The MOCA Center at Rensselaer promotes collaborative research involving the integration of modeling, optimization and computation to solve complex problems emerging in science and engineering. The key to understanding the multifaceted and multidisciplinary aspects of these problems, and to create new solution strategies, is the development, analysis, and simulation of mathematical models. The MOCA Center is designed to establish new modes of operation for applied mathematicians, scientists and engineers by cutting across the boundaries of traditional approaches and thus establishing new avenues of research and collaboration.