This year’s Oesterreichische Computer Gesellschaft (OCG) Incentive Award winner is Esra Ceylan with her master thesis on Optimal Seat Arrangement: Structure, Algorithms, and Complexity. She was supervised by Jiehua Chen from our Research Unit for Algorithms and Complexity. “Optimal Seat Arrangement” is a problem where one aims to assign people to seats while meeting fairness or efficiency, such as ensuring everyone is happy with their seat. Of course, this problem is not only about seating – it mirrors any real-life scenario where people must be assigned specific tasks or resources. For example, in a classroom, you might want to give students seats to maximize their comfort and learning experience. In a company, you might want to allocate office space to employees to ensure efficiency. The challenge lies in its computational complexity (NP-hardness). This means that finding the best solution can be computationally intensive and time-consuming, especially as the number of people and seats increases. The jury concluded that Ceylan’s thesis offers an in-depth analysis of this computational complexity with impressive results. Her research not only extends existing knowledge but also highlights the diversity in the complexity of these problems, providing valuable insights for practical applications.

The award ceremony will take place at this year’s Austrian Computer Science Day on June 14.

Congratulations again to Esra!

About the OCG Incentive Award

The OCG gives its annual Incentive Award to promote informatics and business informatics. The prize is awarded for outstanding master theses in the field of computer science, business informatics, and their applications. The prize is endowed with 2,000 Euros.

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