Convex Optimization is the art of transforming nonconvex problems into convex problems. Many probems believed nonconvex can be shown to be convex. There are instances of researchers posing problems in the literature that they believe to be nonconvex; e.g., ch.7.2.1 in Convex Optimization & Euclidean Distance Geometry, the "stress problem" in statistics and operations research. There are good software tools allowing intuitive interface with Matlab; CVX allows writing a convex optimization problem in Matlab almost identically to how you would write it on a piece of paper. http://www.stanford.edu/~boyd/cvx/ Jon Dattorro http://convexoptimization.com http://watchmykidspc.com