NIPS workshop schedule

[Arun Jagota]

NIPS*93 Workshop:	Neural Network Methods for Optimization Problems
================	December 4, Vail, CO, USA

Intended Audience:      Researchers interested in Connectionist solution
=================       of optimization problems.

Organizer:		Arun Jagota              
=========               jagota at cs.buffalo.edu   


Program:
=======

Ever since the work of Hopfield and Tank, neural networks have found 
increasing use for the approximate solution of hard optimization problems. 
The successes in the past have however been limited, when compared to 
traditional methods. In this workshop, speakers will present state of the art 
research on neural network methods for optimization problems. This ranges from
specific algorithms to specific applications to general methodologies to 
theoretical issues to experimental studies to comparisons with conventional
approaches. We hope to examine strengths and weaknesses of current algorithms,
and discuss potential areas for improvement. We hope to exchange views and 
computational experiences on the merits and deficiencies of particular 
algorithms. We hope to carefully study some of the broad theoretical and 
methodological issues. We hope to discuss significant applications. We hope 
to discuss parallel implementation experiences.  A fair amount of time is 
reserved in the afternoon session for informal discussion and audience 
participation on the above topics (see below). 

Morning Session:

7:30 - 8:00	N. Peterfreund, Technion
		Trajectory Control of Convergent Networks with Applications
		to TSP  

8:00 - 8:30     Bruce Rosen, UT San Antonio
		Training Feedforward NN Quickly and Accurately with Very Fast
		Simulated Annealing Methods

8:30 - 9:00     Tal Grossman, Los Alamos National Lab
		A Neural Network Approach to the General Minimal Cover Problem

9:00 - 9:30	Eric Mjolsness, Yale
		Algebraic and Grammatical Design of Relaxation Nets

Afternoon Session:

4:30 - 5:00 	Yoshiyasu Takefuji, Case Western Reserve University	
		Neural Computing for Optimization and Combinatorics

5:00 - 5:30     Arun Jagota, Memphis State
		Report on the DIMACS Combinatorial Optimization Challenge:
		A Comparison of Neural Network Methods With Several Others

5:30 - 6:00	Daniel S. Levine, UT Arlington
		Optimality in Biological and Artificial Neural Networks

6:00 - 6:25	Informal Discussion

6:25 - 6:30     Arun Jagota
		Closing Remarks	 



Arun Jagota