dynamic programming day

Eric Dubois, one of my PhD students, interned at the RAND Corporation this summer. He gave a presentation about his internship to my lab.

I learned that dynamic programming is still of great importance at RAND. Richard Bellman introduced dynamic programming in 1953 while working at RAND. He spent most of his career at RAND, and his many contributions to dynamic programming are still cherished. You can download his 1954 RAND Report “The Theory of Dynamic Programming.” Every summer, RAND employees celebrate dynamic programming’s anniversary with cake.

I would love to celebrate dynamic programming with cake and with the cake eating problem (optimal depletion of an uncertain stock).

Note: the cake eating problem can be solved with dynamic programming.

The RAND Corporation began to provide analysis for the Air Force after World War II. Soon thereafter RAND branched into nuclear deterrence. A (fake) RAND analysis on nuclear deterrence is mentioned in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
The Dr. Strangelove character is based on RAND scientist Herman Kahn.