Modern navigation systems find the shortest connections in dense road networks at lightning speed. However, finding shorter routes is also at the heart of many problems in business mathematics, e.g. establishing connections in telecommunications, route planning in freight forwarding, wiring circuits or optimizing sequences in production planning. These problems are (in contrast to many problems in the natural sciences) 'discrete' and finite. However, the advantage of this finiteness is deceptive, as one is typically confronted with an exponentially increasing number of possible solutions. In this training course, two methods will be presented as examples of how to find solutions in complex networks through 'intelligent' searching.

1st lecture: Short and sweet - exact determination of shortest paths with methods of combinatorial optimization

2nd lecture: The travelling salesman learns from nature - shortest round trips with the help of stochastic optimization methods.

Program

09.30 - 09.45	Welcome Prof. Dr. W. Klotz
09.45 - 10.45	1st lecture Prof. Dr. W. Klotz
10.45 - 11.15	Coffee break
11.15 - 12.15	2nd lecture Prof. Dr. M. Kolonko
12.15 - 13.30	Lunch break
13.30 - 14.30	Exercise (Part I)
14.30 - 15.00	Coffee break
15.00 - 16.00	Exercise (Part II)
16.00 - 16.30	Discussion and closing remarks