DIMACS Workshop on Combinatorial Group Testing
May 17 - 19, 2006
DIMACS Center, CoRE Building, Rutgers University
x
- Organizers:
- Ding-zhu Du, University of Texas, dzdu@utdallas.edu
- Frank Hwang, Chiatong University, fhwang@math.nctu.edu.tw
Presented under the auspices of the Special Focus on Computational and Mathematical Epidemiology.
This workshop will investigate modern combinatorial and algorithmic
methods of group testing, with emphasis on connections to coding
theory and combinatorial design. To identify all positive cases in a
large population of items, group testing proceeds by grouping the
items into subsets, testing if a subset contains at least one positive
item, and then identifying all positive items through iteration of
group tests. The theory of group testing arose from the idea (never implemented) of testing millions of
World War II military draftees for syphilis and it is very relevant to
schemes for large-scale blood testing for viruses such as HIV. Group
testing also arises in connection with the mapping of genomes. Here,
we have a long list of molecular sequences, form a library of
subsequences (clones), and test whether or not a particular sequence
(a probe) appears in the library by testing to see which clones it
appears in. Because clone libraries can be huge, we do this by pooling
the clones into groups. We will investigate both epidemiological and
molecular biological applications of group testing.
Next: Call for Participation
Workshop Index
DIMACS Homepage
Contacting the Center
Document last modified on July 25, 2006.