Sophie Huiberts is a Junior Fellow with the Simons Society of Fellows. From search engines to traffic signals, computer algorithms are a central part of our daily lives. Some algorithms, such as those ...

In algorithms, as in life, negativity can be a drag. Consider the problem of finding the shortest path between two points on a graph — a network of nodes connected by links, or edges. Often, these ...

Algorithms are central to modern mathematics and computer science. They are explicit procedures valued for their clarity, efficiency and beauty. Beyond these fields, however, the word “algorithm” is ...