Efficient parallel implementations of approximation algorithms for guarding 1.5D terrains

In the 1.5D terrain guarding problem, an x-monotone polygonal line is dened by k vertices and a G set of terrain points, i.e. guards, and a N set of terrain points which guards are to observe (guard). This involves a weighted version of the guarding problem where guards G have weights. The goal is to determine a minimum weight subset of G to cover all the points in N, including a version where points from N have demands. Furthermore, another goal is to determine the smallest subset of G, such that every point in N is observed by the required number of guards. Both problems are NP-hard and have a factor 5 approximation [3, 4]. This paper will show that if the (1+ϵ)-approximate solver for the corresponding linear program is a computer, for any ϵ > 0, an extra 1+ϵ factor will appear in the final approximation factor for both problems. A comparison will be carried out the parallel implementation based on GPU and CPU threads with the Gurobi solver, leading to the conclusion that the respective algorithm outperforms the Gurobi solver on large and dense inputs typically by one order of magnitude

Finding an optimal seating arrangement for employees

The paper deals with modelling a specifc problem called the Optimal Seating Arrangement (OSA) as an Integer Linear Program and demonstrated that the problem can be efficiently solved by combining branch-and-bound and cutting plane methods. OSA refers to a specific scenario that could possibly happen in a corporative environment, i.e. when a company endeavors to minimize travel costs when employees travel to an organized event. Each employee is free to choose the time to travel to and from an event and it depends on personal reasons. The paper differentiates between using different travel possibilities in the OSA problem, such as using company assigned or a company owned vehicles, private vehicles or using public transport, if needed. Also, a user-friendly web application was made and is available to the public for testing purposes

A finite dominating set of cardinality O(k) and a witness set of cardinality O(n) for 1.5D terrain guarding problem

1.5 dimensional (1.5D) terrain is characterized by a piecewise linear curve. Locating minimum number of guards on the terrain (T) to cover/guard the whole terrain is known as 1.5D terrain guarding problem. Approximation algorithms and a polynomial-time approximation scheme have been presented for the problem. The problem has been shown to be NP-Hard. In the problem, the set of possible guard locations and the set of points to be guarded are uncountable. To solve the problem to optimality, a finite dominating set (FDS) of size O (n2) and a witness set of size O (n3) have been presented, where n is the number of vertices on T. We show that there exists an even smaller FDS of cardinality O (k) and a witness set of cardinality O(n), where k is the number of convex points. Convex points are vertices with the additional property that between any two convex points the piecewise linear curve representing the terrain is convex. Since it is always true that k≤ n for n≥ 2 and since it is possible to construct terrains such that n= 2 k, the existence of an FDS with cardinality O(k) and a witness set of cardinality of O (n) leads to the reduction of decision variables and constraints respectively in the zero-one integer programming formulation of the problem. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York