CS5321 Class Note

Class note
Review
Using Latex
Tentative topics

Write a class note

The first part is to write a short tutorial paper on one topic covered in this class. It can be an algorithm, a problem, a concept, or a theorem. You should fully understand the topic that you choose and explain it to the potential readers, which are, in this case, your classmates. Here are some guidelines/requirements for this part of assignment. Please read through them.

Choose a good topic.
The purpose of this assignment is to let you master at least one topic in this course. Choose a topic that you really want to study or you are really interested in. Do not choose a topic that is too big or too difficult, which you could not study thoroughly. Do not choose a topic that is too small or too easy either, since no one may be interested in what you write. You can choose from the list of tentative topics, but not limited to them. If you cannot find one or cannot decide whether a topic is good enough, please talk to me.
Understand your materials
The most important part of this assignment is to understand the chosen topic thoroughly. You need to read the text, the reference books, if necessary, the original papers. You can also use the materials from Internet to help your study. If the topic depends on other basic materials, like linear algebra or calculus, try to dig in deeply.
Note that you may need to study the materials ahead of class schedule. Please regard it as the spontaneous study, which may reward you hugely.
Organize your thought.
Another purpose of this assignment is to do some writing practices. Think about that you are going to introduce a topic to others, what is the reasonable or understandable order to present your thought. You can mimic the styles from textbooks or papers. Usually, the basic components include (1) introduction (background, definition, problem description…) (2) methodology (algorithms, concepts, theorems,…) (3) examples (since this is tutorial based writing.). However, you need not follow those rules, as long as you can express the ideas clearly and smoothly.
Know your readers.
Someone said that knowing your readers is the most important part in writing. It is. It affects which materials should be included, and which should be thrown away, what kind of tones should be used, and what is the proper order to say things.
In this assignment, your reader is your classmates, who you should know well. Since you share similar common senses and knowledge, you can tailor your writings based on your experience. One hint: do not let your reader think you are a fool, nor let them feel like they are fools.
Use figures and examples
People said that a picture is worth a thousand words. A good example can do even better. Since this writing is for a class note, beside correctness, clarity is the most important factor for a good note. For the problems in this class, examples from 1D and 2D usually can give good illustrations of the problems and algorithms. In introducing an algorithm, the step by step trace of a good example is more understandable than formal description.
Proofread, proofread, proofread
Correctness is the most important criterion for this work, both for the content or for the presentation. Please ensure that every sentence you write is based on some facts or is supported by some authentic sources. Handwaving arguments usually lead to inaccurate conclusions.
Be careful of your spelling, grammar, word choices, and style. Use tools, like dictionary and grammar checkers, to help you on that. Proofread your work at least three times before submission.
Cite properly and DO NOT plagiarize
Citation is an important part in any technical writings. It gives the credits to the original works, smoothens the article flow, provides further references to readers, and shows the range of your studies.
It is a temptation to copy a good paragraph, or a wonderful sentence from books or papers. But that is plagiary, which is absolutely forbidden. Rephrase it in your own words.
Do not cite the source indirectly. Be sure that you had read all the citations.

Write reviews

The second part is to review other work. You can give suggestions and criticisms with the following guidelines.

Check the correctness
The most important task is to verify the correctness of the content. You need to have certain knowledge about the topic. You also need to verify each formula, theorem, and conclusion is correct.
Beside the content, it is also important to check the language, typos, grammatical error, and the logic of arguments.
Summarize the work
It is important to show that you have read the article, and understand the content. Give a short paragraph to summarize the article. What is the paper talking about (or trying to convey)? What is the flow?
Be specific
Do not give vague comments. If you think there are errors, specifically indicate where the problems are. For example, you may say “in page 3, second paragraph, the argument is incorrect because …”, or “there is a typo in the third line of page 2”. You may use a list to enumerate them.
Give suggestions
You may show your thoughts by giving some useful suggestions. How to improve the clarity, how to organize the paragraph, which articles should be cited, and what ideas should be mentioned.

Use Latex

This class requires you to write the note using Tex/Latex. (the reviews can be written by using any format.) If you haven't used it before, it is a good time to learn it. There are many useful tutorials on line. You can also consult TA for the problems you encounter.

Tentative topics

Here is a list of tentative topics.

The theorem of modified Newton’s methods (chap 3)
Modified Cholesky factorization (chap 3)
Modified symmetric indefinite factorization (chap 3)
Optimality conditions for line search methods (chap 3)
Convergence of line search methods (chap 3)
Cauchy point (chap 4)
The dogleg method (chap 4)
2-dim subspace minimization (chap 4)
Convergence of trust region methods (chap 4)
Linear conjugate gradient method (chap 5)
Nonlinear conjugate gradient method (chap 5)
DFP updating quasi-Newton method (chap 6)
BFGS updating quasi-Newton method (chap 6)
SR1 updating quasi-Newton method (chap 6)
Convergence of qusi-Newton methods (chap 6)
Theory of inexact Newton method (chap 7)
Truncated Newton method (chap 7)
Limited memory BFGS (chap 7)
Sparse quasi-Newton updates and partially separable functions (chap 7)
Gauss-Newton method (chap 10)
Levenberg-Marquardt method (chap 10)
Optimality conditions for constrained programming (chap 12)
Duality of constrained programming (chap 12)
The simplex method for linear programming (chap 13)
The interior point methods for LP (chap 14)
Filters (chap 15)
Maratos effect (chap 15)
Second order correction and non-monotone techniques (chap 15)
Schur complement method for QP (chap 16)
Null space method for QP (chap 16)
Conjugate Gradient method for QP (chap 16)
The Projected CG method for QP (chap 16)
Active set method for QP (chap 16)
Interior point method for QP (chap 16)
Gradient projection method (chap 16, chap 18)
Quadratic penalty function (chap 17)
Nonsmooth Penalty function (chap 17)
Augmented Lagrangian function (chap 17)
Problems of sequential QP method (chap 18)
Line search SQP method (chap 18)
Trust region SQP method (chap 18)
Problems of the interior point method (chap 19)
Line-search the interior point method (chap 19)
Trust-region the interior point method (chap 19)
Convergence of the interior point method (chap 19)