MATH 434
Applied Dynamics and Optimal Control Spring 2024
Division III Quantitative/Formal Reasoning
This is not the current course catalog

We seek to understand how dynamical systems evolve, how that evolution depends on the various parameters of the system, and how we might manipulate those parameters to optimize an overall outcome. The primary focus of this course will be optimal control using Pontryagin’s maximum principle and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations. These tools have broad application in ecology, economics, finance, and engineering, and we will draw on basic models from these fields to motivate our study. The course will begin with a solid review of modeling with dynamical systems, and deepening our understanding of differential and difference equations, parameter dependence, and bifurcations.