October 5-7, 1998
DIMACS, Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ
Julia Abrahams
Center for Discrete Mathematics and
Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS)
Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ
brahams@dimacs.rutgers.edu
The Workshop on Codes and Trees: Algorithmic and Information Theoretic
Approaches was held at the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical
Computer Science (DIMACS), sponsored by DIMACS as part of its Special Year
on Massive Data Sets, with technical cosponsorship from the IEEE
Information Theory Society. It was organized by Julia Abrahams, DIMACS,
and Mordecai Golin, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and
currently a DIMACS visitor. The workshop had the aim of making connections
between distinct research communities interested in code tree problems of
which Huffman coding is the prototype. It was successful in bringing
together groups representing the information theory, computer science
algorithms, and formal languages communities, thereby promoting research
linkages among people and perspectives which are typically disjoint.
Approximately 60 participants attended the three day workshop.
Although Huffman coding is a very classical problem, interest in the area
continues prompted by its central role in data compression. In recent
years, as the need to store and retrieve massive amounts of data increases,
compression has become a key technology. In addition, many other problems
in diagnostic testing, database search, and circuit design are isomorphic
to the Huffman optimization problem and its variants. Furthermore, new
developments in optimization theory provide techniques for the resolution
of long-standing open questions in the design of optimal coding algorithms.
The program included tutorials by Julia Abrahams, DIMACS, Wolf Bein,
University of Nevada, and Veronique Bruyere, University of Mons-Hainaut Le
Pentagone, Belgium in addition to a variety of contributed and invited talks.
Abstracts are posted at the workshop web site at
http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/Codes/index.html.