An introduction to the methods of designing algorithms for hard computing tasks, concentrating mainly on approximate, randomized, and heuristic algorithms, and on the theoretical and experimental comparison of these approaches according to the requirements of the practice. This is the first book to systematically explain and compare all the main possibilities of attacking hard computing problems. It also closes the gap between theory and practice by providing at once a graduate textbook and a handbook for practitioners dealing with hard computing problems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Randomization and Approximation Techniques in Computer Science, RANDOM'99, held jointly with the Second International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, APPROX'99, in Berkeley, California in August 1999. The volume presents 24 revised full papers selected from 44 submissions and four invited contributions. The papers present a wealth of new results and document the state-of-the-art in the areas covered by the workshop.

With the advent of approximation algorithms for NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems, several techniques from exact optimization such as the primal-dual method have proven their staying power and versatility. This book describes a simple and powerful method that is iterative in essence and similarly useful in a variety of settings for exact and approximate optimization. The authors highlight the commonality and uses of this method to prove a variety of classical polyhedral results on matchings, trees, matroids and flows. The presentation style is elementary enough to be accessible to anyone with exposure to basic linear algebra and graph theory, making the book suitable for introductory courses in combinatorial optimization at the upper undergraduate and beginning graduate levels. Discussions of advanced applications illustrate their potential for future application in research in approximation algorithms.

This book constitutes the joint refereed proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Optimization Problems, APPROX 2003 and of the 7th International Workshop on Randomization and Approximation Techniques in Computer Science, RANDOM 2003, held in Princeton, NY, USA in August 2003. The 33 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 74 submissions. Among the issues addressed are design and analysis of randomized and approximation algorithms, online algorithms, complexity theory, combinatorial structures, error-correcting codes, pseudorandomness, derandomization, network algorithms, random walks, Markov chains, probabilistic proof systems, computational learning, randomness in cryptography, and various applications.

This book constitutes the joint refereed proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Optimization Problems, APPROX 2001 and of the 5th International Workshop on Ranomization and Approximation Techniques in Computer Science, RANDOM 2001, held in Berkeley, California, USA in August 2001. The 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 54 submissions. Among the issues addressed are design and analysis of approximation algorithms, inapproximability results, on-line problems, randomization, de-randomization, average-case analysis, approximation classes, randomized complexity theory, scheduling, routing, coloring, partitioning, packing, covering, computational geometry, network design, and applications in various fields.

This book constitutes the joint refereed proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, APPROX 2010, and the 14th International Workshop on Randomization and Computation, RANDOM 2010, held in Barcelona, Spain, in September 2010. The 28 revised full papers of the APPROX 2010 workshop and the 29 revised full papers of the RANDOM 2010 workshop included in this volume, were carefully reviewed and selected from 66 and 61 submissions, respectively. APPROX focuses on algorithmic and complexity issues surrounding the development of efficient approximate solutions to computationally difficult problems. RANDOM is concerned with applications of randomness to computational and combinatorial problems.

This book constitutes the joint refereed proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, APPROX 2004 and the 8th International Workshop on Randomization and Computation, RANDOM 2004, held in Cambridge, MA, USA in August 2004. The 37 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 87 submissions. Among the issues addressed are design and analysis of approximation algorithms, inapproximability results, approximation classes, online problems, graph algorithms, cuts, geometric computations, network design and routing, packing and covering, scheduling, game theory, design and analysis of randomised algorithms, randomized complexity theory, pseudorandomness, derandomization, probabilistic proof systems, error-correcting codes, and other applications of approximation and randomness.

This is the joint refereed proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, APPROX 2006 and the 10th International Workshop on Randomization and Computation, RANDOM 2006. The book presents 44 carefully reviewed and revised full papers. Among the topics covered are design and analysis of approximation algorithms, hardness of approximation problems, small spaces and data streaming algorithms, embeddings and metric space methods, and more.

This volume contains the papers presented at the 8th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems (APPROX 2005) and the 9th International Workshop on Randomization and Computation (RANDOM 2005), which took place concurrently at the University of California in Berkeley, on August 22 –24, 2005.