相关论文: Pandora Box Problem with Nonobligatory Inspection:…
A decisionmaker faces $n$ alternatives, each of which represents a potential reward. After investing costly resources into investigating the alternatives, the decisionmaker may select one, or more generally a feasible subset, and obtain the…
Selection problems with costly information, dating back to Weitzman's Pandora's Box problem, have received much attention recently. We study the general model of Costly Information Combinatorial Selection (CICS) that was recently introduced…
A searcher is tasked with exploring a graph with edge lengths and vertex weights, starting from a designated vertex. Initially, only the starting vertex is considered explored. At each step, the searcher adds an edge to the solution,…
We study a natural application of contract design in the context of sequential exploration problems. In our principal-agent setting, a search task is delegated to an agent. The agent performs a sequential exploration of $n$ boxes, suffers…
The Bin Packing Problem is one of the most important optimization problems. In recent years, due to its NP-hard nature, several approximation algorithms have been presented. It is proved that the best algorithm for the Bin Packing Problem…
We study the Pandora's Box problem in an online learning setting with semi-bandit feedback. In each round, the learner sequentially pays to open up to $n$ boxes with unknown reward distributions, observes rewards upon opening, and decides…
In the restricted assignment problem, the input consists of a set of machines and a set of jobs each with a processing time and a subset of eligible machines. The goal is to find an assignment of the jobs to the machines minimizing the…
In this paper, we address open computational questions regarding the market share ranking problem, recently introduced by Derakhshan et al. (2022). Their modelling framework incorporates the extremely popular Multinomial Logit (MNL) choice…
We consider a parallel version of a classical Bayesian search problem. $k$ agents are looking for a treasure that is placed in one of the boxes indexed by $\mathbb{N}^+$ according to a known distribution $p$. The aim is to minimize the…
We present approximation algorithms for maximum independent set of pseudo-disks in the plane, both in the weighted and unweighted cases. For the unweighted case, we prove that a local search algorithm yields a \PTAS. For the weighted case,…
We develop an algorithmic framework to incorporate "ex-ante" constraints on outcomes (that hold only on average) into stateful sequential search with costly inspection. Our framework encompasses the classical Weitzman's Pandora's box…
We study a fundamental stochastic selection problem involving $n$ independent random variables, each of which can be queried at some cost. Given a tolerance level $\delta$, the goal is to find a value that is $\delta$-approximately minimum…
One of the classic results in scheduling theory is the 2-approximation algorithm by Lenstra, Shmoys, and Tardos for the problem of scheduling jobs to minimize makespan on unrelated machines, i.e., job j requires time p_{ij} if processed on…
The restricted max-min fair allocation problem (also known as the restricted Santa Claus problem) is one of few problems that enjoys the intriguing status of having a better estimation algorithm than approximation algorithm. Indeed,…
In this paper we consider the open shop scheduling problem where the jobs have delivery times. The minimization criterion is the maximum lateness of the jobs. This problem is known to be NP-hard, even restricted to only 2 machines. We…
Several recent works have proposed instance-dependent upper bounds on the number of episodes needed to identify, with probability $1-\delta$, an $\varepsilon$-optimal policy in finite-horizon tabular Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). These…
We consider a discrete version of the Witsenhausen problem where all random variables are bounded and take on integer values. Our main goal is to understand the complexity of computing good strategies given the distributions for the initial…
We study black-box reductions from mechanism design to algorithm design for welfare maximization in settings of incomplete information. Given oracle access to an algorithm for an underlying optimization problem, the goal is to simulate an…
We study several questions related to diversifying search results. We give improved approximation algorithms in each of the following problems, together with some lower bounds. - We give a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for a…
We consider a class of optimization problems over stochastic variables where the algorithm can learn information about the value of any variable through a series of costly steps; we model this information acquisition process as a Markov…