acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Research highlights

Data-Driven Algorithm Design


math equations, illustration

Credit: Getty Images

The best algorithm for a computational problem generally depends on the "relevant inputs," a concept that depends on the application domain and often defies formal articulation. Although there is a large literature on empirical approaches to selecting the best algorithm for a given application domain, there has been surprisingly little theoretical analysis of the problem.

We model the problem of identifying a good algorithm from data as a statistical learning problem. Our framework captures several state-of-the-art empirical and theoretical approaches to the problem, and our results identify conditions under which these approaches are guaranteed to perform well. We interpret our results in the contexts of learning greedy heuristics, instance feature-based algorithm selection, and parameter tuning in machine learning.

Back to Top

1. Introduction

Rigorously comparing algorithms is hard. Two different algorithms for a computational problem generally have incomparable performance: one algorithm is better on some inputs but worse on the others. How can a theory advocate one of the algorithms over the other? The simplest and most common solution in the theoretical analysis of algorithms is to summarize the performance of an algorithm using a single number, such as its worst-case performance or its average-case performance with respect to an input distribution. This approach effectively advocates using the algorithm with the best summarizing value (e.g., the smallest worst-case running time).

Solving a problem "in practice" generally means identifying an algorithm that works well for most or all instances of interest. When the "instances of interest" are easy to specify formally in advance—say, planar graphs, the traditional analysis approaches often give accurate performance predictions and identify useful algorithms. However, the instances of interest commonly possess domain-specific features that defy formal articulation. Solving a problem in practice can require designing an algorithm that is optimized for the specific application domain, even though the special structure of its instances is not well understood. Although there is a large literature, spanning numerous communities, on empirical approaches to data-driven algorithm design (e.g., Fink11, Horvitz et al.14, Huang et al.15, Hutter et al.16, Kotthoff et al.18, Leyton-Brown et al.20), there has been surprisingly little theoretical analysis of the problem. One possible explanation is that worst-case analysis, which is the dominant algorithm analysis paradigm in theoretical computer science, is intentionally application agnostic.


 

No entries found

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.
  

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account