The purpose of this thesis is to create an optimization computer program capable of solving a variety of mechanism design problems. A general purpose computer program has been developed for design optimization. This program utilizes the sequential unconstrained minimization technique in which the Hooke and Jeeves method is used for each unconstrained minimization. In the development of the program, two modifications were made to the Hooke and Jeeves method which improved the rate of convergence. The effect of the initial value of the penalty parameter on the sequential unconstrained minimization technique was investigated. The results of the investigation showed that using a high value of the penalty parameter significantly reduced the computer run times. The optimization program was used to design two types of planar mechanisms - function generators and path generators. Miscellaneous design considerations and recommendations for future research are discussed. / M.S.