I work in semiconductor manufacturing which is basically a giant inverse problem (technically IMHO everything is). I personally work on optimization software wh

I work in semiconductor manufacturing which is basically a giant inverse problem (technically IMHO everything is). I personally work on optimization software which finds the best setting for 7 out of a few hundred settings (collection of settings is called a recipe). We used to use a semi brute force approach and then moved to GA. Currently research is ongoing about mixed integer surrogate models. The Apps market for this industry is huge. The Apps department of one of the biggest equipment manufacturers itself, if counted separately, is in top 10 biggest companies in semiconductor equipment companies.