SCIENTIFIC MEETING AT "IL PALAZZONE"
Cortona (Italy)  -  July 14-20, 2003
Promoted by
INdAM - Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica "Francesco Severi"

Numerical Methods

for Local and Global Optimization:

Sequential and Parallel Algorithms

 		Beato Angelico:  "Annunciazione"

Last updated on July 26, 2003
Scient. Committee| Proc.| Intro| Organization| Program| Local info| Contact info| Org. committee| Participants
General lectures |  Seminars |  Short communications |  Downloads |  Pictures

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Roger Fletcher (University of Dundee, U.K.)
Roman G. Strongin (University of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia)
Yaroslav D. Sergeyev (University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy, and University of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia)
Valeria Ruggiero (University of Ferrara, Italy)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCHOOL

Selected papers by participants of the school will be published in a special issue of Optimization Methods and Software (OMS). The standard journal reviewing process will be applied for the paper acceptance. Editor of this special issue will be the Scietific Committee of the school and Prof. R. Fletcher will be the managing editor.
Deadline for paper submission: October 31, 2003
Further details will be given as soon as available.

INTRODUCTION

The current methodology of designing highly efficient technological systems needs to choose the best combination of the parameters affecting the performance. The solution of very difficult constrained nonlinear optimization problems is typically the means to identify these parameters. However, the existence of multiple local minima and the lack of sufficient regularity of the models often requires us to consider these problems as "multiextremal" or global optimization problems, instead of as local optimization problems. Another important issue is that both the local and the global problems are large-scale optimization problems, mainly for real world applications. For these applications the development of effective numerical methods, well suited for the modern computing systems like distributed memory parallel computers, is necessary.
The goal of the proposed scientific meeting is to discuss the state-of-the-art of the research of local and global large-scale optimization methods, by encouraging researchers on different topics to share their ideas and experiences and by favouring the comparison of different solution techniques.
In particular, the following topics have a great relevance in the research:
  1. convergence analysis of inexact Newton methods for large-scale unconstrained nonlinear local optimization problems, with special attention to the inner iterative solver, possibly using parallel computing technique;
  2. the comparison of the Lagrangian approach (augmented Lagrangian methods, perturbed damped Newton or interior point methods) with the successive quadratic programming techniques (SQP) for local constrained nonlinear optimization problems;
  3. analysis and practice of inner iterative solvers and of the recent filter techniques that are used to globalize SQP and related methods;
  4. analysis of the main global optimization issues (computational complexity, formulation of efficient stopping criteria, identification of suitable test functions, techniques for algorithm convergence properties analysis);
  5. comparison of stochastic and deterministic techniques in global optimization;
  6. methods based on the domain covering by means of Peano-Hilbert curves for Lipschitzian or Hölderian functions and their generalization to multidimensional problems, also via adaptive curves; these methods require particular techniques (e.g. "local tuning") in order to adaptively estimate the involved parameters (e.g. the Lipschitz constant or the Hölder constant);
  7. design, analysis and evaluation of parallel schemes based on the &#quot;nonredundant parallelism" concept.
    8.
The cited topics are mostly covered by the following books:
R. Fletcher: Practical Methods of Optimization, 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, 1987.
J. Nocedal, S.J. Wright: Numerical Optimization, Springer Verlag, 1999.
R.G. Strongin, Y.D. Sergeyev: Global Optimization with non-convex constraints: sequential and parallel algorithms, Kluwer Academic Publ., 2000.

MEETING ORGANIZATION

The meeting had:

Unfortunately, the number of partecipants was limited to 40, even if the organizing committee received much more applications.

The organizers supported young partecipants who will not have access to other research funds. If you need i
Financial supporti, not only to young researchers, have been guaranteed by Italian National Reasearch FIRB Project "Parallel Algorithms and Numerical Nonlinear Optimization"
All the activities was helded at the "Palazzone" (owned by Scuola Normale Superiore , Pisa) in the countryside of Cortona (about 3 km from the center). More informations about the place can be found at the site http://www.cortona.net

PROGRAM

Click here to see the preliminary program.

DOWNLOADS

Click on the links below to get printed version of some presentations as well as related reports/papers. Courtesy from the authors. Some pictures of the meeting can be found here.

LOCAL INFORMATION

Address: "Il Palazzone", via Case sparse n. 193, 52044 Cortona (Arezzo) - Italy
Fax: +39 0575 630164   Phone: +39 050/509399

CONTACT INFORMATION

Please send a message to opt2003@dm.unife.it.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Valeria Ruggiero, Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Ferrara
     via Machiavelli, 35 - 44100 Ferrara - ITALY.  Phone: +39 0532 974008. Fax: +39 0532 247292
     E-mail: v.ruggiero@unife.it
Emanuele Galligani, Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
     via Campi, 213/B - 41100 Modena - ITALY.  Phone: +39 059 2055206. Fax: +39 059 370513
     E-mail: galligani@unimo.it
Gaetano Zanghirati, Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Ferrara
     via Machiavelli, 35 - 44100 Ferrara - ITALY.  Phone: +39 0532 974025. Fax: +39 0532 247292
     E-mail: g.zanghirati@unife.it

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

The following people has confirmed the attendance to the summer school.
The list is given in alphabetical order.
Name (affiliation)
Bernardetta Addis (Univ. of Florence, Italy)
Luca Bergamaschi (Univ. of Padova, Italy)
Silvia Bonettini (Univ. of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)
Margherita Bresco (Univ. of Salerno, Italy)
Sergiy Butenko (Univ. of Florida, USA)
Sonia Cafieri (Second Univ. of Naples, Italy)
Benoît Colson (Univ. of Namur, Belgium)
Pierluigi Contucci (Univ. of Bologna, Italy)
Marco D'Apuzzo (Second Univ. of Naples, Italy)
Valentina De Simone (Second Univ. of Naples, Italy)
Carla Durazzi (Univ. of Ferrara, Italy)
Yury G. Evtushenko (Russian Academy of Science, Russia)
Giovanni Fasano (Univ. of Roma "La Sapienza", Italy)
Elena Franchini (Univ. of Padova, Italy)
Emanuele Galligani (Univ. of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)
Marco Gaviano (Univ. of Cagliari, Italy)
Nicola Guglielmi (Univ. of L'Aquila, Italy)
Dmitri Kvasov (Univ. Roma "La Sapienza", Italy)
Germana Landi (Univ. of Bologna, Italy)
Daniela Lera (Univ. of Cagliari, Italy)
Sven Leyffer (Argonne National Lab., USA)
Giampaolo Liuzzi (Univ. of Roma "La Sapienza", Italy)
Ladislav Luksan (National Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)
Maria Macconi (Univ. of Florence, Italy)
Benedetta Morini (Univ. of Florence, Italy)
Antonio Mucherino (Second Univ. of Naples, Italy)
Sandra Pieraccini (Politecnico of Turin, Italy)
Stefania Ragni (Univ. of Bari, Italy)
Fabio Schoen (Univ. of Florence, Italy)
Thomas Serafini (Univ. of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)
Mark Sofroniou (Wolfram Research, U.S.A.)
Giulia Spaletta (Univ. of Bologna, Italy)
Federica Tinti (Univ. of Padua, Italy)
Gerardo Toraldo (Univ. of Naples, Italy)
Fabiana Zama (Univ. of Bologna, Italy)
Gaetano Zanghirati (Univ. of Ferrara, Italy)
Luca Zanni (Univ. of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)
Giovanni Zilli (Univ. of Padova, Italy)