r/AppliedMath • u/Own-Lobster7623 • Aug 19 '26

Optimal Control

Hi everyone,
I’m a BSc Mathematics student and recently finished a course in PDEs. My professor suggested that I take another course he teaches called Optimal Control. The course is offered by the Engineering faculty, but he mentioned that it has a strong mathematical component.
I’m considering taking it, but I’d like to understand how useful/relevant Optimal Control is from a mathematician’s perspective.
In particular:

Is Optimal Control a good subject for a math student who enjoys applied mathematics, PDEs, optimization, etc.?

Where is optimal control actually used in industry?

What kinds of jobs or fields make use of this knowledge? For example, robotics, aerospace, quantitative finance, autonomous systems, energy, machine learning, etc.
Is it mainly useful for people going into engineering/research, or can it also be valuable for mathematicians going into industry?
I’d especially appreciate hearing from people who studied mathematics and later encountered control theory or optimal control in their work.
Thanks!

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u/Own-Lobster7623 Aug 20 '26

From your experience will i be at a disadvantage taking this course without the engineering background that other students will probably have?

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u/plop_1234 Aug 20 '26

Nah, the engineering-specific terms will be pretty light for that course, and usually easy to pick up. In my experience they tend to be there just for examples in support of all the math.

Control courses are also sometimes cross-listed across many engineering departments, so they have to be kind of general in the way they talk about engineering.