OPTEC I - Optimization in Engineering

From 01-11-2005 to 31-10-2011
Website: http://www.kuleuven.be/optec

Description

Optimization of products and processes is a key element in the actual industrial practice, with major economic and competitive value. Typically it allows to reduce costs and use of energy and material, and to improve the quality of products and the speed/yield/safety/performance of processes. Often these optimizations have to be performed under strict practical, physical, technological limitations, called constraints, e.g. volume, weight, lifetime, environment, equipment and manpower constraints. The four partners (EE Dept. (ESAT/SCD), Dept. of Mechanical Engineering (PMA), Dept. of Computer Science (NATW) and Dept. of Chemical Engineering (BioTeC), K.U.Leuven) of this proposed Center of Excellence have achieved over the past years a number of breakthroughs that are often based on intense collaboration and on a new approach to optimization called “the New School of Optimization”. The underlying philosophy is that good insight in optimization methods and the application domain can allow to convert difficult problems into convex problems that are tractable by computers and software. The main research objectives of this proposal are to: • further develop and strengthen the foundations of the New School paradigm; • jointly solve generic and crucial optimization problems in engineering design, estimation and control based on the New School paradigm; • exploit the cross fertilization between different engineering disciplines, both conceptual and applied, to realize major breakthroughs thereby boosting the scientific impact of the research; • promote the New School paradigm for optimization in engineering to the peripheral groups within and outside the university, and provide scientific support for the research valorization in research centers and industry, locally as well as internationally. To realize these research objectives, the four teams can build on past solid scientific achievements. However, in order to obtain a major leap forward, the partners consider it necessary to attract and recruit an internationally recognized young principal investigator (PI) in the field of convex optimization. This PI will compose a research team of postdocs and PhD students, that interacts with the partners in this Center of Excellence.

Team

• Moritz Diehl, Co-promoter
• Marc Moonen, Co-promoter
• Johan Suykens, Co-promoter
• Sabine Van Huffel, Co-promoter
• Joos Vandewalle, Promoter

Financing

Funding: KU Leuven - Internal Funding KU Leuven