Algorithms specify the way computers process information and how they execute tasks. Many recent technological innovations and achievements rely on algorithmic ideas - they facilitate new applications in science, medicine, production, logistics, traffic, communication and entertainment. Efficient algorithms not only enable your personal computer to execute the newest generation of games with features unimaginable only a few years ago, they are also key to several recent scientific breakthroughs - for example, the sequencing of the human genome would not have been possible without the invention of new algorithmic ideas that speed up computations by several orders of magnitude. The greatest improvements in the area of algorithms rely on beautiful ideas for tackling computational tasks more efficiently. The problems solved are not restricted to arithmetic tasks in a narrow sense but often relate to exciting questions of nonmathematical flavor, such as: How can I find the exit out of a maze? How can I partition a treasure map so that the treasure can only be found if all parts of the map are recombined? How should I plan my trip to minimize cost? Solving these challenging problems requires logical reasoning, geometric and combinatorial imagination, and, last but not least, creativity - the skills needed for the design and analysis of algorithms. In this book we present some of the most beautiful algorithmic ideas in 41 articles written in colloquial, nontechnical language. Most of the articles arose out of an initiative among German-language universities to communicate the fascination of algorithms and computer science to high-school students. The book can be understood without any prior knowledge of algorithms and computing, and it will be an enlightening and fun read for students and interested adults.

This volume is dedicated to the 15th Symposium on Fundamentals of Com- tation Theory FCT 2005, held in Lu ]beck, Germany, on August 17-20, 2005. The FCT symposium was established in 1977 as a biennial event for - searchers interested in all aspects of theoretical computer science, in particular in algorithms, complexity, and formal and logical methods. The previous FCT conferences were held in the following places: Poznan (Poland, 1977), Wendisch- Rietz (Germany, 1979), Szeged (Hungary, 1981), Borgholm (Sweden, 1983), Cottbus(Germany,1985), Kazan(Russia,1987), Szeged(Hungary,1989), Gosen- Berlin (Germany, 1991), Szeged (Hungary, 1993), Dresden (Germany, 1995), Krak ow (Poland, 1997), Iasi (Romania, 1999), Riga (Latvia, 2001) and Malmo ] (Sweden, 2003). The FCT conference seriesis coordinatedby a steering comm- tee. Its current members are B. Chlebus (Denver/Warsaw), Z. Esik (Szeged), M. Karpinski (Bonn), A. Lingas (Lund), M. Santha (Paris), E. Upfal (Providence) and I. Wegener (Dortmund). The call for papers for FCT 2005 sought contributions on original research in all aspects of theoretical computer science including design and analysis of algorithms, abstract data types, approximation algorithms, automata and formal languages, categorical and topological approaches, circuits, computational and structural complexity, circuit and proof theory, computational biology, com- tational geometry, computer systems theory, concurrency theory, cryptography, domain theory, distributed algorithms and computation, molecular computation, quantumcomputation and information, granular computation, probabilistic c- putation, learning theory, rewriting, semantics, logic in computer science, spe- ?cation, transformation and veri?cation, and algebraic aspects of computer s- ence."

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2002, held in Lübeck, Germany in November 2002. The 26 revised full papers presented together with 5 invited contributions and an introduction were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on learning Boolean functions, boosting and margin-based learning, learning with queries, learning and information extraction, inductive inference, inductive logic programming, language learning, statistical learning, and applications and heuristics.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 97, held in L beck, Germany, in February/March 1997.
The 46 revised full papers included were carefully selected from a total of 139 submissions; also included are three invited full papers. The papers presented span the whole scope of theoretical computer science. Among the topics covered are, in particular, algorithms and data structures, computational complexity, automata and formal languages, structural complexity, parallel and distributed systems, parallel algorithms, semantics, specification and verification, logic, computational geometry, cryptography, learning and inductive inference.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 96, held in Grenoble, France in February 1996.
The 52 revised papers presented were selected from a total of 185 submissions; also included are three invited papers. The volume addresses all current aspects of theoretical computer science and is organized in sections on complexity theory, automata theory, parallel algorithms, learning, parallel and distributed systems, cryptography, logic and database theory, algorithms, semantics and program verification, and communication complexity.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 39th International Workshop on Graph Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science, WG 2013, held in Lubeck, Germany, in June 2013. The 34 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 61 submissions. The book also includes two abstracts. The papers cover a wide range of topics in graph theory related to computer science, such as structural graph theory with algorithmic or complexity applications; design and analysis of sequential, parallel, randomized, parameterized and distributed graph and network algorithms; computational complexity of graph and network problems; computational geometry; graph grammars, graph rewriting systems and graph modeling; graph drawing and layouts; random graphs and models of the web and scale-free networks; and support of these concepts by suitable implementations and applications.

Die Gesellschaft fur Informatik (GI) zeichnet jedes Jahr eine Informatikdisser tation durch einen Preis aus. Die Auswahl dieser Dissertation stutzt sich auf die von den Universitaten und Hochschulen fur diesen Preis vorgeschlagenen Dissertationen. Somit sind die Teilnehmer an dem Auswahlverfahren der GI bereits als "Preistrager" ihrer Hochschule ausgezeichnet. Der Ausschuss der GI, der den Preistrager aus der Reihe der vorgeschlagenen Kandidaten nominiert, veranstaltete in Raumen der Akademie der Wissen schaften und Literatur Mainzein Kolloquium, das den Kandidaten Gelegenheit bot, ihre Resultate im Kreis der Mitbewerber vorzustellen und zu verteidigen. Der Ausschuss war von dem hohen Niveau der eingereichten Arbeiten und der Prasentation sehr positiv beeindruckt. Die Teilnehmer begrussten die Veran staltung des Kolloquiums sehr, nahmen an der Diskussion teil und schatzten die Moglichkeit, mit den Teilnehmern aus anderen Hochschulen ins Gesprach zu kommen. Zu dem Erfolg des Kolloquiums trug auch die grosszugige Gast freundschaft der Akademie bei, der hier dafur auch gedankt sei. Es fiel dem Ausschuss schwer, unter den nach dem Kolloquium in die engere Wahl genommenen Kandidaten den Preistrager zu bestimmen. Die Publikation der hier prasentierten Kurzfassungen gleicht die Ungerechtigkeit der Auswahl eines Kandidaten unter mehreren ebenburtigen Kandidaten etwas aus."

Hinter vielen Programmen stecken clevere Verfahren, die man als Algorithmen bezeichnet. Algorithmen losen nicht nur mathematische Aufgaben, die sich mit Zahlen beschaftigen, sondern auch andere, ganz alltagliche Problemstellungen, bei denen logischer Spursinn, raumliche Orientierung oder geschicktes Verhandeln gefragt sind, beispielsweise: Wie sollten Seerauber eine Schatzkarte aufteilen, bzw. Bankangestellte den Geheimcode des Tresors? Wie ermittle ich den kurzesten Weg zwischen zwei Orten? Wie kann ich einen Kuchen gerecht aufteilen? Dieses Buch vollfuhrt einen Streifzug durch die faszinierende Welt der Algorithmen. Es verlangt keine Vorkenntnisse, so dass Schuler ab der Mittelstufe und Informatik-interessierte Laien neue und uberraschende Einblicke gewinnen konnen. In 43 Artikeln von Informatikern, die an Universitaten im In- und Ausland lehren, werden besonders elegante Algorithmen anschaulich und umgangssprachlich erklart, so dass die besondere Faszination der Informatik spurbar wird."