Project of 2014

Sandra Patzelt-Schütte, Stefan Rüdrich, and Burkhard Schmidt

In a project presented at the "Long Night of Sciences" (LNdW) in May 2014, we illustrate the concept of (molecular) energy landscapes and optimization in applied mathematics and natural sciences. The project involves self-built LEGO Mindstorms robots which can freely explore our self-built landscapes, aiming at finding the highest mountains. The pro's and con's of different implemented algorithms (such as steepest descent, line search, different Monte Carlo variants) become intuitively apparent.