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An Introduction to Optimization

Article  in  IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine · May 1996

DOI: 10.1109/MAP.1996.500234 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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Edwin K. P. Chong S.H. Zak

Colorado State University Purdue University
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 Allen Glisson
Dept. of ElectricalEngineering
University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677
(601) 232-5353
aglissonQsunset.backbone.olemiss.edu(e-mail)

An Introduction to Optimization, by Edwin K. P. Chong and Reviewed by:

Stanislaw H. Zak, 1996, Wiley-Interscience, xii + 408 pages,
$59.95, ISBN 0471-08949-4. Darko Kajfez
Department of Electrical Engineering
Anderson Hall, Room 302
T he book is written as an introductory textbook at a senior
undergraduate or beginning graduate level. It contains prob-
lems at the end of each chapter, and it has a solution manual, avail-
University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677
able to instructors who adopt this text The material is divided into
four parts, each being several chapters long. Part I is a mathemati- Electromagnetic Pulse Propagation in Causal Dielectrics, by K
cal review, with a very useful, compact collection of definitions E Oughstun and G C Sherman, 1995, Springer-Verlag, Heidel-
from vector spaces, transformations, concepts from geometry, and berg, 465 pages, Hardback, $198 00, ISBN 3-540-57892-7
elements of differential calculus
The book deals with the propagation of transients in linear
The second part deals with unconstrained optimization. It is homogenous media which exhibit dispersion (i e . frequency
divided into chapters on one-dimensional searches, gradient meth- dependence of both the conductivity and the permittivity) The
ods, Newton’s method, conjugate-direction methods, quasi-Newton magnetic permeability is assumed to be the same as free space,
methods, solution of over-determined linear equations, uncon- throughout The authors have studied this problem in a general
strained optimization and feedforward neural networks, and genetic context for the past twenty years, and this treatise is a comprehen-
algorithms. The last two topics are not found in standard textbooks, sive and complete account of their efforts A great deal of attention
and their basic principles are explained very clearly in mathematical has been paid to the validity of approximate asymptotic methods
terms that have been used in the past In a very cogent fashion, they point
out the need for uniform-asymptotic methods that allow one to
cope with critical transition points in the complex frequency plane,
Part I11 deals with linear programming, and it consists of such as where saddle points are near pole singularities As the
chapters on the simplex method, duality, and non-simplex methods, authors indicate in a very convincing fashion, the need for these
like Khachiyan’s algorithm and Karmarkar’s algorithm. The non- very sophisticated (and complicated) methods is evident when
simplex methods are of more recent origin, attempting to find a purely numerical procedures are employed for the determination.of
solution in an amount of time which grows more slowly than the the inverse transforms, and validation is desirable
simplex method, when the number of variables is increased.
The first part ofthe book (190 pages) is expository, and some
classical electromagnetics theory is covered from the authors’
Part IV describes the nonlinear-constrained optimization, with viewpoint and put in a rigorous mathematical setting The angular-
chapters on equality constraints, inequality constraints, convex spectrum representation for pulsed fields and advanced saddle-point
problems, and on algorithms for constrained optimization. methods ape treated in detail, and the clarity of the material is out-
standing This part of the book has been used in graduate lectures
The book follows a rigorous style, consisting of definitions, at the University of Vermont To appeal to both electrical engineers
theorems, and proofs. The undergraduate students and other nov- and physicists, the authors use a dual system, where all equations
ices to optimization methods should be helped by many examples, are written using both Gaussian (cgs) and MKSA (SI) units This
worked out in detail, interspersed between theorems. These exam- feature may be distracting to some readers
ples make it easier to understand the tight-lipped definitions and
theorems. In brief, this is a book written by mathematicians, for The second part with the author
mathematicians. To illustrate the need and the use of optimization, research, as mentione pt a Lorenzian
an engineering instructor will have to provide his students with model, with a single simple phenom
supplemental problems, and with some supplemental reading. How- damping term Much to cases where
ever, he may find the book very useh1 as a reference, because each source is modulated by a ape function They c
little step is mathematically justified, and the theorems and proofs roles of the precursors that were treated over eighty years ago by
are all neatly collected in a single book. Sommerfeld and Brillouin

60 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 2, April 1996

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