Data Structures

Summary

The design and analysis of algorithms is a fundamental area in computer science. This also involves the development of suitable methods for structuring the data to be manipulated by these algorithms. Hence, algorithms and data structures form a unit, and the right choice of algorithms and data structures is a crucial step in the solution of many problems. For this reason, the design, analysis and implementation of data structures form a classical field of computer science, both in research and teaching.

The Dagstuhl Seminar on Data Structures in 2004 reported on ongoing research on classical data structuring problems as well as classical application areas such a computational geometry. Furthermore many contributions investigated new algorithmic and data structuring problems arising in large networks or in the maintenance of large data sets. As in previous meeting, there was some shift of interest away from theory, e.g., the classical analysis of asymptotic behavior of algorithms, to more practical issues, such as implementation problems and the usefulness of algorithms in practical applications. This is motivated by the fact that more and more researchers in computer science also want to make their results available in form of programs or software packages.

With 48 participants, the attendence was even higher than in previous meetingson the topic. In addition to scientific talks, there were fruitful and stimulating discussions throughout the meeting. We thank the team of Schloss Dagstuhl for their hospitality and support making this successful workshop possible.