mcgeoch@CHAUCER.RUTGERS.EDU (Cathy McGeoch) (11/10/90)
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
THE FIRST DIMACS INTERNATIONAL ALGORITHM IMPLMENETATION CHALLENGE:
NETWORK FLOWS AND MATCHING
The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science
(DIMACS) invites participation in an international Implementation
Challenge to find and evaluate efficient and robust algorithms for
the Minimum-cost Flow, Maximum Flow, Assignment, and (Nonbipartite)
Matching problems. Participants are invited to carry out research
projects between November 1990 and August 1991; projects may involve
implementing and evaluating algorithms, building interesting input
generators, or developing implementations for newer architectures.
Either public domain or proprietary codes may be used. Participants
will present their results at a DIMACS workshop to be held in Fall of
1991. Best paper awards will be presented in several categories, and
workshop proceedings will be published. With author's permission, the
most successful implementations will be collected for distribution on
floppy disk.
DIMACS SUPPORT
DIMACS will provide benchmark instances for each problem, support tools
guidelines for experimental research, and a clearing-house for exchange
of programs and instance generators. DIMACS can provide neither financial
support nor machine cycles for the experiments.
ADVISORY BOARD
A committee of DIMACS members provides general direction for the
Implementation Challenge. Committee members are:
Mike Grigoriadis, Rutgers University
David Johnson, AT&T Bell Laboratories
Cathy McGeoch, DIMACS Visiting Fellow/Amherst College (Chairperson)
Clyde Monma, Bell Communications Research
Bob Tarjan, Princeton University
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
For more information about participating in the Implementation Challenge,
send a request for the documents ``General Information'' and
``Problem Definitions and Specifications'' to netflow@dimacs.rutgers.edu.
Request either LaTeX format (sent through email) or hard copy (sent
through U. S. Mail, and include your return address as appropriate.
One goal of the Challenge is to evaluate the suitability of the Internet
for cooperative projects of this kind. All correspondence regarding
the Implementation Challenge will take place via Internet.