Tackling coding challenges in constrained optimal control

When I took the graduate course “Numerical Mathematics I” at the University of Tennessee two years ago, my initial understanding was that the phrase “numerical mathematics” (or “numerical analysis”) referred solely to the aspect of writing code to approximate solutions to problems numerically: systems of equations, ordinary or partial differential equations, optimization problems, and so on. The instructor of the course, Abner Salgado (who later became one of my two PhD co-advisors), quickly erased that misconception from my head. As I learned from his…