  The shape of a few-cycle terahertz (THz) laser pulse can be optimized to
provide control over conduction band populations in graphene. To demonstrate
this control in a theoretical way, a spectral parametrization of the driving
pulse using $B$-splines is used in order to obtain experimentally realistic
pulses of bandwidth $\sim$ 30 THz. Optimization of the spectral shape is
performed via differential evolution, using the $B$-splines expansion
coefficients as decision variables. Numerical results show the possibility of
changing the carrier density in graphene by a factor of 4 for a fixed pulse
energy. In addition, we show that it is possible to selectively suppress or
enhance multi-photon absorption features by optimizing over narrow windows in
reciprocal space. The application of pulse shaping to the control of scattering
mechanisms in graphene is also discussed.
