PhD Course in Theory of Randomized Search Heuristics (ThRaSH)

Location and Date: Copenhagen, Denmark, July 8-9, 2011

Randomized search heuristics such as stochastic gradient methods, simulated annealing,  evolutionary algorithms, stochastic neural networks for optimization, ant colony and swarm optimization, and the cross-entropy method are frequently used across many scientific communities. They have been successfully applied in various domains, both for combinatorial and numerical optimization. Despite their success in practice, proving that such algorithms satisfy certain performance guarantees is still a difficult and widely open problem.

The ThRaSH PhD course offers tutorials, lectures and short scientific talks dealing with theoretical analysis of randomized search heuristics, in particular of their computational complexity. The aim is to stimulate interactions within the research field and between people from different disciplines working on randomized algorithms.

Please visit http://www.thrash-workshop.org for more details on the workshop.

Tutorials

• Theory of randomised search heuristics for continuous optimisation
  Jens Jaegerskuepper, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
• Theory of randomised search heuristics for discrete optimisation
  Dirk Sudholt, University of Birmingham
  

Keynote

• The Power of Tabulation Hashing
  Mikkel Thorup , AT&T 

Course Credit

2 ECTS
To obtain course credit, students must attend the ThRaSH workshop as well as hand in a short report on (potential) applications of randomized search heuristics in their field of research.

Registration

Registration is now closed.

Registration is free. Registration covers refreshments during the workshop. For registration details, please visit http://www.thrash-workshop.org. Deadline for registration is June 24th 2011.