Program transformation. Given a (lisp) program for an invertible function, how do we automatically find a program for the inverse function? Considers more general simultaneous inverses of multiple functions. The heuristic part involves type inference for finding conditionals to use in certain if statements.
(BibTeX -- MacLISP source code -- Kawabe's Common Lisp port -- Citations -- CiteSeer)
Automata theory. A reset sequence for a DFA is an input such that, no matter which state the DFA starts in, it ends up after the input in a known state. These have been used by Natarajan and Goldberg for certain robot motion planning problems (in fact the conference version of this paper used the title "Reset sequences for finite automata with application to design of parts orienters"), and also in coding theory where they arise in the design of self-synchronizing codes. This paper considers DFAs in which the transition functions respect a given cyclic ordering of the states, and shows that their shortest reset sequences can be found quickly. It also considers parallel algorithms for the problem. There remains open a gap between n2 and n3 in the maximum length of reset sequences for general automata.
(BibTeX -- Citations -- CiteSeer -- ACM DL (ICALP) -- ACM DL (SJC))
(BibTeX)
Structural complexity theory. Constructs oracles in which BPP (a probabilistic complexity class) and UP (the class of problems with a unique "witness") contain languages that in a very strong sense are not contained in the other class. The conference version used the title "Probabilistic and unambiguous computation are incomparable".
(BibTeX: ICCI, MST -- Citations: ICCI, MST -- CiteSeer)
Considers persistence for a naive form of dynamic algorithm in which each update rebuilds a static solution. The space bounds for this can often be reduced by maintaining an offline solution over a sequence of updates constructed from an Euler tour of the persistent update history tree.
(BibTeX)
Describes data structures for maintaining the solution of a dynamically changing subset sum problem, and uses them to find a cut in a graph minimizing the difference between the heaviest and lightest cut edge.
Uses geometric optimization techniques to find, among n weighted values, the k to drop so as to maximize the weighted average of the remaining values. The feasibility test for the corresponding decision problem involves k-sets in a dual line arrangement.
(BibTeX -- Full paper -- CiteSeer -- ACM DL)
(BibTeX)
We study the problem of minimizing transitions in address signals on a bus. The UDRC part of the title refers to an algorithm for coding signals with at most one transition per signal (using an increased number of wires); we combine this with a scheme for caching previously coded addresses and use trace data to compare our technique with previous approaches.
(BibTeX -- Citations -- CiteSeer)
We study practically efficient methods for finding few flawed items among large sets of items, by testing whether there exist flaws in each of a small number of batches of items.
(BibTeX -- Mike's WADS talk slides)
We investigate several simplified models for k-anonymization in databases, show them to be hard to solve exactly, and provide approximation algorithms for them.
The min-max bin covering problem is closely related to one of our models. An input to this problem consists of a collection of items with sizes and a threshold size. The items must be grouped into bins such that the total size within each bin is at least the threshold, while keeping the maximum bin size as small as possible.
An overview of the Theoretical Computer Science question and answer exchange web site.
We study the problem of distinguishing workers (people who complete their assigned tasks) from slackers (people who do not contribute towards the completion of their tasks) by grouping people in pairs and assigning a task to each group.
Publications -- David Eppstein -- Theory Group -- Inf. & Comp. Sci. -- UC Irvine
Semi-automatically filtered from a common source file.