Weixiong Zhang, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, applied an algorithm to an old computing and business nemesis called the Traveling Salesman Problem. One of the TSPs involved finding the best route for pay phone coin collectors.

Computer science's Zhang tackles old Traveling Salesman Problem

By Tony Fitzpatrick

It was a combination of things, physical and metaphysical, that killed Arthur Miller's traveling salesman, Willie Loman.

Now a University computer scientist has developed and tested an algorithm that might at least have made Loman's roads traveled a little easier. Weixiong Zhang, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, has developed an algorithm that attacks an old problem in the computing and business worlds known as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP).

An algorithm is the backbone of computer operations; it is a step-wise mathematical formula, similar to a recipe, that solves a problem or reaches an otherwise desired end. TSP is actually an umbrella term for a whole host of planning and scheduling problems, often involving routes; a classic one being a postman's route, for instance.

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McWilliams' gift to create new women's tournament

By Barbara Rea

Art and Marge McWilliams, veteran boosters of Univer- sity athletic programs, will sponsor an annual women's basketball tournament. The inaugural Washington University McWilliams Basketball Classic will be held this fall.

The commitment of $500,000 for the new tournament was announced by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton at the Bears' Jan. 19 game at the Field House.

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International social work students aim to bring knowledge back home

By Ann Nicholson

Seven social work students from emerging democracies in Asia, including parts of the former Soviet Union, will be among their homelands' first professionally trained social workers leading the struggle to improve harsh living conditions. The Open Society Institute (OSI) Fellows at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work are part of a new Network Scholarship Program to teach these international students the latest social work research and practice techniques.

Part of the Soros foundations network, OSI is a private operating and grant-making foundation that seeks to promote development and maintenance of open societies around the world through educational, social and legal reform.

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Bears hold heads high after The Streak of 81

By Anthony Wilson

They called it The Streak.

But perhaps to give the women's basketball team's consecutive-win tear of 81 games such a simple name is trivializing the grandeur of the accomplishment.

Consider this: Even the greatest teams throughout history have never won 81 straight games. In 1980, the mighty Russians succumbed to a rag-tag bunch of fellows deemed USA Hockey. The all-powerful English soccer team of 1950 dropped a match to the Americans in perhaps the greatest upset in sports history. Even the Buffalo Bills showed that coming back from a 32-point deficit with less than 14 minutes remaining is not impossible.

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