Algorithm

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In mathematics, computing, linguistics, and related subjects, an algorithm is a finite sequence of instructions, an explicit, step-by-step procedure for solving a problem, often used for calculation and data processing. It is formally a type of effective method in which a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task, will when given an initial state, proceed through a well-defined series of successive states, eventually terminating in an end-state. The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic; some algorithms, known as probabilistic algorithms, incorporate randomness.

A partial formalization of the concept began with attempts to solve the Entscheidungsproblem (the "decision problem") posed by David Hilbert in 1928. Subsequent formalizations were framed as attempts to define "effective calculability" (Kleene 1943:274) or "effective method" (Rosser 1939:225); those formalizations included the Gödel-Herbrand-Kleene recursive functions of 1930, 1934 and 1935, Alonzo Church's lambda calculus of 1936, Emil Post's "Formulation 1" of 1936, and Alan Turing's Turing machines of 1936–7 and 1939.

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News tagged with computer algorithm


Computer identifies authentic Van Gogh

Computer identifies authentic Van Gogh

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dutch researcher Igor Berezhnoy has developed computer algorithms to support art historians and other art experts in their visual assessment of paintings. His digital technology is capable ...





Search results for computer algorithm


Hardware-accelerated global illumination by image space photon mapping

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Research presented in a paper by Morgan McGuire, assistant professor of computer science at Williams College, and co-author Dr. David Luebke of NVIDIA, introduces a new algorithm to improve computer graphics for video games.


Dwave processor

Google Collaborates with D-Wave on Possible Quantum Image Search

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (21) | comments 5 weblog

(PhysOrg.com) -- Always on the cutting edge of new computing technologies, Google has recently announced that it is investigating the use of quantum computing schemes to achieve faster image recognition rates. ...


Putting the squeeze on data

Putting the squeeze on data

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Data compression is one of the fundamental research areas in computer science, letting information systems do more with less. It’s the reason the iPod nano can hold thousands of songs instead ...


Researchers Build Artificial Immune System to Solve Computational Problems

Researchers Build Artificial Immune System to Solve Computational Problems

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 0 feature

(PhysOrg.com) -- By mimicking the way that a living body acquires immunity to disease through vaccination, researchers have designed an artificial immune system to solve optimization problems more effectively ...


Scientists find way to catalog all that goes wrong in a cancer cell

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Princeton University scientists has produced a systematic listing of the ways a particular cancerous cell has "gone wrong," giving researchers a powerful tool that eventually could make possible ...


Better-than-new LIDAR provides 24/7 atmospheric aerosol data

Better-than-new LIDAR provides 24/7 atmospheric aerosol data

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers from eight institutions led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has solved a software and hardware problem that had perplexed scientists studying atmospheric aerosols ...


'Rational drug design' identifies fragments of FDA-approved drugs relevant to emerging viruses

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 06, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 1

A massive, data-crunching computer search program that matches fragments of potential drug molecules to the known shapes of viral surface proteins has identified several FDA-approved drugs that could be the basis for new ...


Dutch PhD student develops device to combat noise

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (17) | comments 17

Johan Wesselink of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, has developed a device to actively combat noise nuisance. This invention curtails sound waves and vibrations by producing anti-noise. The researcher is confident ...


Flight of fancy

Flight of fancy: MIT autonomous mini-helicopter solves one tough challenge

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (13) | comments 2

In its first 18 years, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s annual aerial-robotics competition posed four successive challenges, which robotics researchers had to meet using entirely ...


System developed to detect plastic anti-personnel mines

System developed to detect plastic anti-personnel mines

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

A team of European researchers has devised a method for locating plastic anti-personnel mines, which are manufactured to avoid detection by metal detectors. The technique involves analysing the temperature ...



List of search results for computer algorithm