ECE1505: Convex Optimization

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Toronto

Project Information

Project requirement: The course project is an integral part of this course. The purpose of the project is for students to apply the techniques covered in class in an area of their technical interests. It is essential that students start to think about the course project and to discuss project ideas with their supervisor or the course instructor as early as possible. Students may work in a group of two (but no more than two). Individual projects are acceptable.

I expect a major component of the project to be a review of the state-of-the-art for using an optimization approach to solve an existing problem. I expect most projects to have a significant numerical component (but purely theoretical papers are possible as well). I also expect students to say something interesting beyond the existing literature, e.g. a comparison of different approaches in two different papers, a new problem formulation, theoretical development, numerical technique, or new insight to the problem. You will be graded on the clarity of problem formulation and the technical depth of your solution. Please be sure to provide a concise survey of the literature, and clearly state any novelty in problem formulation and/or solution techniques.

Project Proposal: Each group must submit a one-page project proposal on March 6, 2025. The proposal should have a title, a list of authors, a brief description of the problem, a brief survey of existing approaches, and a list of references. The proposal is not graded.

Project Report: Each group must produce an IEEE conference style, maximum 5-page, double-column project report. The report must contain a title, a list of authors, an abstract, an introduction, a clear description of the optimization problem, the methodology, and the numerical results and their interpretations. The report should put your work in the context of the existing literature and clarify the novelty of your approach. The report should contain a complete list of references. The project reports are due on April 6, 2025 at 11:59pm. Late projects are not accepted.

Grades: The project will be 25% of the course grade: 10% based on the report presentation; 15% based on the technical contributions and the novelty of the project.