On August 2, 2017, I gave my research talk Automating Scientific Research in Optimization at the Algorithmics Group of Prof. Dr. Ernst Althaus at Institute of Computer Science of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU, Johannes Gutenberg Universität) in Mainz, Germany.
The Algorithmics group is mainly known for their contributions to algorithm engineering for combinatorial optimization problems. They focus on the development and implementation of algorithms for interdisciplinary problems, which require both the theoretical development of algorithms as well as their practical implementation. Their application areas are real-time scheduling (as needed in many embedded systems), the verification of discrete-continuous hybrid systems (again needed in embedded systems design), and dense sub-graphs of Steiner tree problems that arise in chip design, bioinformatics, social network analysis, and other areas of research and which they tackle with mixed integer linear programming with cutting planes and dynamic programming. Additionally, they publish several works on genetics-related topics such as sequence alignment problems.
Meeting this group and presenting at the JGU was a very nice experience and I am thankful that the talk was visited well, even though it was in the holiday season.
