Related papers: A heuristic for the non-unicost set covering probl…
Probabilistic verification problems of neural networks are concerned with formally analysing the output distribution of a neural network under a probability distribution of the inputs. Examples of probabilistic verification problems include…
The Random Gradient hyper-heuristic was recently shown to be able to learn the optimal neighbourhood size when optimizing the LeadingOnes benchmark via the Randomised Local Search (RLS) meta-heuristic. However, for this to happen, a…
Minimizing the rank of a matrix subject to constraints is a challenging problem that arises in many applications in control theory, machine learning, and discrete geometry. This class of optimization problems, known as rank minimization, is…
Informative path planning algorithms are of paramount importance in applications like disaster management to efficiently gather information through a priori unknown environments. This is, however, a complex problem that involves finding a…
This paper introduces a new step to the Direct Search Method (DSM) to strengthen its convergence analysis. By design, this so-called covering step may ensure that for all refined points of the sequence of incumbent solutions generated by…
The problem of packing equal spheres in a spherical container is a classic global optimization problem, which has attracted enormous studies in academia and found various applications in industry. This problem is computationally…
In this paper we consider the classical maximum set packing problem where set cardinality is upper bounded by $k$. We show how to design a variant of a polynomial-time local search algorithm with performance guarantee $(k+2)/3$. This local…
Hub Covering Problems arise in various practical domains, such as urban planning, cargo delivery systems, airline networks, telecommunication network design, and e-mobility. The task is to select a set of hubs that enable tours between…
A variant of the well-known Set Covering Problem is studied in this paper, where subsets of a collection have to be selected, and pairwise conflicts among subsets of items exist. The selection of each subset has a cost, and the inclusion of…
Column-sparse packing problems arise in several contexts in both deterministic and stochastic discrete optimization. We present two unifying ideas, (non-uniform) attenuation and multiple-chance algorithms, to obtain improved approximation…
The Minimum Vertex Cover (MinVC) problem is a well-known NP-hard problem. Recently there has been great interest in solving this problem on real-world massive graphs. For such graphs, local search is a promising approach to finding optimal…
The task of artificial intelligence is to provide representation techniques for describing problems, as well as search algorithms that can be used to answer our questions. A widespread and elaborated model is state-space representation,…
Computing high-quality graph partitions is a challenging problem with numerous applications. In this paper, we present a novel meta-heuristic for the balanced graph partitioning problem. Our approach is based on integer linear programs that…
Hierarchical clustering is a critical task in numerous domains. Many approaches are based on heuristics and the properties of the resulting clusterings are studied post hoc. However, in several applications, there is a natural cost function…
Cooperative geolocation has attracted significant research interests in recent years. A large number of localization algorithms rely on the availability of statistical knowledge of measurement errors, which is often difficult to obtain in…
We study the optimization version of the set partition problem (where the difference between the partition sums are minimized), which has numerous applications in decision theory literature. While the set partitioning problem is NP-hard and…
Simple heuristics often show a remarkable performance in practice for optimization problems. Worst-case analysis often falls short of explaining this performance. Because of this, "beyond worst-case analysis" of algorithms has recently…
In the present paper, we propose an efficient local search for the minimum independent dominating set problem. We consider a local search that uses $k$-swap as the neighborhood operation. Given a feasible solution $S$, it is the operation…
As we approach the physical limits predicted by Moore's law, a variety of specialized hardware is emerging to tackle specialized tasks in different domains. Within combinatorial optimization, adiabatic quantum computers, CMOS annealers, and…
In this paper we deal with the restricted Block Relocation Problem. We present a new lower bound and a heuristic approach for the problem. The proposed lower bound can be computed in polynomial time and it is provably better than some…