The practical and theoretical relevance of problems to the NP-complete degree vf complexity are widely known. From the practical point of view it is sufficient to remember that in this class we find most of the combinatorial and optimization problems which b,,.·e the widest range of applications, for example scheduling problems, optimization problems on graphs, integer programming etc. As far as the theoretical relevance is concerned ;;.•e should remember that one of the most outstanding problems in Computer Science, the problem of deciding whether any NP-complete set can be recognized in polynomial time, coincides with the problem of knowing whether the computation power of a nondeterministic Turing machine which accepts a set in polynomial time is strictly stronger than the power of ordinary polynomially bounded Turing machines or not. Until recen#y the design of algorithms for finding exact approximate solutions to practical instances of hard combinatorial and optimization problems was the main concern of experts in Operations Research while the study of the complexity of these problems with respect to various computation models and the analysis of general solution techniques was the main interest of computer scientists.

This book explains the basic ideas behind several variants of ant colony optimization (ACO) and shows how they may be used in real-world settings like manufacturing, engineering design, and health care. Marco Dorigo proposed ACO for the first time, and it has been used to solve a variety of optimization problems. This book presents the latest developments of ACO.

Combinatorial (or discrete) optimization is one of the most active fields in the interface of operations research, computer science, and applied math­ ematics. Combinatorial optimization problems arise in various applications, including communications network design, VLSI design, machine vision, air­ line crew scheduling, corporate planning, computer-aided design and man­ ufacturing, database query design, cellular telephone frequency assignment, constraint directed reasoning, and computational biology. Furthermore, combinatorial optimization problems occur in many diverse areas such as linear and integer programming, graph theory, artificial intelligence, and number theory.

The book addresses optimization in the petroleum industry from a practical, large-scale-application-oriented point of view. The models and techniques presented help to optimize the limited resources in the industry in order to maximize economic benefits, ensure operational safety, and reduce environmental impact. The book discusses several important real-life applications of optimization in the petroleum industry, ranging from the scheduling of personnel time to the blending of gasoline. It covers a wide spectrum of relevant activities, including drilling, producing, maintenance, and distribution. The text begins with an introductory overview of the petroleum industry and then of optimization models and techniques. The main body of the book details a variety of applications of optimization models and techniques within the petroleum industry.

The major purpose of this book is to introduce the main concepts of discrete optimization problems which have a finite number of feasible solutions. Following common practice, we term this topic combinatorial optimization. There are now a number of excellent graduate-level textbooks on combina­ torial optimization. However, there does not seem to exist an undergraduate text in this area. This book is designed to fill this need. The book is intended for undergraduates in mathematics, engineering, business, or the physical or social sciences. It may also be useful as a reference text for practising engineers and scientists.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization, IPCO 2022, held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in June 2022. The 33 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 93 submissions addressing key techniques of document analysis. IPCO is under the auspices of the Mathematical Optimization Society, and it is an important forum for presenting the latest results of theory and practice of the various aspects of discrete optimization.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization, IPCO 2022, held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in June 2022. The 33 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 93 submissions addressing key techniques of document analysis. IPCO is under the auspices of the Mathematical Optimization Society, and it is an important forum for presenting the latest results of theory and practice of the various aspects of discrete optimization.

The conference proceeding LNCS 11346 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Combinatorial Optimization and Applications, COCOA 2018, held in Atlanta, GA, USA, in December 2018.

Are you looking for new lectures for your course on algorithms, combinatorial optimization, or algorithmic game theory? Maybe you need a convenient source of relevant, current topics for a graduate student or advanced undergraduate student seminar? Or perhaps you just want an enjoyable look at some beautiful mathematical and algorithmic results, ideas, proofs, concepts, and techniques in discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science?

Graph Algorithms, Genetic Algorithms, Simulated Annealing, Swarm Intelligence, Heuristics and Meta-Heuristics

This unique textbook treats graph colouring as an algorithmic problem, with a strong emphasis on practical applications.

​​​​​​​​​​​Data Correcting Approaches in Combinatorial Optimization focuses on algorithmic applications of the well known polynomially solvable special cases of computationally intractable problems. The purpose of this text is to design practically efficient algorithms for solving wide classes of combinatorial optimization problems.

This book highlights new and original contributions on Graph Theory and Combinatorial Optimization both from the theoretical point of view and from applications in all fields. The book chapters describe models and methods based on graphs, structural properties, discrete optimization, network optimization, mixed-integer programming, heuristics, meta-heuristics, math-heuristics, and exact methods as well as applications.