The Ph.D Program in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization is an interdisclipinary program administered jointly by the department of Computer Science, the department of Mathematical Sciences, and the Operations Research group in Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA). The purpose of the program is to bring together the strengths of the participating departments in topics such as algorithm design, graph theory, combinatorial optimization, integer programming, polyhedral theory, analysis of heuristics, and number theory. Participating faculty from the Computer Science Department include Guy Blelloch, Avrim Blum, John Lafferty, Bruce Maggs, Gary Miller, Andrew Moore, Steven Rudich, Danny Sleator and Manuela Veloso.
Course of Study: Students in the ACO program take the equivalent of three courses each in Computer Science, Math, and GSIA (technically, students take six mini-courses in GSIA), and one course in probability theory. Students participate in a weekly ACO seminar and work with a research advisor who may be in any of the participating departments. For more details, see the ACO web page at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ACO or ask for a copy of the ACO brochure.
Students in the CS/ACO specialization program must take the CS requirement of five area star courses in addition to the non-CS portion of the ACO course requirement. That is, Computer Science students pursuing this specialization satisfy the union of the CS and ACO requirements, using the non-CS ACO courses to satisfy the CS elective requirement. Completion of all degree requirements earns the student a Ph.D. in Computer Science plus an additional certificate in ``Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization.'' Applications to this specialization will be evaluated by both the CS and ACO admission committees, and students in this specialization may at any time drop back to either the standard Ph.D. in Computer Science or the Ph.D. in ACO.