The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. One July afternoon in 2024, Ryan Williams set out to prove himself wrong. Two months had passed since he’d hit upon a startling ...

The 3D bin packing problem is a challenging combinatorial optimization problem with numerous real-world applications. In this paper, we present a novel approach for solving this problem by integrating ...

The vehicle scheduling problem (VSP) is one of the most important scheduling problems in public transportation systems 1, such as flight departure and arrival 2, airport ground service support 3, and ...

When it comes to teaching math, a debate has persisted for decades: How, and to what degree, should algorithms be a focus of learning math? The step-by-step procedures are among the most debated ...

Conventional quantum algorithms are not feasible for solving combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) with constraints in the operation time of quantum computers. To address this issue, researchers ...

Using an advanced Monte Carlo method, Caltech researchers found a way to tame the infinite complexity of Feynman diagrams and solve the long-standing polaron problem, unlocking deeper understanding of ...

Overview: Algorithm selection is an engineering decision: the wrong choice can freeze a system at scale, regardless of ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For computer scientists, solving problems is a bit like mountaineering. First they must choose a problem to solve—akin to identifying a ...

Children as young as 4 years old are capable of finding efficient solutions to complex problems, such as independently inventing sorting algorithms developed by computer scientists. The scientists ...