Parallel Optimization: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications (Numerical Mathematics and Scientific Computation) [Hardcover]

Yair Censor (Author), Stavros A. Zenios (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1998 | ISBN-10: 019510062X | ISBN-13: 978-0195100624

This book offers a unique pathway to methods of parallel optimization by introducing parallel computing ideas into both optimization theory and into some numerical algorithms for large-scale optimization problems. The three parts of the book bring together relevant theory, careful study of algorithms, and modeling of significant real world problems such as image reconstruction, radiation therapy treatment planning, financial planning, transportation and multi-commodity network flow problems, planning under uncertainty, and matrix balancing problems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book presents a domain that arises where two different branches of science, namely parallel computations and the theory of constrained optimization, intersect with real life problems. This domain, called parallel optimization, has been developing rapidly under the stimulus of progress in computer technology. The book focuses on parallel optimization methods for large-scale constrained optimization problems and structured linear problems. . . . [It] covers a vast portion of parallel optimization, though full coverage of this domain, as the authors admit, goes far beyond the capacity of a single monograph. This book, however, in over 500 pages brings an excellent and in-depth presentation of all the major aspects of a process which matches theory and methods of optimization with modern computers. The volume can be recommended for graduate students, faculty, and researchers in any of those fields."--Mathematical Reviews

About the Author

Yair Censor is at University of Haifa. Stavros Zenios is at University of Cyprus.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019510062X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195100624
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,265,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars For the dedicated specialist, July 19, 2004

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Parallel Optimization: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications (Numerical Mathematics and Scientific Computation) (Hardcover)

This book is highly mathematical. It phrases its points as a series of theorems, with a number of case studies at the end. The theorems all stop just short legible technique. The examples, though exciting, all presuppose command of technique. I regret that I never found that missing piece within myself. That piece was the one that connects deep theorems about abstract N-dimensional pseudodistances into working fluency about CAT scans.

I did, however, get some understanding of the kinds of problems that the authors address. They are some of the analytic functions, with linear or nonlinear constraints. In particular, they are functions of high dimensions - thousands or millions of constraints - amenable to fairly fine-grained optimization. They are not discrete problems, like the Travelling Salesman. They are not problems with hugely jagged reward surfaces, like "motif finding" problems in bioinformatics. They are not genetic algorithms, Monte Carlo searches, or combinatorial problems. The authors do in fact parallelize a number of important optimization problems, including CAT scans, transportation planning, and radiation therapy, but not all optimization techniques.

Those problems span only a small part of the parallelizable world. The broad promise in the title "Parallel Optimization" was only partly kept. Some parallelization techniques were presented, as well as some interesting perspetives on numerical optimization. Optimization is a large field, however, and this is only a small map.

Still, for that range of problems, it seems to offer the right reader profound insight. I can not be sure, though, since I'm not the right reader. I give it three stars, just because I had to give something. Different people will assign this book very different value.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Proximal point algorithms by Censor and Zenios, March 5, 2003

By 

Julio Michael Stern (Sao Paulo Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parallel Optimization: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications (Numerical Mathematics and Scientific Computation) (Hardcover)

Part I of this book starts with an aphorism,
attributed to H. von Helmholtz:
``The most practical thing in the world
is a good theory.''
The book does justice to von Helmholtz maxim.
The theory of Bregman distances is presented
in a clear, geometrical and intuitive way.
Part II of the book presents several important
and illustrative applications of Proximal Point
algorithms, to constrained optimization,
Maximum Entropy problems, financial stochastic
networks, and several other important areas.