CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

In this talk I would briefly talk about some recently developed gradient-based algorithms for smooth unconstrained optimization, for
smooth and nonsmooth composite optimization, for optimization with inexact gradients, and for general smooth nonlinear programming. The convergence properties as well as practical performance of some of these algorithms will be discussed in this talk.

Refreshments in the Keisler lounge (3rd floor, Lockett) at 3pm

Hongchao Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) at Louisiana State University. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics, Univ. of Florida (2006), a M.Sc. from the Computing Center, CAS (2001), and a B.S. from the Department of Mathematics, Shandong University (1998).

Zhang's research interest include:

• Nonlinear Programming and its Applications

• Sparse Matrix Computing, Graph Partitioning

• Inverse Problems in Medical Imaging and Petrophysics, and

• Derivative Free Optimization.