We had our first taste of the problem with mean-variance optimization at a hedge fund some years back. We loaded the positions into an optimizer, pressed the button, and discovered 25% of the ...

Many engineering challenges come down to the same headache—too many knobs to turn and too few chances to test them. Whether tuning a power grid or designing a safer vehicle, each evaluation can be ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For computer scientists, solving problems is a bit like mountaineering. First they must choose a problem to solve—akin to identifying a ...