ProComb - Combinatorial Problems:
Theory, Algorithms and Applications

Goals of Project ProComb

The aim of this project is to foster high level research in combinatorics, a subject of known importance in the area of theoretical computer science.

Problems involving combinatorial aspects usually occur in many areas of mathematics and they are of fundamental importance in theoretical computer science, which, in turn, gives the basis computer science stands upon.

It is the purpose of this project to contribute towards the state-of-the-art of theoretical computer science through vigorous investigations of a specific collection of combinatorial problems. The main lines of research in this project can be characterized by the following problems:

Problem 1:

Investigate structural problems in combinatorics and graph algorithms;

Problem 2:

Study polyhedral methods and multi-algorithms for NP-hard problems;

Problem 3:

Investigate the applications of probabilistic methods in combinatorics and in theoretical computer science.

As the above problems illustrate, there are both theoretical and practical aspects in the research we pursue.

One important feature of this project is its multi-institutional nature. We expect this project to intensify collaboration between the participating institutions and to strengthen academic ties between these institutions and centers of excellence abroad.

Concretely, we have as a goal the publication of a significative number of articles in international periodicals, and we also expect our efforts to result in stronger MSc and PhD programmes in the country.

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