CRPC Researchers at Rice University and Rutgers University have determined a breakthrough solution to the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), a method for finding an optimal path for a salesman to take when traveling through a specified number of cities. Garnering worldwide attention for their achievement, the researchers have solved the TSP for 13,509 U.S. cities with populations of more than 500 people, a dramatic step beyond their previous record of 7,397 cities, set in 1994. The map above shows 3,509 U.S. cities with populations of more than 500 people connected optimally using methods developed by the CRPC researchers.