Summer School on Multi-perspective Optimization

The University of Klagenfurt hosted 25 masters and doctoral students from both local and international universities for a summer school from 12-16 September 2022. The summer school, titled Aspects of Optimization, had three foci: discrete optimization, continuous optimization, and stochastic optimal control.

These three foci were each presented as a minicourse by international experts in the respective fields:

• Claudia d’Ambrosio (CNRS & École Polytechnique, France) presented an introduction to discrete optimization, with a focus on methods used for solving integer-valued optimization problems.
• Ekaterina Kostina (Universität Heidelberg, Germany) spoke about continuous optimzsation and some of the tools needed to study nonlinear optimization problems.
• Ralf Wunderlich (BTU Cottbus–Senftenberg, Germany) introduced stochastic optimal control and taught related methods using examples with application to (financial) portfolio decision problems.

The minicourses form part of the continuing multi-perspective education offered to members of the FWF doc.funds doctoral school Modeling-Analysis-Optimization at University of Klagenfurt. This prestigious doctoral school consists of fourteen students, with varying research topics within mathematics and statistics.

Member of the coordinator team of the doc.funds doctoral school and organizer of the summer school, Roswitha Rissner, said: “We believe that strong mathematicians have multidimensional perspectives on the mathematics that they do, using tools from multiple disciplines. By hosting events such as the summer school in multi-perspective optimization, we aim to strengthen the quality of our doctoral graduates.” Another summer school as part of the doc.funds doctoral school is planned in 2023.

(Text by: Sarah Selkirk)