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    Brief von Kumara Swamy an Kurt Rothschild

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    BRIEF VON KUMARA SWAMY AN KURT ROTHSCHILD Brief von Kumara Swamy an Kurt Rothschild ([1]

    Brief von Kumara Swamy an Kurt Rothschild

    No full text
    BRIEF VON KUMARA SWAMY AN KURT ROTHSCHILD Brief von Kumara Swamy an Kurt Rothschild ([1]

    Minimum-Norm Load Balancing Is (Almost) as Easy as Minimizing Makespan

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    We consider the minimum-norm load-balancing (MinNormLB) problem, wherein there are n jobs, each of which needs to be assigned to one of m machines, and we are given the processing times {p_{ij}} of the jobs on the machines. We also have a monotone, symmetric norm f:ℝ^m → ℝ_{≥ 0}. We seek an assignment σ of jobs to machines that minimizes the f-norm of the induced load vector load->_σ ∈ ℝ_{≥ 0}^m, where load_σ(i) = ∑_{j:σ(j) = i}p_{ij}. This problem was introduced by [Deeparnab Chakrabarty and Chaitanya Swamy, 2019], and the current-best result for MinNormLB is a (4+ε)-approximation [Deeparnab Chakrabarty and Chaitanya Swamy, 2019]. In the stochastic version of MinNormLB, the job processing times are given by nonnegative random variables X_{ij}, and jobs are independent; the goal is to find an assignment σ that minimizes the expected f-norm of the induced random load vector. We obtain results that (essentially) match the best-known guarantees for deterministic makespan minimization (MinNormLB with _∞ norm). For MinNormLB, we obtain a (2+ε)-approximation for unrelated machines, and a PTAS for identical machines. For stochastic MinNormLB, we consider the setting where the X_{ij}s are Poisson random variables, denoted PoisNormLB. Our main result here is a novel and powerful reduction showing that, for any machine environment (e.g., unrelated/identical machines), any α-approximation algorithm for MinNormLB in that machine environment yields a randomized α(1+ε)-approximation for PoisNormLB in that machine environment. Combining this with our results for MinNormLB, we immediately obtain a (2+ε)-approximation for PoisNormLB on unrelated machines, and a PTAS for PoisNormLB on identical machines. The latter result substantially generalizes a PTAS for makespan minimization with Poisson jobs obtained recently by [Anindya De et al., 2020]

    Simpler and Better Algorithms for Minimum-Norm Load Balancing

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    Recently, Chakrabarty and Swamy (STOC 2019) introduced the minimum-norm load-balancing problem on unrelated machines, wherein we are given a set J of jobs that need to be scheduled on a set of m unrelated machines, and a monotone, symmetric norm; We seek an assignment sigma: J -> [m] that minimizes the norm of the resulting load vector load_{sigma} in R_+^m, where load_{sigma}(i) is the load on machine i under the assignment sigma. Besides capturing all l_p norms, symmetric norms also capture other norms of interest including top-l norms, and ordered norms. Chakrabarty and Swamy (STOC 2019) give a (38+epsilon)-approximation algorithm for this problem via a general framework they develop for minimum-norm optimization that proceeds by first carefully reducing this problem (in a series of steps) to a problem called min-max ordered load balancing, and then devising a so-called deterministic oblivious LP-rounding algorithm for ordered load balancing. We give a direct, and simple 4+epsilon-approximation algorithm for the minimum-norm load balancing based on rounding a (near-optimal) solution to a novel convex-programming relaxation for the problem. Whereas the natural convex program encoding minimum-norm load balancing problem has a large non-constant integrality gap, we show that this issue can be remedied by including a key constraint that bounds the "norm of the job-cost vector." Our techniques also yield a (essentially) 4-approximation for: (a) multi-norm load balancing, wherein we are given multiple monotone symmetric norms, and we seek an assignment respecting a given budget for each norm; (b) the best simultaneous approximation factor achievable for all symmetric norms for a given instance

    Brief von Kurt Rothschild an Kumara Swamy

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    BRIEF VON KURT ROTHSCHILD AN KUMARA SWAMY Brief von Kurt Rothschild an Kumara Swamy ([1]

    In Memorium: Swamy Laxminarayan [1939–2005]

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    Abstract Swamy Narasimha Laxminarayan, known to his many friends and colleagues as Swamy, passed away on September 29, 2005. He was one of the most prominent biomedical engineers on the international scene, and contributed immensely to the globalization of this new field.</p

    Sampling-based Approximation Algorithms for Multi-stage Stochastic Optimization

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    Stochastic optimization problems provide a means to model uncertainty in the input data where the uncertainty is modeled by a probability distribution over the possible realizations of the data. We consider a broad class of these problems, called {it multi-stage stochastic programming problems with recourse}, where the uncertainty evolves through a series of stages and one take decisions in each stage in response to the new information learned. These problems are often computationally quite difficult with even very specialized (sub)problems being #P-complete. We obtain the first fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme (FPRAS) for a broad class of multi-stage stochastic linear programming problems with any constant number of stages, without placing any restrictions on the underlying probability distribution or on the cost structure of the input. For any fixed kk, for a rich class of kk-stage stochastic linear programs (LPs), we show that, for any probability distribution, for any epsilon>0epsilon>0, one can compute, with high probability, a solution with expected cost at most (1+e)(1+e) times the optimal expected cost, in time polynomial in the input size, frac1epsilonfrac{1}{epsilon}, and a parameter lambdalambda that is an upper bound on the cost-inflation over successive stages. Moreover, the algorithm analyzed is a simple and intuitive algorithm that is often used in practice, the {it sample average approximation} (SAA) method. In this method, one draws certain samples from the underlying distribution, constructs an approximate distribution from these samples, and solves the stochastic problem given by this approximate distribution. This is the first result establishing that the SAA method yields near-optimal solutions for (a class of) multi-stage programs with a polynomial number of samples. As a corollary of this FPRAS, by adapting a generic rounding technique of Shmoys and Swamy, we also obtain the first approximation algorithms for the analogous class of multi-stage stochastic integer programs, which includes the multi-stage versions of the set cover, vertex cover, multicut on trees, facility location, and multicommodity flow problems
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