CGC Fall School on Algorithms for Hard Problems

[Emo Welzl]

                     Second Announcement

         Fall School on Algorithms for Hard Problems

                   September 23-27, 2002
                 Schwarzenberg, Switzerland

                  http://www.cgc.ethz.ch/

In connection with the European Graduate Program "Combinatorics,
Geometry, and Computation" (CGC) a Fall School on Algorithms for
Hard Problems will be held in September 2002.

The themes of the school are algorithmic techniques for dealing
with hard optimization problems arising in practice. The focus is
on algorithms with provable performance guarantees. In particular,
the school will cover recent advances in the design and analysis
of approximation algorithms, on-line algorithms, and fixed-parameter
tractable algorithms in application domains such as machine scheduling,
facility location and computational biology.

The following lectures will be taught at the school (in this order):

- David Shmoys (Cornell University):
    Approximation algorithms for clustering problems: a case study
    in algorithm design techniques

- Gerhard Woeginger (University of Twente):
    Approximation algorithms for scheduling problems

- Susanne Albers (Universitaet Freiburg):
    On-line algorithms

- Angelika Steger (Technische Universitaet Muenchen):
    Stochastic Scheduling

- Rolf Niedermeier (Universitaet Tuebingen) and
  Peter Rossmanith (Technische Universitaet Muenchen):
    Fixed-Parameter Algorithms

The abstracts of the lectures and a preliminary schedule can be found
here: http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~the/school/abstracts.html

The intended audience of the school are final-year master students as
well as doctoral students in fields related to the themes of the school.
Participants should have a basic knowledge of algorithms and should be
interested in learning about the state of the art in this area. The
school will also be a good opportunity to get to know other people
working in the field and to establish contacts that may lead to
research collaborations in the future.

ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION

The school is organized within the European graduate program
"Combinatorics, Geometry, and Computation" (http://www.cgc.ethz.ch/),
which brings together ETH Zurich and the three universities of Berlin.
It will take place in Bildungszentrum Matt in Schwarzenberg (Switzerland),
a village in the vicinity of the Pilatus mountain range that is reachable
in 30 minutes from Lucerne and in 90 minutes from Zurich (by train and bus).
See also: http://www.seminarguide.ch/hotel.asp?hotel=168&region=13

SCHOOL SCHEDULE

Participants are expected to arrive in Schwarzenberg on Sunday,
September 22, 2002 before dinner. Lectures will then be given from
Monday to Friday. Each lecturer will teach one or several lectures,
covering half a day or a full day of the school's program.  Lectures
will be accompanied by exercises that can be solved by the students
during times especially reserved for this purpose. There will be
an excursion on Wednesday afternoon. The school ends Friday afternoon
at 5.00 pm. Check http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~the/school/abstracts.html
for a more detailed preliminary program.

PARTICIPATION

Participation is open to all qualified applicants, but the number of
participants will be limited to a maximum of about 30. There will be no
participation fee, but an amount of 500 SFr. (Swiss Francs) has to
be paid to cover the costs for accomodation (shared double-room) and
meals (from Sunday evening to Friday).

Students who want to participate in the school should send an application
letter with a curriculum vitae (stating also their previous knowledge in
fields related to the themes of the school) and a brief letter of reference by
a university professor to the following address (e-mail is fine):

    Prof. Thomas Erlebach
    Institut TIK, ETH Zurich
    Gloriastrasse 35
    CH-8092 Zurich
    Switzerland
    Email: erlebach at tik.ee.ethz.ch
    Fax: +41-1-632-1036
    Phone: +41-1-632-7050

Since the number of participants is limited, we recommend to apply AS
SOON AS POSSIBLE! Applications received before June 5, 2002 will definitely
be considered. Applications received after June 5 (and until July 21, 2002)
will be considered only if places are still available.

CONTACT

For further information, please contact one of the organizers:

- Thomas Erlebach, ETH Zurich, CH-8092 Zurich, erlebach at tik.ee.ethz.ch
- Peter Widmayer, ETH Zurich, CH-8092 Zurich, widmayer at inf.ethz.ch

The website for the school is: http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~the/school/

-------------
The compgeom mailing lists: see
http://netlib.bell-labs.com/netlib/compgeom/readme.html
or send mail to compgeom-request at research.bell-labs.com with the line:
send readme
Now archived at http://www.uiuc.edu/~sariel/CG/compgeom/maillist.html.