On March 14, 2025, in celebration of the International Day of Mathematics (IDM), Foreign Trade University collaborated with the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM) to successfully organize a sharing session on "The Colorful World of Optimization."
The guest speaker was Prof. Dr. Sebastian Pokutta, who currently serves as Vice President at Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and Prof. at Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin, Germany).
Attending the event from VIASM were Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Minh Ha - Executive Director of VIASM; Prof. Pham Tien Son - Member of VIASM Scientific Council, along with staff working at the Institute.
From Foreign Trade University, attendees included Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Xuan Binh - Dean of the Faculty of International Economics (FIE); Dr. Luong Ngoc Oanh - Vice Dean of FIE; Dr. Nguyen Van Tang - Vice Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Data Science; Dr. Hoang Ngoc Thuan - Head of the Advanced Programs - High Quality - Career Orientation and International Development Management Board, Department of Undergraduate Studies; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Thi Thu Hien - Head of Development Board, Department of Undergraduate Studies. The event attracted great interest from many students, especially those passionate about optimization and its applications in science, technology, economics, and business.
During the session, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Pokutta guided students in exploring a "panoramic view" of optimization, one of the most important methods in science and engineering, while emphasizing the essential role of optimization in decision-making and solving practical problems.
The main content of the program focused on: History and foundations of optimization – The development of optimization from ancient times to modern algorithms today; Optimization in the world around us – Applications of optimization in nature, such as bird flight formations, honeycomb structures, or how trees optimize sunlight; Core optimization techniques – Common optimization methods like linear programming, nonlinear optimization, heuristic algorithms, and reinforcement learning. Additionally, Prof. Pokutta presented the Hadwiger-Nelson Problem - A space color optimization problem with many applications in mathematics and data science.
The discussion session was lively with questions and answers between the speaker and attending faculty and students revolving around the application of optimization in real-world contexts. Prof. Pokutta provided many practical examples from various industries, from supply chain management, transportation network optimization, to applications in finance and artificial intelligence, helping participants better understand the power of optimization across many fields.
The sharing session not only provided in-depth knowledge but also sparked curiosity and applied thinking about optimization for real-world problems. Hopefully, the valuable knowledge from the program will inspire students to continue exploring and applying optimization in their studies and future careers.
