Solving nonsmooth optimization (NSO) problems is critical in many practical applications and real-world modeling systems. The aim of this book is to survey various numerical methods for solving NSO problems and to provide an overview of the latest developments in the field. Experts from around the world share their perspectives on specific aspects of numerical NSO. The book is divided into four parts, the first of which considers general methods including subgradient, bundle and gradient sampling methods. In turn, the second focuses on methods that exploit the problem’s special structure, e.g. algorithms for nonsmooth DC programming, VU decomposition techniques, and algorithms for minimax and piecewise differentiable problems. The third part considers methods for special problems like multiobjective and mixed integer NSO, and problems involving inexact data, while the last part highlights the latest advancements in derivative-free NSO. Given its scope, the book is ideal for students attending courses on numerical nonsmooth optimization, for lecturers who teach optimization courses, and for practitioners who apply nonsmooth optimization methods in engineering, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and business. Furthermore, it can serve as a reference text for experts dealing with nonsmooth optimization.

This book is the first easy-to-read text on nonsmooth optimization (NSO, not necessarily differentiable optimization). Solving these kinds of problems plays a critical role in many industrial applications and real-world modeling systems, for example in the context of image denoising, optimal control, neural network training, data mining, economics and computational chemistry and physics. The book covers both the theory and the numerical methods used in NSO and provide an overview of different problems arising in the field. It is organized into three parts: 1. convex and nonconvex analysis and the theory of NSO; 2. test problems and practical applications; 3. a guide to NSO software. The book is ideal for anyone teaching or attending NSO courses. As an accessible introduction to the field, it is also well suited as an independent learning guide for practitioners already familiar with the basics of optimization.

This book is a self-contained elementary study for nonsmooth analysis and optimization, and their use in solution of nonsmooth optimal control problems. The first part of the book is concerned with nonsmooth differential calculus containing necessary tools for nonsmooth optimization. The second part is devoted to the methods of nonsmooth optimization and their development. A proximal bundle method for nonsmooth nonconvex optimization subject to nonsmooth constraints is constructed. In the last part nonsmooth optimization is applied to problems arising from optimal control of systems covered by partial differential equations. Several practical problems, like process control and optimal shape design problems are considered.

This book gathers selected, peer-reviewed contributions presented at the Fifth International Conference on Numerical Analysis and Optimization (NAO-V), which was held at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, on January 6-9, 2020. Each chapter reports on developments in key fields, such as numerical analysis, numerical optimization, numerical linear algebra, numerical differential equations, optimal control, approximation theory, applied mathematics, derivative-free optimization methods, programming models, and challenging applications that frequently arise in statistics, econometrics, finance, physics, medicine, biology, engineering and industry. Many real-world, complex problems can be formulated as optimization tasks, and can be characterized further as large scale, unconstrained, constrained, non-convex, nondifferentiable or discontinuous, and therefore require adequate computational methods, algorithms and software tools. These same tools are often employed by researchers working in current IT hot topics, such as big data, optimization and other complex numerical algorithms in the cloud, devising special techniques for supercomputing systems. This interdisciplinary view permeates the work included in this volume. The NAO conference series is held every three years at Sultan Qaboos University, with the aim of bringing together a group of international experts and presenting novel and advanced applications to facilitate interdisciplinary studies among pure scientific and applied knowledge. It is a venue where prominent scientists gather to share innovative ideas and know-how relating to new scientific methodologies, to promote scientific exchange, to discuss possible future cooperations, and to promote the mobility of local and young researchers.

This book provides a friendly introduction to the paradigm and proposes a broad panorama of killing applications of the Infinity Computer in optimization: radically new numerical algorithms, great theoretical insights, efficient software implementations, and interesting practical case studies. This is the first book presenting to the readers interested in optimization the advantages of a recently introduced supercomputing paradigm that allows to numerically work with different infinities and infinitesimals on the Infinity Computer patented in several countries. One of the editors of the book is the creator of the Infinity Computer, and another editor was the first who has started to use it in optimization. Their results were awarded by numerous scientific prizes. This engaging book opens new horizons for researchers, engineers, professors, and students with interests in supercomputing paradigms, optimization, decision making, game theory, and foundations of mathematics and computer science. “Mathematicians have never been comfortable handling infinities... But an entirely new type of mathematics looks set to by-pass the problem... Today, Yaroslav Sergeyev, a mathematician at the University of Calabria in Italy solves this problem... ” MIT Technology Review “These ideas and future hardware prototypes may be productive in all fields of science where infinite and infinitesimal numbers (derivatives, integrals, series, fractals) are used.” A. Adamatzky, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Unconventional Computing. “I am sure that the new approach ... will have a very deep impact both on Mathematics and Computer Science.” D. Trigiante, Computational Management Science. “Within the grossone framework, it becomes feasible to deal computationally with infinite quantities, in a way that is both new (in the sense that previously intractable problems become amenable to computation) and natural”. R. Gangle, G. Caterina, F. Tohmé, Soft Computing. “The computational features offered by the Infinity Computer allow us to dynamically change the accuracy of representation and floating-point operations during the flow of a computation. When suitably implemented, this possibility turns out to be particularly advantageous when solving ill-conditioned problems. In fact, compared with a standard multi-precision arithmetic, here the accuracy is improved only when needed, thus not affecting that much the overall computational effort.” P. Amodio, L. Brugnano, F. Iavernaro & F. Mazzia, Soft Computing

Optimization Theory and Methods can be used as a textbook for an optimization course for graduates and senior undergraduates. It is the result of the author's teaching and research over the past decade. It describes optimization theory and several powerful methods. For most methods, the book discusses an idea’s motivation, studies the derivation, establishes the global and local convergence, describes algorithmic steps, and discusses the numerical performance.

Mathematics of Computing -- General.

In recent years much attention has been given to the development of auto matic systems of planning, design and control in various branches of the national economy. Quality of decisions is an issue which has come to the forefront, increasing the significance of optimization algorithms in math ematical software packages for al,ltomatic systems of various levels and pur poses. Methods for minimizing functions with discontinuous gradients are gaining in importance and the ~xperts in the computational methods of mathematical programming tend to agree that progress in the development of algorithms for minimizing nonsmooth functions is the key to the con struction of efficient techniques for solving large scale problems. This monograph summarizes to a certain extent fifteen years of the author's work on developing generalized gradient methods for nonsmooth minimization. This work started in the department of economic cybernetics of the Institute of Cybernetics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences under the supervision of V.S. Mikhalevich, a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, in connection with the need for solutions to important, practical problems of optimal planning and design. In Chap. I we describe basic classes of nonsmooth functions that are dif ferentiable almost everywhere, and analyze various ways of defining generalized gradient sets. In Chap. 2 we study in detail various versions of the su bgradient method, show their relation to the methods of Fejer-type approximations and briefly present the fundamentals of e-subgradient methods.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Mathematical Optimization Theory and Operations Research, MOTOR 2021, held in Irkutsk, Russia, in July 2021. The 29 full papers and 1 short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 102 submissions. Additionally, 2 full invited papers are presented in the volume. The papers are grouped in the following topical sections: ​combinatorial optimization; mathematical programming; bilevel optimization; scheduling problems; game theory and optimal control; operational research and mathematical economics; data analysis.

The aim of this book was to collect the most recent methods developed for NSO and its practical applications. The book contains seven papers: The first is the foreword by the Guest Editors giving a brief review of NSO and its real-life applications and acknowledging the outstanding contributions of Professor Adil Bagirov to both the theoretical and practical aspects of NSO. The second paper introduces a new and very efficient algorithm for solving uncertain unit-commitment (UC) problems. The third paper proposes a new nonsmooth version of the generalized damped Gauss–Newton method for solving nonlinear complementarity problems. In the fourth paper, the abs-linear representation of piecewise linear functions is extended to yield simultaneously their DC decomposition as well as the pair of generalized gradients. The fifth paper presents the use of biased-randomized algorithms as an effective methodology to cope with NP-hard and nonsmooth optimization problems in many practical applications. In the sixth paper, a problem concerning the scheduling of nuclear waste disposal is modeled as a nonsmooth multiobjective mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problem, and a novel method using the two-slope parameterized achievement scalarizing functions is introduced. Finally, the last paper considers binary classification of a multiple instance learning problem and formulates the learning problem as a nonconvex nonsmooth unconstrained optimization problem with a DC objective function.