The research group on optimal control and inverse problems focuses on the analysis and the numerical treatment of application oriented and applied problems that can be described by partial differential equations.

Optimal control problems arise from the necessity to control and influence the behavior of physical systems by as little external effort as possible. Many physical systems are based on mathematical models involving partial differential equations. Our special interest lies in the control of nonlinear phenomena arising in the control of fluids and in the control of explosion phenomena.

If you can extract some meaning out of the white dots in the logo of our research group, you have experienced the capability of the human eye (and brain) to solve inverse problems of image reconstruction. In general, the term inverse problem refers to the problem of determining unknown quantities based on observation of their effects. This is in contrast to the corresponding direct problem, the solution of which involves finding effects based on a complete description of their physical parameters.

In our work we utilize techniques from numerical mathematics, analysis, optimization and control to contribute to the solution of inverse and optimal control problems both from an applied analysis and an algorithmic perspective.

Most of the current research is carried out within the Spezialforschungsbereich Optimierung und Kontrolle (Special Research Center on Optimization and Control). Our group consists of eleven permanent researchers and varying number of visitors.


last changed: 6/23/2003