The European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA) is an international conference covering the field of algorithms. It has been held annually since 1993, typically in early Autumn in a different European location each year. Like most theoretical computer science conferences its contributions are strongly peer-reviewed; the articles appear in proceedings published in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Acceptance rate of ESA is 24% in 2012 in both Design and Analysis and Engineering and Applications tracks.

History

The first ESA was held in 1993 and contained 35 papers. The intended scope was all research in algorithms, theoretical as well as applied, carried out in the fields of computer science and discrete mathematics. An explicit aim was to intensify the exchange between these two research communities.

Workshop on Algorithms Engineering

In 2002, ESA incorporated the conference Workshop on Algorithms Engineering (WAE). In its current format, ESA contains two distinct tracks with their own programme committees: a track on the design an analysis of algorithms, and a track on engineering and applications, together accepting around 70 contributions.

ESA Awards

ESA Test-of-Time Award

The ESA Test-of-Time Award (ESA ToTA) recognizes outstanding papers in algorithms research that were published in the ESA proceedings 19–21 years ago and which are still influential and stimulating for the field today. Because the Workshop on Algorithms Engineering (WAE) merged in with ESA, the Steering Committee decided that the papers from WAE 1999 to WAE 2001 were also to be considered.

ESA Best Paper Awards

Since 2022, ESA also awards the best paper for the Simplicity Track:

ALGO conferences

Since 2001, ESA is co-located with other algorithms conferences and workshops in a combined meeting called ALGO. This is the largest European event devoted to algorithms, attracting hundreds of researchers. Other events in the ALGO conferences include the following. ATMOS was co-located with the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP) in 2001–2002.