Heuristic Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Combinatorial Optimization is a huge domain of study, focused on optimization problems with a finite set of solutions.
It has important practical applications to manifold fields, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, routing, scheduling, location, network analysis and design.
As many Combinatorial Optimization problems are NP-hard, heuristics are a natural solution approach.
The course deals with the so-called solution-based heuristics, that are the classical heuristics based on the manipulation of solutions. Specifically, it analyzes the basic concepts and properties of construction, exchange and recombination heuristics, and of their extensions (known as metaheuristics) which use randomized steps and memory mechanisms.