.