"Networks pervade every aspect of nowadays life. This is one of the reasons why their design, management, and analysis is one of the most active areas of theoretical and empirical research in Computer Science and Operations Research. The main goal of this project is to increase our theoretical understanding of networks, with a special focus on faster exact exponential-time algorithms and more accurate polynomial-time approximation algorithms for NP-hard network design problems. We will consider classic, challenging open problems in the literature, as well as new, exciting problems arising from the applications. These problems will be addressed with the most advanced algorithmic and analytical tools, including our recently developed techniques: iterative randomized rounding, core detouring, and randomized dissection.

A second, ambitious goal of this project is to stimulate the interaction and cross-fertilization between exact and approximation algorithms. This might open new research horizons."