ECE285, Fall 2026 – Semidefinite and Sum-of-squares Optimization

Schedule

Some notes:

The following is a tentative schedule. I may change it as the course progresses.

Project presentation and final report dates are tentative and will be confirmed.

The table lists the tentative release date of each homework. The due date will be stated clearly on each assignment.

Week	Date	Lecture	Assignments
0	Sep 24	L1: Introduction & Course Logistics
1	Sep 29	L2: Mathematical background	Homework 1
	Oct 01	L3: Review of convexity (I)
2	Oct 06	L4: Review of convexity (II)
	Oct 08	L5: Conic programming	Homework 2
3	Oct 13	L6: LP, QP, QCQP, SOCP, SDP
	Oct 15	L7: Duality in conic programming (I)
4	Oct 20	L8: Duality in conic programming (II)	Homework 3
	Oct 22	L9: Applications of SDPs in control
5	Oct 27	L10: Applications of SDPs in combinatorial problems	Proposal due
	Oct 29	L11: Nonconvex quadratic optimization and SDP relaxations	Homework 4
6	Nov 03	L12: Review
	Nov 05	L13: Nonnegative polynomials, SOS, and SDP (I)
7	Nov 10	L14: Nonnegative polynomials, SOS, and SDP (II)	Homework 5
	Nov 12	Midterm exam
8	Nov 17	L15: SOS applications in control & machine learning
	Nov 19	L16: Dual side: moment problems	Homework 6
9	Nov 24	L17: Nonsmooth optimization
	Nov 26	Thanksgiving holiday – no class
10	Dec 01	L18: Project presentation (tentative)
	Dec 03	L19: Project presentation (tentative)
11			Project report due