9313286 Tits Generalized use of numerical optimization techniques in design has been hindered by (i) the difficulty to translate in a faithful manner the actual engineering design problem into any kind of rigid mathematical optimization problem, (ii) the inability of classical optimization tools to efficiently take into account the many distinctive features of optimization problems arising in a design context, and (iii) the unavailability of software tools offering to the designer a powerful as well as congenial environment supporting such capabilities. Previous research developed an interactive optimization-based design methodology that accommodates the inherent trade-off driven character of most design problems. This has included the development implementation and testing of the first optimization algorithms that achieve a superlinear rate of convergence while forcing feasibility of all the successive iterates (a crucial property in several engineering contexts) as well as developed, implemented and tested an extension to problems involving a continuum of constraints such as constraints on the frequency or time response of a control system. A window-based, distributed computation environment for interactively exploring tradeoffs arising in optimal design applications (Console) was developed concurrently. The research will concentrate on: (1) the development and analysis of new schemes to enhance the efficiency of the feasible iteration algorithms, with special attention paid to problems with large numbers of constraints; (2) the production of a quality implementation of these schemes and extensive testing; (3) the further development of the interactive optimization-based system (Console). Numerical optimization is used in the context of almost every engineering activity. Available methods and software are often inadequate or techniques are not always relevant to realistic situations. The project addresses this need. Special attention will be p aid to issues such as those of efficiently handling problems with large numbers of inequality constraints, or problems involving functional specifications. The ongoing research continues to make significant educational and industrial contributions. ***
