Timo Kötzing will give a talk about "Optimization - From Classic Approaches to Black-Box Heuristics" in the HPI Colloquium this Thursday, November 24.

Where: Hörsaal 1, HPI

When: Thursday, November 24, 2016, 16:00

Title: Optimization - From Classic Approaches to Black-Box Heuristics

Abstract: Optimization problems are everywhere: whether we want to find a fast way to work or whether expensive industrial machinery needs to be tuned to give optimal performance, we have it in our hands to save time and or money.

Typical optimization problems come with many side constraints and contradictory goals, sometimes measuring quality can only be achieved by simulations. Only rarely can one find a straightforward specific algorithm, such as, for example, Dijkstra's Algorithm for finding shortest paths. Sometimes it is possible to remodel a problem as a linear program (LP) or in terms of satisfiability (SAT). For these types of problems strong solvers are known; however, in most cases problems are too hard to be easily tractable. This is when black-box optimization proves beneficial: these general-purpose optimizers can be applied to any given problem without requiring problem-specific information. This latter approach has the significant advantage that development costs are very low, while applicability is very high. Understanding these algorithms is a challenge of ongoing research, providing insights which lead to new and more powerful optimization algorithms.

In this talk we will review this evolution of problem solving and show how modern heuristics can give very efficient algorithms. We discuss examples where optimization algorithms were applied very successfully, both in research domains (such as bio-informatics or human-computer interaction) and industrial domains (such as path finding and design optimization).

Links: HPI Colloquium,Tele-TASK system