DAKOTA

Description

DAKOTA website  

The DAKOTA (Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications) toolkit provides a flexible, extensible interface between analysis codes and iterative systems analysis methods. DAKOTA contains algorithms for:

• optimization with gradient and nongradient-based methods;
• uncertainty quantification with sampling, reliability, stochastic expansion, and epistemic methods;
• parameter estimation with nonlinear least squares methods; and
• sensitivity/variance analysis with design of experiments and parameter study methods.

These capabilities may be used on their own or as components within advanced strategies such as hybrid optimization, surrogate-based optimization, mixed integer nonlinear programming, or optimization under uncertainty.

Required Modules

Module dependencies vary based on the version of DAKOTA that you are loading (see modules documentation)

• Version 6.8
  • module load intel/2018.1.163 openmpi/3.1.0 dakota/6.8
• Version 6.10
  • module load gcc/7.3.0 dakota/6.10
• Version 6.15
  • module load gcc/7.3.0 openmpi/3.0.0 dakota/6.15

System Variables

• HPC_DAKOTA_DIR - installation directory
• HPC_DAKOTA_BIN - program executable directory
• HPC_DAKOTA_LIB - library directory
• HPC_DAKOTA_INC - include file directory

Citation

If you publish research that uses DAKOTA you have to cite it as follows:

Please cite the Dakota User's Manual (or other appropriate manual) for the version you used (see SAND Reports). For example:

Adams, B.M., Bohnhoff, W.J., Dalbey, K.R., Ebeida, M.S., Eddy, J.P., Eldred, M.S., Hooper, R.W., Hough, P.D., Hu, K.T., Jakeman, J.D., Khalil, M., Maupin, K.A., Monschke, J.A., Ridgway, E.M., Rushdi, A.A., Seidl, D.T., Stephens, J.A., Swiler, L.P., and Winokur, J.G., "Dakota, A Multilevel Parallel Object-Oriented Framework for Design Optimization, Parameter Estimation, Uncertainty Quantification, and Sensitivity Analysis: Version 6.15 User’s Manual," Sandia Technical Report SAND2020-12495, November 2021.

Previous versions of the User's Manual are available from the manuals page.