An analysis and an interactive computer program are described through which minimum weight designs of composite, stiffened, cylindrical panels can be obtained subject to general and local buckling constraints and stress and strain constraints. The panels are subjected to arbitrary combinations of in-plane axial, circumferential, and shear resultants. Nonlinear material effects are included if the material is isotropic or has stiffness in only one direction (as does a discrete or a smeared stiffener). Several types of general and local buckling modes are included as constraints in the optimization process, including general instability, panel instability with either stringers or rings smeared out, local skin buckling, local crippling of stiffener segments, and general, panel, and local skin buckling including the effects of stiffener rolling. Certain stiffener rolling modes in which the panel skin does not deform but the cross section of the stiffener does deform are also accounted for. The interactive PANDA system consists of three independently executed modules that share the same data base. In the first module an initial design concept with rough (not necessarily feasible or accurate) dimensions are provided by the user in a conversational mode. In the second module the user decides which of the design parameters of the concept are to be treated by PANDA as decision variables in the optimization phase. In the third module the optimization calculations are carried out. Many examples are provided in which optimum designs obtained by PANDA are compared to those in the literature. (Author).