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The design of good heuristics or approximation algorithms for NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems often requires significant specialized knowledge and trial-and-error. Can we automate this challenging, tedious process, and learn the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-02-23 Hanjun Dai , Elias B. Khalil , Yuyu Zhang , Bistra Dilkina , Le Song

Combinatorial Optimisation problems arise in several application domains and are often formulated in terms of graphs. Many of these problems are NP-hard, but exact solutions are not always needed. Several heuristics have been developed to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-23 David Ireland , Giovanni Montana

Neural combinatorial optimization (NCO) has gained significant attention due to the potential of deep learning to efficiently solve combinatorial optimization problems. NCO has been widely applied to job shop scheduling problems (JSPs) with…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-12-19 Igor G. Smit , Yaoxin Wu , Pavel Troubil , Yingqian Zhang , Wim P. M. Nuijten

We introduce a combinatorial optimization-enriched machine learning pipeline and a novel learning paradigm to solve inventory routing problems with stochastic demand and dynamic inventory updates. After each inventory update, our approach…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-02-08 Toni Greif , Louis Bouvier , Christoph M. Flath , Axel Parmentier , Sonja U. K. Rohmer , Thibaut Vidal

Combinatorial optimization problems like the Traveling Salesman Problem are critical in industry yet NP-hard. Neural Combinatorial Optimization has shown promise, but its reliance on online reinforcement learning (RL) hampers deployment and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-27 Hironori Ohigashi , Shinichiro Hamada

Multiobjective combinatorial optimization (MOCO) problems can be found in many real-world applications. However, exactly solving these problems would be very challenging, particularly when they are NP-hard. Many handcrafted heuristic…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-10 Xi Lin , Zhiyuan Yang , Qingfu Zhang

A general framework of unsupervised learning for combinatorial optimization (CO) is to train a neural network (NN) whose output gives a problem solution by directly optimizing the CO objective. Albeit with some advantages over traditional…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-24 Haoyu Wang , Pan Li

The traveling salesman problem is a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem with strong exact algorithms. However, as problems scale up, these exact algorithms fail to provide a solution in a reasonable time. To resolve this, current…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-09 Yong Liang Goh , Wee Sun Lee , Xavier Bresson , Thomas Laurent , Nicholas Lim

We study combinatorial problems with real world applications such as machine scheduling, routing, and assignment. We propose a method that combines Reinforcement Learning (RL) and planning. This method can equally be applied to both the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-05-19 Joel Oren , Chana Ross , Maksym Lefarov , Felix Richter , Ayal Taitler , Zohar Feldman , Christian Daniel , Dotan Di Castro

We introduce DyCO-GNN, a novel unsupervised learning framework for Dynamic Combinatorial Optimization that requires no training data beyond the problem instance itself. DyCO-GNN leverages structural similarities across time-evolving graph…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-30 Yiqiao Liao , Farinaz Koushanfar , Parinaz Naghizadeh

Neural combinatorial optimization (NCO) aims at designing problem-independent and efficient neural network-based strategies for solving combinatorial problems. The field recently experienced growth by successfully adapting architectures…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-13 Michal Lisicki , Arash Afkanpour , Graham W. Taylor

Combinatorial optimization has found applications in numerous fields, from aerospace to transportation planning and economics. The goal is to find an optimal solution among a finite set of possibilities. The well-known challenge one faces…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-06-03 Quentin Cappart , Thierry Moisan , Louis-Martin Rousseau , Isabeau Prémont-Schwarz , Andre Cire

Many real-world optimisation problems such as hyperparameter tuning in machine learning or simulation-based optimisation can be formulated as expensive-to-evaluate black-box functions. A popular approach to tackle such problems is Bayesian…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-05-28 Juan Ungredda , Juergen Branke

Combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) on the graph with real-life applications are canonical challenges in Computer Science. The difficulty of finding quality labels for problem instances holds back leveraging supervised learning…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-08-10 Mostafa Pashazadeh , Kui Wu

While Annealing Machines (AM) have shown increasing capabilities in solving complex combinatorial problems, positioning themselves as a more immediate alternative to the expected advances of future fully quantum solutions, there are still…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-01-13 Pablo Loyola , Kento Hasegawa , Andres Hoyos-Idobro , Kazuo Ono , Toyotaro Suzumura , Yu Hirate , Masanao Yamaoka

Finding a feasible and prompt solution to the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a prerequisite for efficient freight transportation, seamless logistics, and sustainable mobility. Traditional optimization methods reach their limits when…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-11-08 Elija Deineko , Carina Kehrt

Combinatorial optimization is a well-established area in operations research and computer science. Until recently, its methods have focused on solving problem instances in isolation, ignoring that they often stem from related data…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-09-06 Quentin Cappart , Didier Chételat , Elias Khalil , Andrea Lodi , Christopher Morris , Petar Veličković

Combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) are an important research topic in various fields. In recent times, there have been many attempts to solve COPs using deep learning-based approaches. We propose a novel neural network model that…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2023-04-17 Jaeseung Lee , Woojin Choi , Jibum Kim

Combinatorial optimization problems are typically formulated using Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO), where constraints are enforced through penalty terms that introduce auxiliary variables and rapidly increase Hamiltonian…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-02-10 Shashank Sanjay Bhat , Peiyong Wang , Joseph West , Udaya Parampalli

Combinatorial optimization (CO) problems are often NP-hard and thus out of reach for exact algorithms, making them a tempting domain to apply machine learning methods. The highly structured constraints in these problems can hinder either…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-11-21 Dinghuai Zhang , Hanjun Dai , Nikolay Malkin , Aaron Courville , Yoshua Bengio , Ling Pan