Ordinal Optimization ─ Soft Computing for Hard Problems

The purpose of this book is to address the difficulties of the optimization of complex systems via simulation models or other computation-intensive models involving possible stochastic effects and discrete choices. This is the first book to focus solely on ordinal optimization methodology and its applications. The book establishes distinct advantages of the "softer" ordinal approach for search-based type problems, analyzes its general properties, and shows the many orders of magnitude improvement in computational efficiency that is possible. The methodology of ordinal optimization has been under continuous development since 1992, resulting in a complete methodology and many success stories roughly paralleling those of cardinal optimization.

Yu-Chi Ho (lead author) is the only author whose book in the system/control field has the distinction of being a SCI Citation Classic* as the most referenced book on the subject. After 37 years, his book is still selling about 500 copies per year without a revision.Applied Optimal Control (with A.E. Bryson Jr.); Hemisphere-Wiley 1975, first published by Xerox College Publishing 1969.*Citation Classic, SCIENCE CITATION INDEX (CURRENT CONTENTS) 2/25/80, Vol. 11, No. 8, as the most cited reference on the subject.Dr. Ho is the founding editor of the international journal, Discrete Event Dynamic Systems. He is the recipient of various fellowships and awards including the Guggenheim (1970), the IEEE Field Award for Control Engineering and Science (1989), the Chiang Technology Achievement Award (1993), the American Automatic Control Council Bellman Control Heritage Award (1999), the ASME Rufus Oldenburger Award (1999), and the Isaacs Award from the International Society of Dynamic Games (2004). Dr. Ho is an IEEE Life Fellow and an INFORMS Inaugural Fellow (elected 2002), a Distinguished Member of the IEEE Control Systems Society, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.In addition to serving on various governmental and industrial panels, and professional society administrative bodies, Dr. Ho was the President of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society in 1988.