Computational Modeling and Problem Solving in the Networked World

Computer science and operations research continue to have a synergistic relationship and this book represents the results of the cross-fertilization between OR/MS and CS/AI. It is this interface of OR/CS that makes possible advances that could not have been achieved in isolation. The first section of the text focuses on the reflective and integrative thinking that is critical to contemporary science - "Perspectives on Computation". This section presents philosophical perspectives on computation, covering a variety of traditional and newer modelling, solving and explaining mathematical models. The "Machine Learning & Heuristics" section includes articles that study machine learning and computational heuristics, and is followed by the "Algorithm Performance" section that addresses issues in performance testing of solution algorithms and heuristics. These two sections demonstrate the richness of thinking about solution methods that is made possible by the confluence of computer science and operations research. The final "Applications" section demonstrates how these and other methods at the interface can be used to help solve problems in the real world, covering e-commerce, workflow, electronic negotiation, music, parallel computation and telecommunications.