[DMANET] Jack Edmonds teaches Polyhedral Combinatorics

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The MINO Initial Training Network of the European Union announces
a school for master students and early stage doctoral students of
mathematics and computer science:

Jack Edmonds
Professor Emeritus of the University of Waterloo, Canada

Polyhedral Combinatorics
Polytime Combinatorics
Matroids and Submodularity
An overview of some classic subjects

University of Cologne, Germany
Monday 16 September - Wednesday 18 September 2013

This course is free of charge and an exceptional opportunity to
experience and get first hand instruction from a great pioneer:

"Pionereed by the work of Jack Edmonds, polyhedral combinatorics
has proved to be a most powerful, coherent and unifying tool
throughout combinatorial optimisation. […] Edmonds conjectured
that there is no polynomial-time algorithm for the traveling
salesman problem. In language that was developed later, this is
equivalent to NP¬=P."
from the book 'Combinatorial Optimization', by Alexander Schrijver

"The classes of problems which are respectively known and not
known to have good algorithms are of great theoretical interest.
[…] I conjecture that there is no good algorithm for the traveling
salesman problem. My reasons are the same as for any mathematical
conjecture: (1) It is a legitimate mathematical possibility, and
(2) I do not know." – Jack Edmonds, 1966
from the book 'Computational Complexity', by Christos Papadimitriou

"The view reflected in this book has been founded in large part
by the work and vision of Edmonds. […] Basic notions like good
characterisation, polynomial algorithms, the polyhedral approach
without total unimodularity, polymatroids, and sub modular flows
come from his work and form the framework for this entire book."
from the book 'Connections in Combinatorial Optimization' by
Andras Frank

"Jack Edmonds has been one of the creators of the field
of combinatorial optimization and polyhedral combinatorics.
His 1965 paper 'Paths, Trees and Flowers' was one of the
first papers to suggest the possibility of establishing
a mathematical theory of efficient combinatorial algorithms."
from the citation of the John Von Neumann Theory Prize, 1985

For further information and registration, please go to:
http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/ls_juenger/jack-edmonds-lectures

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