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Kochenderfer & Wheeler, 2nd Edition (2026)

Algorithms for
Optimization

From derivatives to constrained optimization, rebuilt chapter by chapter as interactive lessons. Golden section search, gradient descent, simulated annealing, and more — all with live simulations.

20
Chapters
30+
Simulations
80+
Quizzes
Part I: Fundamentals
Chapter 1

Introduction

History, optimization process, mathematical formulation, minima, optimality conditions.

Chapter 2

Derivatives and Gradients

Derivatives, gradients, Hessians, numerical and automatic differentiation.

Part II: Univariate Optimization
Chapter 3

Bracketing

Unimodality, Fibonacci search, golden section search, quadratic fit, bisection.

Part III: Unconstrained Multivariate Optimization
Chapter 4

Local Descent

Descent direction iteration, step factors, line search, trust regions.

Chapter 5

First-Order Methods

Gradient descent, conjugate gradient, momentum, Adam, hypergradient descent.

Chapter 6

Second-Order Methods

Newton's method, secant method, quasi-Newton methods, BFGS.

Chapter 7

Direct Methods

Coordinate descent, Powell's method, Nelder-Mead simplex, DIRECT.

Chapter 8

Stochastic Methods

Noisy descent, simulated annealing, cross-entropy, CMA-ES.

Chapter 9

Population Methods

Genetic algorithms, differential evolution, particle swarm, firefly algorithm.

Part IV: Constrained Optimization
Chapter 10

Constraints

Lagrange multipliers, penalty methods, interior point methods, projected descent.

Chapter 11

Duality

Dual problem, primal-dual methods, dual ascent, ADMM.

Chapter 12

Linear Programming

Problem formulation, simplex algorithm, dual certificates.

Chapter 13

Quadratic Programming

Least squares, nonnegative least squares, dual certificates.

Chapter 14

Disciplined Convex Programming

Canonical form, verification, canonicalization, solving.

Part V: Special Topics
Chapter 15

Multiobjective Optimization

Pareto optimality, constraint methods, weight methods, preference elicitation.

Chapter 16

Sampling Plans

Full factorial, stratified sampling, space-filling, quasi-random sequences.

Chapter 17

Surrogate Models

Linear models, basis functions, model selection, multifidelity.

Chapter 18

Probabilistic Surrogate Models

Gaussian processes, prediction, fitting, noisy measurements.

Chapter 19

Surrogate Optimization

Prediction-based exploration, expected improvement, safe optimization.

Chapter 20

Optimization under Uncertainty

Set-based uncertainty, probabilistic uncertainty, robust optimization.