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algorithms

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Computer Science

Smart Swarms Seek New Ways to Cooperate

By Kevin Hartnett
February 14, 2018
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New algorithms show how swarms of very simple robots can be made to work together as a group.

520px illustration for Quantum Supremacy
The Future of Quantum Computing

Quantum Algorithms Struggle Against Old Foe: Clever Computers

By Ariel Bleicher
February 1, 2018
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The quest for “quantum supremacy” – unambiguous proof that a quantum computer does something faster than an ordinary computer – has paradoxically led to a boom in quasi-quantum classical algorithms.

A blue person made of code walks down a pink road patterned with hexagons
algorithms

Best-Ever Algorithm Found for Huge Streams of Data

By Kevin Hartnett
October 24, 2017
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To efficiently analyze a firehose of data, scientists first have to break big numbers into bits.

Abstractions blog

One-Way Salesman Finds Fast Path Home

By Mark Kim-Mulgrew
October 5, 2017
Read Later

The real-world version of the famous “traveling salesman problem” finally gets a good-enough solution.

Illustration: boxing gloves
Abstractions blog

Graph Isomorphism Vanquished — Again

By Erica Klarreich
January 14, 2017
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Just five days after posting a retraction, László Babai announced that he had fixed the error in his landmark graph isomorphism algorithm.

Illustration: boxing glove & graph
Abstractions blog

Complexity Theory Problem Strikes Back

By Erica Klarreich
January 5, 2017
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The legendary graph isomorphism problem may be harder than a 2015 result seemed to suggest.

Q&A

How to Force Our Machines to Play Fair

By Kevin Hartnett
November 23, 2016
Read Later

The computer scientist Cynthia Dwork takes abstract concepts like privacy and fairness and adapts them into machine code for the algorithmic age.

Abstractions blog

All Is Not Fair in Cake-Cutting and Math

By Erica Klarreich
October 7, 2016
Read Later

When divvying something up, there’s more than one way to define what’s fair.

algorithms

How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too

By Erica Klarreich
October 6, 2016
Read Later

Computer scientists have come up with a bounded algorithm that can fairly divide a cake among any number of people.


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