Simulated annealing is a probabilistic metaheuristic inspired by the physical process of annealing in metallurgy, where controlled cooling enables a metal to reach a low-energy crystalline state. In ...

The goal of a combinatorial optimization problem is to find the best ordering of a set of discrete items. A classic combinatorial optimization challenge is the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The ...

Dr. James McCaffrey of Microsoft Research shows how to implement simulated annealing for the Traveling Salesman Problem (find the best ordering of a set of discrete items). The goal of a combinatorial ...