It remains an open question when a commercial quantum computer will emerge that can outperform classical (non-quantum) machines in speed and energy efficiency while solving real-world combinatorial ...

A line of engineering research seeks to develop computers that can tackle a class of challenges called combinatorial optimization problems. These are common in real-world applications such as ...

This course studies approximation algorithms – algorithms that are used for solving hard optimization problems. Such algorithms find approximate (slightly suboptimal) solutions to optimization ...

P vs. NP asks: are these two classes actually the same? If P = NP, then every “hard” problem is secretly fast to solve; we ...

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 ...