Optimization problems and techniques

Summary form only given. An overview of various kinds of optimization problems will be given with examples in the world of applications. Some classical methods of solving such problems, for example, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming, method of steepest descent etc will be mentioned. The notion of polynomial-time algorithms and their importance will be explained. Some examples of optimization problems for which no polynomial-time algorithms are expected to exist, and hence considered intractable, will be given. Various techniques of handling such problems to get rough, workable solutions will be discussed. Finally progress in resolving the million dollars question whether these intractable problems are really intractable (in brief the P Vs NP question) will be mentioned briefly.