Organizers: Ferdinando Cicalese (Salerno) und Christian Deppe (Bielefeld)
If you are interested in this conference please contact Ferdinando Cicalese or Christian Deppe.
In the context of this cooperation group the first conference took place at the ZiF, October 25 – 29 2010.
Perhaps the most natural example of a search problem is the task to find an unknown element in a finite set by asking questions concerning containment in a subset. There has been an explosion of developments in search for instance in Computer Science, Image Reconstruction, Machine Learning, Information Theory (classical and quantum theoretical), and Operation Research. Time seems to be mature for more theoretical understanding with the goal of a general Theory of Search, since there are already parallels in methods in different disciplines like data transmission over noisy channels with feedback corresponds to search with random answers and foraging of animals corresponds to search for information in the internet.
A search structure is defined by a space of objects searched for and a space of tests (questions).
In specifying a search problem performance criteria have to be chosen.
Furthermore we distinguish combinatorial and probabilistic models.
Especially important is the study of adaptive and non-adaptive
strategies as well as the analysis of their intermediate forms.
There is reason for optimism. Three decades ago it was often asked whether search is a scientific subject!