The Second Workshop on Algorithm Engineering and Experiments (ALENEX 00) is sponsored by DIMACS, the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, and the NEC Research Institute (Princeton, NJ), with additional support from SIGACT, the ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory, and SIAM, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

The aim of the annual ALENEX workshops is to provide a forum for the presentation of original research in the implementation and experimental evaluation of algorithms and data structures. We invite submissions that present significant case studies in experimental analysis (such studies may tighten, extend, or otherwise improve current theoretical results) or in the implementation, testing, and evaluation of algorithms for realistic environments and scenarios. We also invite submissions that address methodological issues and standards in the context of empirical research on algorithms and data structures.

The scientific program will include invited talks, contributed research papers, and ample time for discussion and debate of topics in this rapidly evolving research area. The proceedings of ALENEX 00 will be published on-line to facilitate dissemination of the software and data as well as of the presentations themselves. A special issue of the ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics will feature invited contributions from the workshop.

This workshop is colocated with SODA 00, the ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, and will be held in the two days preceding that conference. A (long or short) paper that has been reviewed and accepted for presentation at SODA is not eligible for submission to ALENEX. However we recognize that some research projects spawn multiple papers that elaborate on different aspects of the work and are willing to respond to inquiries about overlapping papers.

A special feature of ALENEX 00 will be a renewal of the original DIMACS Computational Challenge on Network Flow and Matching, using the newly announced CATS repository, where challenge instructions may be found. At least one session of ALENEX 00 will feature research contributions from this Challenge 1.2.

Authors are invited to submit 10-page extended abstracts by SEPTEMBER 24, 1999 and are must use on-line mechanisms. Instructions about on-line submissions can be found at the ALENEX 00 website:

The deadline for receipt of papers in final version for inclusion in the on-line proceedings is December 31, 1999. Presenters must have submitted the final version of their paper in order to be able to present it at the workshop.