Large-Scale Design Optimization Lab
Welcome
The large-scale design optimization laboratory (LSDO lab) is part of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California San Diego.
Our research lab develops efficient optimization methods for the design and operation of engineering vehicles. We specialize in methods that solve large-scale optimization problems involving up to tens of thousands of design variables.
The Background page provides an introduction to large-scale optimization, reviews the state of the art, and highlights some of our previous work in this field. The Research page presents a more comprehensive description of our past and ongoing research topics.
Vision
Our vision for the future is optimization-based design of engineering systems. In many engineering applications (e.g., the design of commercial airliners), the computing age has enabled the gradual replacement or augmentation of physical experiments with simulations using computational models. Today, tools such as computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis have become sufficiently robust and efficient that they are tightly integrated into the workflow of an industrial engineer. In the future, we envision large-scale numerical optimization having a similarly large role in practical engineering design. This would come with much larger potential benefits since optimization algorithms can automate certain parts of design, freeing the engineer's time and attention on higher level and more significant aspects of the design. The LSDO lab's past and future research is directed towards the improvements in efficiency, robustness, and simplicity of optimization methods, that are necessary to make this vision a reality.
