Course Syllabus
Math 132B: Operations Research
Instructor: Bohan Zhou
Communication: Canvas Message (preferred) or Bohan.Zhou@math.ucsb.edu (for urgent request only)
Lectures: TuTh 15:30-16:45 @ARTS 1349
In-person Office Hours: W 11:00-12:00pm @SH6702
Shared Office Hour: W12:00-13:00 pm @SH6702
Zoom Office Hours: by appointment only Zoom Link
About the Course
Textbook: We will draft our own textbook by contributing to our lecture notes. We will use the following as main reference
- Y. Nesterov, Lectures on Convex Optimization
- A. Beck, First-order Methods in Optimization
- S. Boyd, L. Vandenberghe, Convex Optimization
- N. Boumal, An introduction to Optimization on smooth manifolds
Assignment:
All assignments are related to contributions to collaborative shared lecture notes in Overleaf. You will play the following roles at least once throughout the quarter:
- A team of two students to complete scribing and proofreading for one lecture.
- A reader for one lecture note who writes a summary. If you do not have the chance to summarize, please do additional other roles instead.
- An individual contributor to one exercise associated with one lecture when you are neither a scriber nor proofreader.
- An exercise reader.
- An individual contributor to virtualization of existing examples in lectures, or helpful examples beyond lectures when you are neither a scriber nor proofreader.
Bonus: If we need volunteers to scribe lecture notes twice, or you volunteer to present topics which are approved by the instructor, you will get one-level up on your letter grade. AI tools are encouraged in this class and your workstream with AI are encouraged to share with peers.
Disclaimer: We reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus and to course policies during the term. Important changes will be announced by email when they are made.
Last Update: 05/12/2026
Course Summary:
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