Optimization Group

Teaching

General Information

This page provides an overview of the courses offered by our working group:

Under Lectures you will find the lectures for mathematics students offered by our working group in the current or upcoming semester. If you would like to participate in a seminar, proseminar or reading course during the semester, please register with the respective supervisor or in the URM. Dates will then be set in consultation with the participants. Additionally, we offer introductory courses for new students and math lectures designed for students from other disciplines.

Several times a semester, the working group meets for the Oberseminar. All interested people are invited to attend the talks, students in particular.

If you are interested in doing your bachelor's or master's thesis in optimization, please contact Prof. Schöbel, Prof. Krumke or Prof. Ruzika.

Near the end of each semester, you can also find the dates for oral examinations with members of the working group on this page.

Oral exams after the summer semester

All information regarding oral exams, in particular the dates for exams, can be found at the bottom of this page.

Oberseminar

Announcements of the talks in the Oberseminar

Courses in the current semester

Offered courses

in the summer semester 2024

Pre-courses

Our working group offers the following pre-courses for new students:

Introductory course to mathematics for students of mathematics and computer science

Content

  • Support of new students of mathematics and computer science within the transition from school to university
  • Matching different educational backgrounds and refreshing some of the important fundamentals of the school subject
  • Introduction to the initially unfamiliar mathematical thinking and working methods as well as the abstract language and form of presentation of mathematics lectures at the university
  • Familiarization with the usual form of lecture and group exercise

Lecturer

Dr. Florentine Kämmerer

Dates

April 8th - April 19th, 2024

Materials

OpenOLAT

Further Information

You can find the latest information regarding the course, in particular concerning the registration, on its website.

This course is only offered in German.

Lectures

Our working group offers the following lectures for math students:

Integer Programming: Polyhedral Theory and Algorithms

Content

  • Modelling with integer programming,
  • Polyhedra and polytopes,
  • Complexity,
  • Formulations,
  • Connections between integer programming and polyhedral theory,
  • Integrality of polyhedra: unimodularity, total dual integrality,
  • Matchings,
  • Dynamic programming,
  • Relaxations,
  • Branch-and-Bound methods,
  • Cutting planes,
  • Column generation

Lecturer and staff

Prof. Dr. Sven Krumke
Dr. Sven Joachim Jäger
Simon Wirschem
Shai Michael Dimant

Dates

Tuesday, 8:15-9:45 (48-208)
Thursday, 8:15-9:45 (48-208)

Tutorials

Registration and group assignments for the tutorials are handled by the URM.

Materials

OpenOLAT

Graphs and Algorithms

Contents

This lecture introduces advanced concepts and algorithmic techniques for graph theoretic problems. Among the topics studied are:

  • graph colorings and coverings,
  • transitive hulls and irredundant kernels,
  • graph search techniques,
  • treewidth with algorithmic consequences, and
  • matchings.

 

 

Lecturer and staff

Prof. Dr. Sven Krumke
Daniel Eichhorn

Dates

Monday, 8:15-9:45 (48-208)
Wednesday, 10:00-11:30 (48-208)

Tutorials

Registration and group assignments for the tutorials are handled by the URM.

Materials

OpenOLAT

Mathematics of Quantum Computing: Fundamentals and Optimization Algorithms

Content

Quantum Computing is an emerging field, which deals with another, potentially more powerful model of computation, as compared to classical computing. The course provides an overview of the core mathematical ideas and concepts relevant for Quantum Computing and quantum algorithms, with a special emphasis on applications for Discrete Optimization. It is structured into two parts.

In the first part, we discuss the fundamentals: the mathematical
description of quantum bits (qubits), multi-qubit systems, and quantum
circuits. We illustrate these concepts and present a few key quantum
algorithms: Grover's search, Deutsch and Deutsch-Jozsa algorithms, and
Shor's factorization procedure.

The second part of the course mostly focuses on applications of
quantum computers for discrete optimization. We discuss the adiabatic
theorem, quantum annealing, analog computing using netural atoms based
devices, and a few hybrid quantum-classical algorithms (such as Quantum
Approximate Optimization Algorithm, QAOA).

Lecturer and staff

Prof. Dr. Anita Schöbel
Dr. Alexey Bochkarev

Date

Tuesday, 10:00-11:30 (48-210)
Friday, 8:15-9:45 (48-210)

Exercises

Registration and group assignments for the tutorials are handled by the URM.

Materials

OpenOLAT

Elementarmathematik vom höheren Standpunkt

for Students of Teacher Training Programs

Inhalt

  • Erarbeitung eines vertieften, über die Schulbildung hinaus gehenden Verständnisses elementarmathematischer, teils schulmathematischer, Inhalte als solides Fundament für das weitere Lehramtsstudium
  • Behandlung unterschiedlicher Fragestellungen aus den Bereichen Zahlen, Kombinatorik, Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie, Graphentheorie, lineare Algebra und Analysis

Lecturer

Dr. Florentine Kämmerer

Dates

Wednesday, 11:45-13:15 (48-538)

Materials

OpenOLAT

Registration

Registration via Email to florentine.kaemmerer(at)math.rptu.de.

 

 

Reading courses, seminars und proseminars

The following supplementing courses are offered by our working group:

Reading Course (Prof. Krumke)

Content

The aim is to gain a basic overview of current research topics. In this respect, the Reading Course prepares for a master's thesis in these subject areas.

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Sven O. Krumke

Date

By arrangement.

If you are interested please send an e-mail to sven.krumke(at)math.rptu.de.

Reading Course (Prof. Ruzika)

Content

The aim is to gain a basic overview of current research topics. In this respect, the Reading Course prepares for a master's thesis in these subject areas.

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Stefan Ruzika

Date

By arrangement.

If you are interested please send an e-mail to stefan.ruzika(at)math.rptu.de.

Seminar Mathematics and Mobility

Content

We want to deal with current research topics in the field of Mathematics and Mobility.

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Anita Schöbel
Sarah Roth
Reena Urban

Dates

The seminar is planned as a compact event on the weekend of January 24/25. Depending on the number of presentations, it may only take place on Saturday. A preliminary meeting for the seminar will be held on October 23 at 12:00 in 14-420.

Further Information

KIS
URM

Advanced Seminar

Content

In the Oberseminar (advanced seminar), members and guests of the working group will give talks on various topics of mathematical optimization. Guests are welcome at any time - even without prior registration. An announcement of each talk will be made in the news section of the website. (Look for entries starting with "Oberseminar".)

Lectures for students of other study programmes

The following courses are offered by our working group for students of other departments:

Higher Mathematics for Civil Engineers I

Content

  • Development of basic mathematical knowledge for students of civil engineering
  • Topics covered: Vector space \(\mathbb{R}^n\), matrices, determinants, linear systems of equations, eigenvalue problems, vector calculus and analytic geometry, probability calculus
  • Application of the treated mathematical tools to concrete subject-specific problems from various disciplines of civil engineering

Lecturer

Dr. Florentine Kämmerer

Date

Monday, 08:15 - 09:45 (24-102)
Thursday, 10:00 - 11:30 (46-220)

Tutorials

Registration and group assignments for the tutorials are handled by the URM.

Materials

OpenOLAT