TCS+ talk: Michal Koucky
Channel: TCS+
Date: 2018-12-29

Speaker: Michal Koucky (Charles University)

Title: Approximating Edit Distance Within Constant Factor in Truly Sub-Quadratic Time

Abstract: Edit distance is a measure of similarity of two strings based on the minimum number of character insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to transform one string into the other. The edit distance can be computed exactly using a dynamic programming algorithm that runs in quadratic time. Andoni, Krauthgamer and Onak (2010) gave a nearly linear time algorithm that approximates edit distance within approximation factor poly(log n). In this talk I will present an algorithm with running time O(n^{2-2/7}) that approximates the edit distance within a constant factor.

Joint work with Diptarka Chakraborty, Debarati Das, Elazar Goldenberg, and Mike Saks.