Overview
Select one real-world system that can be or has been optimized or improved using nonlinear optimization. Conduct a survey of the academic literature related to using nonlinear optimization to improve or optimize the system in question. Note that 'academic literature' means academic books or papers published in academic journals. It does not mean wikipedia (Links to an external site.), blogs, or random websites upon which you stumble. Although, you may use such resources to get your research underway.
(40 points) Prepare a report that summarizes your research. Your report does need to provide some technical details. At a minimum it should provide an outline of a model structure that can be used in said optimization or improvement. This model outline should be succinct, but provide enough detail so that someone who is familiar with nonlinear optimization, but not the particular application in question, can understand how the system is modeled. The outline of the model structure does not have to be given necessarily as a mathematical formulation. You can use a mathematical formulation if doing so makes conveying the model structure easier. However, if it is easier to convey the structure in another manner (e.g., as a narrative), you may do so. Your report should be no more than three pages in length, excluding references, which can be on a separate page and formatted in any reasonably decipherable manner. Your report should use at least 10-point font and can be single-spaced. You do not need to develop a model on your own. Instead, you are researching and discussing how these techniques are used by others. When providing a model structure, this can be a model structure developed by someone else that you find in your research and does not need to be your own model that you develop on your own.