A simple and effective algorithm for the maximum happy vertices problem

In a recent paper, a solution approach to the Maximum Happy Vertices Problem has been proposed. The approach is based on a constructive heuristic improved by a matheuristic local search phase. We propose a new procedure able to outperform the previous solution algorithm both in terms of solution quality and computational time. Our approach is based on simple ingredients implying as starting solution gen- erator an approximation algorithm and as an improving phase a new matheuristic local search. The procedure is then extended to a multi-start configuration, able to further improve the solution quality at the cost of an acceptable increase in compu- tational time.