Arora’s introduction of a much-anticipated second edition of Introduction to Optimum Design will not only satisfy established users of his well-received first edition, but moreover, significant updates, supplementary material, and fine-tuning of the pedagogical aspects of the presentation will certainly broaden its appeal. For those unfamiliar with the book, Introduction to Optimum Design is one of a number of contemporary works that provide a basic to intermediate introduction to the theory of optimal design with engineering applications. However, among some of the distinguishing characteristics of Arora’s book are its adaptability to audiences with diverse backgrounds, as well as the extent to which it makes the topic clear and approachable. The minimum mathematics prerequisites would include multivariate calculus and some exposure to linear algebra; as such, the book can readily be used with third-year or fourth-year undergraduates in most engineering disciplines. On the other hand, selected topics are treated with sufficient depth and rigor that, when covered at a faster pace, the book is equally well-suited for use at the introductory graduate level. The book would also be excellent as a self-study reference for the practicing engineer. Although perhaps the majority of the applications used in the book are drawn from problems in the civil and mechanical engineering disciplines including a good sampling of structural optimization examples , most examples are framed in such a way that the key concepts can be understood by students from other engineering disciplines. As such, in this reviewer’s personal experience, students from chemical, electrical, and industrial engineering have found the book equally useful. In fact, students from industrial engineering often find the presentation of key mathematical concepts much clearer than what is customarily given in most operations research and quantitative analysis texts. The layout of the first 12 chapters of the second edition consists of: “Introduction to Design,” “Optimum Design Problem Formulation,” “Graphical Optimization,” “Optimum Design Concepts,” “Linear Programming Methods for Optimum Design,” “Numerical Methods for Unconstrained Optimum Design,” “Numerical Methods for Constrained Optimum Design,” and “Introduction to Optimum Design with MATLAB.” Following the basic introduction and description of nomenclature in Chapters 1 and 2, many of the key concepts are introduced for two-variable optimum design problems in Chapter 3 “Graphical Optimization” , which is now an expanded, separate chapter in the revised edition. Improvements in this chapter include examples involving the use of Mathematica and MATLAB for generating graphical solutions. In Chapters 4–11, the basic theoretical and computational aspects of optimization are given in a fashion similar to that of the first edition; however, the key concepts of existence and uniqueness of unconstrained and constrained solutions now Chapters 4 and 5 , umerical methods for linear programming now Chapters 6 and