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ECE Ph.D. Qualifying Exam

Automatic Control (AC)

Question 3: Optimization WORK IN PROGRESS

August 2013



Student answers and discussions for Part 1,2,3,4,5

1.(20 pts) In some of the optimization methods, when minimizing a given function f(x), we select an intial guess $ x^{(0)} $ and a real symmetric positive definite matrix $ H_{0} $. Then we computed $ d^{(k)} = -H_{k}g^{(k)} $, where $ g^{(k)} = \nabla f( x^{(k)} ) $, and $ x^{(k+1)} = x^{(k)} + \alpha_{k}d^{(k)} $, where
$ \alpha_{k} = arg\min_{\alpha \ge 0}f(x^{(k)} + \alpha d^{(k)}) . $
Suppose that the function we wish to minimize is a standard quadratic of the form,
$ f(x) = \frac{1}{2} x^{T} Qx - x^{T}b+c, Q = Q^{T} > 0. $

(i)(10 pts) Find a closed form expression for $ \alpha_k $ in terms of $ Q, H_k, g^{(k)}, and d^{(k)}; $
(ii)(10 pts) Give a sufficient condition on $ H_k $ for $ \alpha_k $ to be positive.

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Problem 2. (20 pts) [(i) (10 pts)] Consider the one-point crossover of a chromosome in the schema
H = * 1 * 0 1 0 *
where the probability that a chromosome is chosen for crossover is $ p_c = 0.5. $ Find an upper bound on the probability that a chromosome from H will be destroyed by the one-point crossover.

[(ii) (10 pts)] Consider a chromosome in the schema
H = * 1 * 0 * * *
Find the probability that the mutation operation destroys the schema, where the probability of random change of each symbol of the chromosome is $ p_m = 0.1 $ independently.

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Problem 3. (20 pts) [(i) (10 pts)] Convert the following optimization problem into a linear programming problem and solve it;
maximize $ -|x_1| -|x_2| -|x_3| $
subject to
$ \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 &-1 \\ 0 & -1 & 0 \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ x_2 \\ x_3 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ 1 \end{bmatrix} . $

[(ii) (10 pts)] Construct the dual program of the linear program above and solve it.

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Problem 4. (20pts) Use any simplex method to solve the following linear program.

           Maximize    x1 + 2x2
        S'ubject to    $ -2x_1+x_2 \le 2 $
                       $ x_1-x_2 \ge -3 $
                       $ x_1 \le -3 $
                       $ x_1 \ge 0, x_2 \ge 0. $
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Problem 5.(20pts) Solve the following problem:

           Minimize    $ -x_1^2 + 2x_2 $
        Subject to    $ x_1^2+x_2^2 \le 1 $
                       $  x_1 \ge 0 $
                       $ x_2 \ge 0 $

(i)(10pts) Find the points that satisfy the KKT condition.



(ii)(10pts)Apply the SONC and SOSC to determine the nature of the critical points from the previous part.

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Ph.D. on Applied Mathematics in Aug 2007. Involved on applications of image super-resolution to electron microscopy

Francisco Blanco-Silva