The Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications (DAKOTA) is a software toolkit developed by engineers at Sandia National Laboratories to provide a flexible, extensible interface between analysis codes and iterative systems analysis methods. DAKOTA contains optimization algorithms using gradient and nongradient-based methods, parameter estimation with nonlinear least squares methods, uncertainty quantification with sampling, reliability, and stochastic finite element methods, and sensitivity/variance analysis with design of experiments and parameter study capabilities.

Dakota may refer to:

• Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
  • Dakota language, their language
• Dakota (given name)

The Dakotas is a collective term for the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota. It has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is still used for the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, the economy, and even cuisine among the two states.