Related papers: Don't Be Strict in Local Search!
This paper studies a strategy for data-driven algorithm design for large-scale combinatorial optimization problems that can leverage existing state-of-the-art solvers in general purpose ways. The goal is to arrive at new approaches that can…
A large number of problems in optimization, machine learning, signal processing can be effectively addressed by suitable semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations. Unfortunately, generic SDP solvers hardly scale beyond instances with a few…
Domain experts often need to extract structured information from large corpora. We advocate for a search paradigm called ``extractive search'', in which a search query is enriched with capture-slots, to allow for such rapid extraction. Such…
Tree search algorithms, such as branch-and-bound, are the most widely used tools for solving combinatorial and nonconvex problems. For example, they are the foremost method for solving (mixed) integer programs and constraint satisfaction…
We propose to use local search algorithms to produce SAT instances which are harder to solve than randomly generated k-CNF formulae. The first results, obtained with rudimentary search algorithms, show that the approach deserves further…
We show that a simple local search gives a PTAS for the Feedback Vertex Set (FVS) problem in minor-free graphs. An efficient PTAS in minor-free graphs was known for this problem by Fomin, Lokshtanov, Raman and Sauraubh. However, their…
Evaluating conjunctive queries and solving constraint satisfaction problems are fundamental problems in database theory and artificial intelligence, respectively. These problems are NP-hard, so that several research efforts have been made…
We revisit the \textsc{$k$-Secluded Tree} problem. Given a vertex-weighted undirected graph $G$, its objective is to find a maximum-weight induced subtree $T$ whose open neighborhood has size at most $k$. We present a fixed-parameter…
Many traditional algorithms for solving combinatorial optimization problems involve using hand-crafted heuristics that sequentially construct a solution. Such heuristics are designed by domain experts and may often be suboptimal due to the…
High-dimensional black-box optimisation remains an important yet notoriously challenging problem. Despite the success of Bayesian optimisation methods on continuous domains, domains that are categorical, or that mix continuous and…
In this work, we study the task of scheduling jobs on a single machine with sequence dependent family setup times under the goal of minimizing the makespan, that is, the completion time of the last job in the schedule. This notoriously…
Local search methods can quickly find good quality solutions in cases where systematic search methods might take a large amount of time. Moreover, in the context of pattern set mining, exhaustive search methods are not applicable due to the…
ExtractingMUCs(MinimalUnsatisfiableCores)fromanunsatisfiable constraint network is a useful process when causes of unsatisfiability must be understood so that the network can be re-engineered and relaxed to become sat- isfiable. Despite bad…
We introduce a variant of the $k$-nearest neighbor classifier in which $k$ is chosen adaptively for each query, rather than supplied as a parameter. The choice of $k$ depends on properties of each neighborhood, and therefore may…
This chapter overviews a recently introduced network-based model of combinatorial landscapes: Local Optima Networks (LON). The model compresses the information given by the whole search space into a smaller mathematical object that is a…
We propose greedy and local search algorithms for rank-constrained convex optimization, namely solving $\underset{\mathrm{rank}(A)\leq r^*}{\min}\, R(A)$ given a convex function $R:\mathbb{R}^{m\times n}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ and a…
Locality-sensitive hashing~[Indyk,Motwani'98] is a classical data structure for approximate nearest neighbor search. It allows, after a close to linear time preprocessing of the input dataset, to find an approximately nearest neighbor of…
Hard combinatorial optimization problems deal with the search for the minimum cost solutions (ground states) of discrete systems under strong constraints. A transformation of state variables may enhance computational tractability. It has…
This paper considers simulation-based optimization of the performance of a regime-switching stochastic system over a finite set of feasible configurations. Inspired by the stochastic fictitious play learning rules in game theory, we propose…
A local search algorithm solving an NP-complete optimisation problem can be viewed as a stochastic process moving in an 'energy landscape' towards eventually finding an optimal solution. For the random 3-satisfiability problem, the…