Hi Jarrod,

You might want to explore the possibility of using R and its Perl interface. In R, you will find a function for solving quadratic programming problems. Another option would be using the Perl Data Language (PDL). In particular the function Simplex. You can find examples on using the function Simplex for numerical optimization and on calling R from Perl in the article: Using Perl for Statistics: Data Processing and Statistical Computing. Other option would be using evolutionary algorithms such as Genetic Algorithms or Simulated Annealing that are already available in CPAN.

I hope this information helps.

Cheers,