A Guide to Experimental Algorithmics

Dr Catherine C. McGeoch is the Beitzel Professor of Technology and Society in the Department of Computer Science at Amherst College. Professor McGeoch was co-founder (with David S. Johnson) in 1990 of the Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) Implementation Challenges. In 1999 she co-founded (with Michael Goodrich) the annual Workshop on Algorithm Engineering and Experimentation (ALENEX), sponsored by SIAM. She was Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics from 2003 to 2008 and currently serves on the ACM Publications Board.

• 1. Introduction; 2. A plan of attack; 3. What to measure; 4. Tuning algorithms, tuning code; 5. The toolbox; 6. Creating analysis-friendly data; 7. Data analysis.

'Catherine McGeoch is one of the founders of the field of experimental algorithmics, helping to initiate the discipline with her 1986 dissertation, 'Experimental Analysis of Algorithms'. She has been deeply involved with the development of the methodology of experimental algorithmics over the past 25 years … This book contains a breadth of advice, examples, and anecdotes, benefiting from her wealth of experience and many collaborations with other innovators in the discipline … Her advice is practical, authoritative, thoughtful, and applicable to the entire range of algorithm design, development, testing, and improvement … McGeoch's book presents a delightful dance of theoretical and experimental endeavors that in concert provide deep understanding of the algorithms that enable our information age as well as the means to the continual improvement of those fundamental algorithms.' Richard Snodgrass, University of Arizona