Illustration of the Frank-Wolfe algorithm for solving a constrained non-linear optimization problem.

Credit: Image adapted from a figure by Christopher Griffin and is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US

Resource Description

This is a set of lecture notes for MATH 555, Penn State's graduate Numerical Optimization course. Numerical Optimization is the study of maximizing or minimizing functions through numerical techniques. Generally, it's rare to optimize anything other than through numerical techniques (unless of course you're talking about something really simple). Numerical optimization is used every day and is built on techniques from multi-variable calculus, optimization theory (obviously) numerical linear algebra (for algorithm efficiency) and other branches of mathematics.

Spatial Database Management

Credit: (c) Penn State University is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Resource Description

A spatial database is the backbone of a successful organization or website that depends upon maintaining and using data pertinent to locations on Earth. In GEOG 868, Spatial Database Management, capabilities specific to Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are combined to teach students to create, maintain, and query spatial databases in both desktop and enterprise environments.

Resource Description

Bill Gates is credited with saying he would "hire a lazy person to do a difficult job" with the justification that "a lazy person will find an easy way to do it." GEOG 485 doesn't teach the lazy way to get the job done, but it does teach the scripting way -- which is arguably even better. You've probably heard the "give a fish"/"teach to fish" saying?