Combinatorial Designs: Theory and Applications

Dear colleagues,

The study of combinatorial designs has attracted attention in recent decades thanks to a multidisciplinary effort from mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists. The topic has a wide range of applications which include sports, educational, and social science issues. For example, an instructor is interested in forming teams of students for collaborative learning. How can we construct team formation, whereby for each week, each team member will meet new people as a new team is formed? Recall Kirkman’s schoolgirl problem from 1850: A schoolmistress has fifteen girl pupils, and she wishes to take them on a daily walk. The girls are to walk in five rows of three girls each. It is required that no two girls should walk in the same row more than once per week. How should the girls be arranged? Recall also the social golfer problem: Twenty golfers wish to play in foursomes for five days. Is it possible for each golfer to play no more than once with any other golfer? These are some examples where combinatorial designs play an essential role in proposing algorithms in finding potential solutions. In this Special Issue of Algorithms, we seek contributions from both young and established researchers on the topics in combinatorial designs. All types of contributions are welcome, including but not limited to modeling, theoretical and mathematical, computational, and experimental.

Dr. Natanael Karjanto
Guest Editor

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