DIMACS 1998-2000 Special Year on
Large Scale Discrete Optimization
Call for Participation
This special year is motivated by developments in the past ten
years. There have been three simultaneous advances: at the algorithmic
level, with new and interesting algorithms for solving large scale
discrete problems both exactly and approximately; at the
implementation level, providing codes and systems for solving such
problems; and at the practical level, with interests in the fast
solution of real world problems. Examples of such applications
include airline crew scheduling, chemical process design, and
telecommunication network design. Our goal in this year is to unite
these groups. The confluence of exciting recent work on approximation
and other algorithms and greatly improved software/hardware for
optimization makes large scale discrete optimization a practical,
useful approach to solving problems of practical interest.
The special year organizers hope to provide forums to increase
research contacts between groups that do not frequently come in
contact - for example practitioners and academics,
operations research and computer science researchers,
theoretically oriented researchers (in areas such as
interior point IP methods, combinatorial geometry approaches,
approximation methods, and group formulations) and computationally
oriented researchers, including those interested in AI techniques such
as constraint programming.
Opportunities to participate:
- Workshops: a variety of workshop and mini-workshop
topics are under consideration. A pre-special year workshop
on Large Scale Discrete Optimization organized by
R. Ravi and Vijay Vazirani is already planned for May 27-29, 1998.
- Visitor Programs: Applications for research and
graduate student visits to the center are invited. Some funds
are available for travel and local support.
- Postdoctoral Positions: Two postdoctoral positions
will be offered in this area.
- Publications: We anticipate that a variety of
publications, including AMS-DIMACS Volumes, technical reports,
abstracts and notes on the WWW, and DIMACS Modules will result from
the special year.
Workshop Planning:
We are still in the early stages of planning for workshops, but topics
for workshops (4-5 days) and miniworkshops (1-2 days) include:
- August 1998: Large Scale Discrete Optimization Tutorial
- September 1998: Workshop on Constraint Programming
- October/November: Large Scale Discrete Optimization in Production and Scheduling
- October 1998: Algorithms for Large Scale Discrete Structures
- October 1998: Computational Challenge Preworkshop
- December 1998: Large Scale Discrete Optimization and Semidefinite Programming
- January 1999: Large Scale Discrete Optimization in Engineering
- January 1999: Large Scale Discrete Optimization in Transportation
- March 1999: Large Scale Discrete Optimization in Robotics and Vision
- April 1999: Large Scale Discrete Optimization, the State of the Art
In addition, there will be at least one Computational Challenge,
addressing one or more problems in large scale discrete optimization.
Those with suggestions for workshops or who are interested in aiding
the organization of workshops should contact the organizing committee.
Organizers for the special year are:
Endre Boros, (Rutgers University/DIMACS) (local chair)
William Pulleyblank, IBM
Michael Trick, Carnegie Mellon University (general chair)
Bob Vanderbei, Princeton University/DIMACS
Vijay Vazirani, Georgia Institute of Technology
Researchers interested in early discussions about visiting
are encouraged to contact the organizing committee by email
to
dimacs98@mat.gsia.cmu.edu.
Information about workshops, etc. will be made available on DIMACS'
WWW site and in many newsletters and electronic sites.
Acknowledgements:
The Special Year program is made possible by long term funding from the
National Science Foundation, the New Jersey Commission on Science and
Technology and DIMACS' university and industry partners.
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Contacting the Center
Document last modified on February 2, 2000.