Let me begin by providing a bit of background for this talk. If we exaggerate, then we can say that there are only two kinds of science. First there is the descriptive kind which is concerned with "how things are?". This is physics, chemistry, biology, economics, etc. Having understood the nature of things, we then move on to the prescriptive sciences which deal with "how things should be?". This is of course the raison d'être for civilization. We want to bend nature and organize activities to suit our convenience and comfort.

At the heart of prescriptive science is Engineering Design and the idea of OPTIMIZATION, i.e., making things better. In this general sense, optimization is age old. However, optimization did not come into its own until the advent of computers in the past half century. As a discipline, traditional optimization has compiled quite a success story, the best known is of course, the Nobel Prize-winning work of linear programming and the guidance-control of aerospace vehicles including the Apollo moon landing. A huge literature exists and important works are continuing on many fronts.