Welcome to the webpage of Optimization Group at the Department of Statistics and Operations Research, UNC-Chapel Hill.

The Optimization Group was founded in 1946 as a subgroup of Operations Research Program at UNC-Chapel Hill.  The group currently has three active faculty members: Shu Lu, Gabor Pataki, and Quoc Tran-Dinh.

Our research develops advanced theory and algorithms to analyze and solve optimization problems arising from applications.

Our research covers a wide range of topics, such as convex and variational analysis, semidefinite programming, convex and nonconvex programming, complementarity problems and variational inequalities, integer programming, and optimal control. By exploiting the fundamental structure in optimization problems, we have developed new computational and analytical methods and brought new insights into important classes of problems. We have also applied optimization techniques in a broad range of areas, including engineering, economics,  physical, chemical, and biological sciences, business and management, data science and machine learning, transportation science, and social sciences.