Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Graphs, which in their simplest forms are vertices connected by edges,
are widely used in high performance computing, machine learning and
network science. This talk will use recent progresses on two
well-studied algorithmic problems in static and dynamic graph,
max-flows and dynamic matchings, to discuss a methodology for
designing faster algorithm for large graphs. This approach is
motivated by a fundamental phenomenon in data structures: the
advantages of offline data structures over online ones.

I will start by describing how work on max-flows led to a focus on
finding short paths in residual graphs, and how investigating more
global notions of progress in residual graphs led to a more
sophisticated and general understanding of iterative methods and
preconditioning. I will then discuss a similar phenomenon in dynamic
graphs, where maintaining a large matching seems to require the online
detection of short augmenting paths, but can once again be
circumvented through the offline construction of smaller equivalent
graphs.