International MATLAB Structural Optimization Student competition with Prize of $1000

Open invitation for all international students to take part in ISCSO competition 2021 that is an international student competition in the field of structural optimization. The idea of ISCSO was born over a decade ago. The main aim is to organize an annual online competition to encourage students to solve engineering optimization problems. To this end, a structure and a set of design rules are specified and the participants are asked to optimize the design of the structure within a specific period of time.

The problem of this contest is a weight minimization challenge for a given truss structure. The participants will be asked to find the optimum truss geometry and cross-sectional areas of members with respect to a set of available profiles. In order to facilitate the optimization process, a MATLAB code in form of a function will be provided which will perform the structural analysis and design of the truss and report the net weight of the structure as well as the amount of constraint violation. The participants will then be asked to minimize the weight of the structure with the help of this MATLAB code and considering the given constraints. You may take a look at the Past Events to have a better idea about the optimization problem.

In order to solve the problem, the participants are free to use any arbitrary optimization method. Visit this link to find different optimization algorithms. 

1000 Euros. A cash prize will be devoted to the winner, who could be a team or a student. If a team wins, the prize will be sent only to the contact person of the team.

1. The participants might be asked to submit an electronic version of their optimization code. Note that using commercial optimization software is not allowed and the participants must prepare their own original codes. However, using the optimization functions of MATLAB is permitted. Please note that, in this competition, the acceptable programming language is MATLAB. The submitted codes will not be released and will be used for evaluation purposes only.
2. Interested students at all levels and from all academic disciplines are strongly recommended to take part in ISCSO 2021.
3. Eligible Participants: Students Worldwide
4. One non-Student member is allowed for team registrations
5. Registration: Free
6. What Should be Submitted? : Code + Optimization Result + Description of the Approach
7. Hints: The followings might be helpful:

• Your code may only solve the given problem. It’s OK!
• You can perform numerous runs with your algorithm and report the best one.
• You can choose any optimization technique. Further, you may propose a new optimization algorithm or a hybrid form of previously proposed algorithms.

Criteria for Winning:

• You should find the lowest weight design using a limited number of objective function evaluations.
• Your design must be feasible (i.e. no constraint violation is allowed).
• Your approach should be described well.
• Your code should demonstrate an acceptable performance.
• It should be noted that, in case more than one team or student reports the best solution, another round of competition will be arranged only for those participants.

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